 On this very spot, nearly 50 years ago—perhaps in 1975—I sat with my mother under the shade of a fig tree at the entrance of this house. I was only four years old. Suddenly, helicopters roared through the sky, and my mother, her voice trembling with fear, said, “Dyab, we need to get inside. It’s dangerous.” At that age, I didn’t understand much, only that something monstrous—something my mother called Israel—was in the sky, firing on people below.
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 Herman Brusselmans, a Belgian writer renowned for his provocative and controversial style, is currently facing an intense backlash led by an Israeli campaign. Brusselmans, who writes novels and litterary columns, is known for his use of extreme and shocking statements and imagery in his work.
 Since this genocide started, I've been having regular nightmares about losing my children. In my dreams, they fall off cliffs, down stairs, and I wake up in panic. However, the worst nightmares are those I see with my own eyes on my cellphone every day. Children are being murdered daily, fathers are carrying the lifeless bodies of their children. Many times, I've pondered how death might be an easier price to pay for such a father.
 By Dyab Abou Jahjah
First some general context: Gaza is an open-air prison where Palestinians have been collectively incarcerated for 17 years. See here. Every two years or so, Israel commits mass slaughter in Gaza. Even when Palestinians choose to protest non-violently against the blockade. See here. The majority of Gaza's residents (86%) are refugees ethnically cleansed by Israel from towns around the Gaza Strip. See here. Jewish settlers now live in these towns amid green oases, overlooking the walls of the open-air Gaza prison. This is part of Israel's ongoing colonisation and military occupation of Palestine, which has now continued for more than 75 years. To have an idea, see here So what did really happen on the 7th of October 2023?  Dyab Abou Jahjah Let's start by distinguishing between riots and looting. Looters are thieves. Looting is not the same as rioting. Looters prey on riots and take advantage of the chaos. They have no other motive, they are not angry—they are cynical and indifferent. During moments of great unrest and confusion, parasites like looters always emerge. But it’s not just the looters; politicians also prey on riots by either condemning them excessively or by supporting them. They score points with their voters. The media do the same, eagerly exploiting such events with their biased reporting, exaggerated statements in talk shows, and clickbait headlines. Often, they are only interested in what it means for their business model. Just like the looters, but on a different scale.  I do not know if it is an honour I should claim, but I believe that I am the first person to have introduced the term decolonisation into the national public debate in Belgium, not in relation to the liberation of the colonies in the third world, but in function of what was known in the early years 2000 as the “integration and immigrant debate”.
 By Dyab Abou Jahjah
“ I went for a stroll downtown the other day, you can barely recognise the city with all these foreigners everywhere, it felt as if I was in another country”. I remember this conversation with my Lebanese neighbour in Sidon, as if it was yesterday. It was 2013, I was still living in Lebanon back then, and I was still fully in the anti-racist activist mindset. So of course, I started preaching about tolerance and how we are all human beings. Since my neighbour was complaining about Syrian refugees I also added that we are all Arabs to my speech. Looking back with some more perspective, I realise that my response to my neighbour was a bit arrogant and on the limit of insolence. Of course we are all human beings, my neighbour was aware of that and does not need me to imply that he did not recognise the humanity of the Syrian refugees. And of course Syrians and Lebanese are as close as Flemish and Dutch, culturally, linguistically and historically, my neighbour knew that as well. Yet what he did that day was expressing a genuine sentiment that many Lebanese share since the massive influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon end of 2011 and in the years that followed.  By Dyab Abou Jahjah "Samuel Paty's cause is my cause, and should be the cause of any citizen who loves freedom. Paty was not Islamophobic, he taught his students important values of tolerance and proportionality. The fact that some people cannot see him as a victim is also a reflection of the rise of dogmatic sectarianism and tribalism." Dyab Abou Jahjah @aboujahjah  The events unfolding in the United States of America, and the growing momentum for the #BlackLivesMatter movement, are a welcomed development for people, such as myself, who were on the barricades fighting racism for decades in Europe. However, the anti-racist struggle should remain a struggle for equality and human rights, and not be transformed into an elitist and dogmatic discourse on why one identity is good and the other one is bad.
 Dyab Abou Jahjah
It is a bit odd to me that Leonard Cohen passed away few months ago without me writing about it. The man has composed a significant part of the soundtrack of my life. But above all, more than his music—at times overly harmonic to be truly enjoyable—it is Cohen the poet who interests me the most. Alongside Mahmoud Darwish and Nizar Qabbani, his poetry has shaped me both politically and spiritually. Cohen was deeply political, and I am not referring to that brief moment in his life when he performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 war in Sinai. The Cohen who sought to rediscover his Jewish identity by posing for a picture with a mass murderer like Ariel Sharon was merely a fleeting phase in the life of a far more complex and profound soul. |
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