How did this happen you wonder? It all goes back to 1990s when it was cool to be politically active and every other teenage know-it-all attended their first protest about an issue they could careless about or didn’t know anything about. Raise your fist for equality, liberty, and the ever-popular Darfur issue. But Palestine was excluded; it was unable to coexist with our foreign interests and deemed un-cool by most “globally aware” hipster cliques (if they could be called that). Now it’s a different story.

Its understandable that the post 9/11 world is a much different place. At one point people didn’t even know where Afghanistan was or that Saddam Hussain was the leader Iraq let alone what the infamous acronym WMD stood for.

Somehow the Middle East has morphed into what Trotsky was to the Stalin Era. (For those who don’t know this is an allusion to a scapegoat) Yes, there is enough ignorance to go around for seconds. It was hard enough for an Afghan describe to their Anglo-Saxon comrades that they are not guerilla warriors, radicals, or have a special urge to fight the soviet specter of atheism and yes Afghanistan is indeed a country and no, its not in the south of France. But now, since the Iraq War became the new muse, the Arabic community must deal with repercussions.

Case in point, the Keffiyah. As has been reported on earlier this symbol of solidarity of the Palestinian cause and Arab nationalism has turned into a water-down mass-produced consumer good quickly dawned by the idealistic or more likely unaware youth. But if this wasn’t enough, Palestine in general is now “couture”. Marketing the Keffiyah became too safe, the fashion industry demands “more shock value and controversy”. Enter the T-shirts by local Fresh Jive clothing company based in Los Angeles, California. First of all is the “Victimized” shirt depicting a freedom fighter and a small stamp of the Palestinian flag. Okay, they are in support of a free and peaceful Palestine. Wrong. They want to “market” the sad struggle of a disenfranchised people for Americans consumerist pleasure.

Secondly, Yasser Arafat, its just that, an Arafat shirt. Most intellectuals would agree Arafat’s role in the PLO and in Palestinian politics in general were a key part in raising the voices of the Palestinian’s to the ears of most first world countries. Many conclude the man is an icon, a freedom fighter, and a nationalist. To haphazardly stamp his face on a shirt to sell at a convenient $19.00 takes away from almost everything he had fought for as the population who would be most inclined to by this shirt often couldn’t point to Palestine on a map let alone know who Arafat was. 

Yes folks, corporate American has done it again. They have successfully conquered the youth’s newfound obsession with International Affairs (a popular major in most universities) by exploiting Middle Eastern icons and leaders. Who knows what’s next? Soon every 16 through 29 year old will be sporting (the Great) Ahmed Shah Massoud’s pakol. This new kind of nostalgia for the east, is now with the Middle East. Coming soon to a store near you.

Check out the shirts on Karma Loop: www.karmaloop.com

This groups origins come from two different areas: internal and external. The rise of mullah Omar as a “leader” came about in Kandahar but the actual organization of the Taliban itself originates in the Madrasa’s, schools of “religion”, of Pakistan. Extremism and hate is preached to a desperate public instead of religion causing them to give into the will of the extremist Mullahs and carry out their bidding. This is where the hardliner attitude was fostered. It was not until the Pakistani mafia called the “Afghan Transit Trade” and their government sympathizers teamed up that the funding for this group truly started. They armed and financed the group in order to fulfill their need of a route through Afghanistan. All this activity caused the dark period know as the Taliban era in Afghanistan and the responsibility for it falls accordingly.
 Its not just extremism that is a problem, but the military, which has become an entity on its own. You can’t have a stable government in Pakistan without the support of the military. The only reason why Musharif lasted so long became the fact that he had military support; they didn’t call him general for nothing. The real problem with the military is their control over the government. They can lead a coup if they felt so inclined or they can make a man a king. The reason why there wasn’t any progress in “stamping out terrorism” became the fact that during the 1990s it seemed as though the military composed of pro-Taliban supporters and sympathizes. Musharif had his hands tied; if he acted he was ousted, if he didn’t the fundamentalists spread. With Pakistani military gaining that much control over the government, its hard not to argue the ineffectiveness of leadership as well.
 When it all boils down, you really end up with one country, an overly powerful military, a weak government, and a population composed of a great number of radical fundamentalists in the Waziristan province (near the boarder with Afghanistan). As elections take place in Pakistan, uncertainty is the widely felt feeling. On one side you have the younger generation calling for change with the Pakistan People’s party and on the other there is the old guard, the Pakistan Muslim League N headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Musharraf’s party, Pakistan Muslim League Q, increases its unpopularity as the Taliban and Al – Qeada presence expands and violence increases. Pakistan’s instability is not just an issue for itself; it’s an issue that affects all its neighbors and the world. If violence increases and the Tabliban gain a foothold, Pakistan may fall and undergo an era under its own violent creation. If this does happen, then the extremism will spread further and that is a scenario that is more dangerous than we could ever image effecting the entire world.

(Before you read this, I would like to give a disclaimer: I am by no ways in support of, favoring towards, or am going to take a side in this conflict, this is purely for your intellectual consumption)

 To understand a people you must understand their history. To understand a movement, you must understand their people. The British originally occupied Palestine since the late 1800s. Arab and Jewish tensions started in 1897 when the first Jewish national organization started up. Zionist organizations quickly began to buy Palestinian (at the time they were under the Ottoman Empire) land in order to start a mass movement of Zionism in which the land of Palestine became their supposed “chosen holy land”.  This didn’t fare well as tensions between the Arabs and Jewish rose in the Great Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939 as a response to the mass migration of the Jewish to the Palestinian land. The revolts more notably started with the followers of Shiek al-Qassam in Jaffa protesting the British policy of letting Jewish immigration and purchase of land in the Mandate territory. It was their fear that they would “soon become a minority in the territory”. The Revolts turned hot as the groups protesting policy started to engage in armed insurrection against the British and Jewish population which left many dead British, Arab, and Jewish alike. Dissent grew in the Arab population as their homeland was slowly turned into a country dedicated to the “invaders” rather than the original people who once lived there.

After World War Two, the allied powers felt the Jewish people needed a homeland as means of compensating them for their persecution in Germany. It was then that the British occupied Palestine (British Mandate of Palestine) became their “Zion”; a land already inhabited by Palestinians for centuries. This single moment in May 14, 1948, Israel’s declaration of independence, that started the biggest and bloodiest conflict to date. The frightening part is its still going on.
 The first major moment when the conflict turned “Hot” was the Arab – Israeli War of 1948 in which the Arab League consisting of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan joined forces to fight and “destroy” Israel. This disastrous move not only caused the death of combatants on both sides dead but also, the mass exodus of Palestinian refugees flooding into neighboring countries called al-Naqba. Plus, the Six Day War in 1967 which lead to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza strip, and Golan Heights and lead to the Arab oil embargos of the 1970s. It was in between these two conflicts that a movement started that recognized Israel as what it really is, Palestine, the home of the Palestinians.
 The PLO or Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded by the Arab League nations in 1964 with the hopes of giving the Palestinian population a voice. They were based in the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebannon, and Egypt in order to have safe haven and easy access to Israel. Though heavy influence came from Egypt and its leader Nasser who believed in a “one great Arab nation” ideology. (Like Pushtoonistanism but without the many diverse clans) The organization at first under Ahmad Shuqiri had little or no activity beside the occasional assembly. It wasn’t until a man by the name of Yasser Arafat appeared that the PLO took off. It was during the end of the Six Day War in which the Arab coalition headed by Syria and Egypt lost that a major power vacuum opened up in Arab leadership. Egypt created a separate peace with Israel becoming the first Arab nation to recognize its sovereignty in the Camp David Accords. (This was in an effort to regain lost territory, more specifically to quickly end the occupation of the newly captured Sinai Peninsula.) Yasser Arafat rose to leadership in 1969. He was one of the main founders of the nationalistic Fatah party (Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filistini) in 1959 and led it since. Seeing the ineffectiveness of the Arab coalition in the war, he advocated guerilla warfare, which caused the war of attrition between 1969 and 1970. This caused the death of many civilians and also the PLO’s expulsion from their neighboring countries lands especially the 1970 Black September assault of Jordanian PLO bases by Jordan authorities. This led to the PLO building strongholds in Lebanon. During this subsequent movement to Lebanon the leadership accepted a new doctrine. In 1974 the Ten Points Program, originally created by Fatah, called for an overriding governmental authority to be established over every piece of liberated Palestinian land until all of Palestine became liberated. This ideology preached the struggle for liberation from oppression and suggested armed retaliation and resistance. This became the turning point for the PLO. This “armed resistance” movement cause many radical militant wings to appear in the PLO giving it the reputation of being “terrorist” as it is known as by the west. This factionalism in the PLO lead it to become more of an umbrella organization of different factions which all fought for the same goal but with different means of fighting for it.
 The PLO did gain recognition as a UN observer and a member of the Arab league in 1976. It was then in the late 70s to 80s that Arafat soon called for a diplomatic approach instead of armed. The First Intifada took place and soon the PLO stationed aboard had no right in the governance of the new local United Intifada Leadership government in 1988. Arafat stuck to his word and took the first step by proclaiming the PLO’s recognition of Israel. This time it was the PLO making the separate peace as Arafat and Rabin agreed upon the Oslo Accords and Arafat became head of a Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian state.
 But this story is not over, Palestinians are still living in relative disparity and Jewish settlers from all over the world continue to buy up Palestinian land or force them off. Currently Israel’s blockade of Palestine has proven to hurt more than help as the elderly, sick, injured, and children are without food and supplies. The liberation organizations may change but they still fight for the same thing, freedom and until that is achieved whether ideologically or physically, we can expect that this conflict will continue forever. And thus the masses flood across the Egyptian boarder again and the rich man lines his pockets with the blood soaked earth. A free Palestine will probably remain a memory for another generation.