Issue No.587
Opinion
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23 -29 May 2002 Issue No.587 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Historical blindness
By Anwar El-Hawari
Withdrawal to 4 June borders would, during an earlier period of political idealism, have been seen as a sensible demand on the part of the more realistic Arab parties .
The dream of returning to 4 June borders has been, for Arabs, a focal point of everything: the point of departure, the destination, the paradise from which we were evicted on 5 June 1967.
That this should be the case is indicative of a problem we have in perceiving time. While other nations talk about the future, we are always hankering back to the past. It is a perceptual problem that has a moral dimension, for the fixation on return -- to 4 June borders, to the dawn of ancestral civilisations, to the golden age of film -- perpetuates inertia, reflects failure. No other nation in the world exists with an agenda so dependent on the concept of return (as opposed to progress or resumption) as the Arab nation.
From now on, however, 4 June borders will be gradually replaced by the borders of 27 September 2000, the day of Sharon's visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which gave rise to the year and a half long Intifada. It is 27 September that we are now working towards: no elections or negotiations or conference attendance can happen before the return to 27 September borders. Yet while we dream of returning, the agenda that forged 5 June and the Al-Aqsa visit continues to surge ahead.
This week's Soapbox speaker is managing editor of Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya (International Politics) quarterly, issued by Al-Ahram.
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