Response to Professor Tom Pesach: reconciliation with the enemy with words betrays us
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Dear Professor Tom Pessah,
I appreciate your openness and courage in sharing your views. I understand where you’re coming from, and that’s why I continue urging people to engage with Jewish Zionists in occupied Palestine—to enlighten and challenge them with truth, reality, and facts. Some are deeply indoctrinated, but even the brainwashed can be unbrainwashed.
I say this because many Jewish individuals today stand firmly with Palestine. Some have even left the so-called Israeli state and dream of returning to a free Palestine, from the river to the sea. I met several of them at the Anti-Zionist Jewish Conference in Vienna this summer. They were more pro-Palestine than the Palestinian Authority and even some Palestinians I’ve encountered here in the UK.
Your statement was powerful and brave—a step toward genuine dialogue. I agreed with much of it until I reached the end of your video.
It’s not right to underestimate the gravity of what’s happening in occupied Palestine, nor the suffering of Palestinians in the diaspora and under occupation—past, present, and future.
So allow me to explain why my stance may seem radical. If you genuinely listen to how your words resonate with us—how they sound and feel—you might reconsider a few phrases. Your message could then serve both Palestinians and Israelis, not just the latter.
Too often, people speak on our behalf as if we don’t exist—as if we’re objects, not humans. We become projects for their ideologies, tools for their careers, or causes to gain followers. We are not cattle to be led. And when they propose “solutions,” they do so from their own lens, not ours.
Your video moved me—it felt like music, a song of truth and history. But at the 55-second mark, I was jolted by your use of the phrase “the current conflict.” It felt like a sucker punch. I’ve spent my life guarding against such mischaracterisations, yet there it was.
I replayed the video and paused at 51 seconds, when you said: “750,000 Palestinians were displaced, and many Israelis now live on their lands.” I must ask: where did you get that number? Was someone counting us one by one? No. Estimates range from 800,000 to 900,000 according to Mr Salah Salah
, a Palestinian born in Palestine in 1936. That means you made 100,000 Palestinians worthless. We are not just numbers—but even numbers must be honoured.
You mentioned only the displacement of 1948. What about the Jaffa massacre of 1937? Let’s be clear: this didn’t start on October 7th or in 1948. It started long before.
Then, at 52 seconds, you said, “Israelis now.” That phrase cut deep—like a blunt blade to the wrist. It reminded me of a lecture at Aberystwyth University, where I protested the omission of Palestinian victims—some were raped before they were murdered, some of them children, and other Palestinians were thrown alive into ovens. If you want to understand the horror, watch the Tantura documentary. (israeli veterans admit to 1948 massacre of Palestinian village, 2022)
Your phrasing made it sound like displacement was smooth, painless, as if Palestinian lives didn’t matter. You called them “Israelis,” while we call them members of a terrorist Zionist gang—Haganah. You said “now,” as if this hasn’t been ongoing for 78 years. We are the victims. What we’ve endured is not what you imagine. We see them not as neighbours, but as a savage enemy.
At 53 seconds, you said, “Israelis live on their land.” No. They occupy it. There’s a world of difference between “live” and “occupy.” Language matters. It shapes perception. And when people who claim to be pro-Palestine repeat such phrases, I call them white saviours or undercover Zionists—they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Let’s be clear: they didn’t “live” on our land—they stole our villages.
Back to 55 seconds: “Those are the roots of the current conflict.” No. This is not a conflict. It’s an occupation, it’s an ongoing genocide, it’s the ongoing Nakba. Let me help you rephrase: “Jewish Zionism is the root of the ongoing genocide.”
Your closing statement—from 56 seconds to 1:05—suggests that “Israelis must recognise
that fact and allow the former residents to return and live together with them. That is the condition for reconciliation.”
With all due respect, this sounds like a joke. You want to resolve a century of war in nine seconds? Without apology? Without acknowledging the massacres?
Do you think millions of Nakba survivors—stateless, rightless, still living in camps—can simply forgive and forget? My father and family live in a camp in Lebanon, besieged by the Lebanese army. Others suffer in Syria. Meanwhile, Holocaust survivors have memorials, compensation, and global silence on their day of remembrance.
You want us to forgive those who committed atrocities against us—without recognition, without justice?
You called us “former residents.” We are not former. We are the native people. We are the owners of the land. You want us to live with our murderers? That reminds me of a workshop in 2003 with a Norwegian group. They asked, “Can you live with Israelis?” I replied: “Can you live next to someone who took over your house, murdered your family, kicked you out of the house, and left you homeless for life?”
I don’t turn the other cheek. I don’t forget.
To those sharing the video and praising it—ask yourselves: Do you accept their conditions? Well, as a Palestinian living the pain and suffering from day one on earth, I will say that I do not accept their conditions, and I do not accept you even being pro-Palestine, and speaking on my behalf. If you want to discuss Palestine, do not use a language that betrays us. We are the Palestinians. We are the ones who have been suffering for 100 years—not you. I have been inviting people to visit the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, to go and see what we endure, before you form your opinion, if not, sit down. Be quiet. Thank you.