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		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Dec. 2000 - 3 Jan. 2001 Issue No.514
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Behind the barricades
IN A YEAR of fulfilled expectations and confounded hopes, false dawns and long darkness, honest agreements and broken promises -- a year, in sum, both like and unlike any other, a year in which everything was less and more than what it seemed -- the Intifada exploded. History is rife with such moments: just when everything, it appears, is firmly under control, the actors who a moment before had been preparing to exit stage left throw away the script, and step forward.
The peace process, minor hiccups aside, had been progressing relatively smoothly towards its all-too-predictable end. The pundits were clearing their throats, preparing to hold forth on the inevitability of peace, and the silver lining of its dividends. The teleprompters were rolling. But the director, it seems, had not foreseen that the extras would steal the show. That too, perhaps, is inevitable. A people, oppressed beyond all limits, must reassert itself. Having waited in vain for a saviour, it must attempt to salvage what it can, of hope and human dignity. Life, otherwise, is quite literally impossible.
In a year of virtuality -- a reality absurd beyond Beckett's wildest dreams, fictions more realistic than life itself -- the Intifada has imposed itself as undeniably true: the irrepressible eruption of chaotic, unruly, confusing reality onto the neatly manicured lawn of "current events." The Intifada, interpreted here by Egyptian artist Gamil Shafik, is the "event of the year" -- there is no doubt about that. But it cannot be reduced to a soundbite because, simply, it is the expression of free will and free agency. It is the only way the Palestinians have of saying no -- of taking up Kazantzakis's challenge, freedom or death. They could have chosen the silence of prison walls -- as their representatives sometimes seemed prepared to do. They have chosen to speak instead.

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