Memory has become a powerful weapon against oppression

Thousands of Palestinians on Friday participated in their annual commemoration of Nakba Day — the one event that unites all Palestinians, regardless of their backgrounds and political differences. The dominant Nakba narrative remains — 72 years after the destruction of historic Palestine at the hands of Zionist militias — an opportunity to reassert the centrality of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Just 48 hours before thousands of Palestinians rallied on the streets, US Secretary of

State Mike Pompeo paid an eight-hour visit to Israel to discuss the seemingly imminent Israeli annexation — or theft — of nearly 30 percent of the West Bank. Clearly, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has America’s blessing to further its colonization of occupied Palestine. The Nakba commemoration and Pompeo’s visit to Israel were a stark representation of Palestine’s political reality.

The rise and demise of the so-called peace process did not seem to affect the collective narrative of the Palestinian people, who still see the Nakba — not the Israeli occupation of 1967 and certainly not the Oslo Accords — as the core point in their struggle against Israeli colonialism. This is because the collective Palestinian memory remains completely independent from Oslo. For Palestinians, memory is an active process; it is not a docile, passive mechanism of grief and self-pity that can easily be manipulated, but a generator of new meanings.

In their seminal book “Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory,” Ahmad Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod wrote that “Palestinian memory is, at its heart, political.” This means that the powerful and emotive marking of the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba was essentially a collective political act. And, even if partly unconsciously, it was a people’s retort and rejection of Donald Trump’s so-called peace plan, Pompeo’s politicking, and Netanyahu’s annexation drive.

For many years, Palestinians have been accused of being unrealistic, of “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” and even of extremism for simply insisting on their historical rights in Palestine, as enshrined in international law. These critical voices are either supporters of Israel or are simply unable to understand how Palestinian memory factors in shaping the politics of ordinary people, independent of the quisling Palestinian leadership or the seemingly impossible-to-overturn status quo. True, the two trajectories — the stifling political reality and the people’s priorities — seem to be in a constant state of divergence, with little or no overlap. However, a closer look is revealing: The more belligerent Israel becomes, the more stubbornly Palestinians hold on to their past.

Occupied, oppressed and confined to refugee camps, Palestinians have little control over many of the realities that directly impact their lives. But there is a single element that Palestinians, regardless of where they are, can control: Their collective memory, which remains the main motivator of their legendary steadfastness.

There can never be a just peace in Palestine until the priorities of the Palestinian people — their memories and their aspirations — become the foundation of any political process with the Israelis. Everything that operates outside this paradigm is null and void, for it will never herald peace or instill true justice. This is why Palestinians remember: For, over the years, their memory has proven to be their greatest weapon.