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On History and Selective Amnesia

by Qazi M Fazal
During the height of the Cold War. in the mid 80's. I had a discussion on global atrocities and injustices with some American friends of mine. The Soviet Union had recently shot down a Korean Airline aircraft with over 350 civilians on the suspicion that it was on a spying missioa. "Barbaric, inhuman" my American friends proclaimed. And Indeed the total disregard for innocent human lives ts barbaric.
In the spirit of the conversation. I brought up how Israel in the early 70s had shot down a Jordanian civilian airplane with over 200 people — and claimed the occurrence — on a similar suspicion that there were terrorists on board. My comment met with disbc lief among my friends. That s impossible." they contended. I checked up the Information in an almanac and I had not misrepresented my case. My friends were not unintelligent or uninformed, nor were they myopic individuals. Their cultural programming simply prevented them from remembering certain facts
Sadly, lust like my American friends, the whole of the
Western world and its gov eminent. although 1 am sure they are full of the best intentions. have a selective memory of history. Japan and Germany continue to pay reparations for their brutality tn World War II. Rightly so. But does anyone remember the few million American Indians killed by the European Americans tn the 19th cen-lury? Certainly, an "ethnic-cleansing" of sorts In the much denounced Serbian style. Any reparations for them? How about some compensation for the victims of American slavery? Colonialism?
In all fairness, perhaps the Western world really does Its best to be humane, egalitarian and just. It aids the Third World in poverty alleviation (although 20% of America's officials development assistance goes to catering to only Israel, a country of five million already pretty well-off people). West cm universities provide scbol arship for non-Western stu dents. Usually, the West tries to save the environment Sometimes, it shares its new technologies and medicine almost quite freely. The West beats up the bad guys like Iraq
from bullying their smaller neighbours since each coun try's sovereignty must be in sured from foreign invasion
However, when It comes to clearing up the Issue of sovereignty In Yugoslavia, the Western world turns the other way 'The reason? In the Gulf, there were clear-cut borders to push back the Iraqis. In Yugoslavia. there are no such things between the Serbs and Croats and Bosnians; appar ently, the Western criterion is not cease human suffering al all costs, but to avoid getting tangled In a touchy problem It Is all too easy for ths West to forget the role of the oil that Kuwait possessed which Muslim Bosnians don't. It is also easy to forget that there have always been border disputes between Kuwait and Iraq ever since the West arbitrarily divided up the countries after World War I. I wonder what excuse my American friends would have for the continual defiance of Lebanese sovereignty by the Israeli Army Now -a- days, national sovereignty is not a strong enough concept to prevent the West from
retnvudtng Iraq
Selective memory breeds a double standard and a certain bit of hypocrisy Take terrorism for example Israel, and its Western supporter*, refused to deal with the Palestinian Lib eration Organization because it is an organization that con done*, and perhaps perpetrates. terrorism. Let's take a look at history a few decades ago In 1937. a faction of the World Zionist Organization, die Irgun Zval Leumi, and another organization known as the Stern Gang, were convinced that the British were abandon Ing the Zionist cause, so they began resorting to terror to remind the British ol their commitment to Zionism, and started a guerilla war. The Stern Gang, under the leadership of the Israeli hero Begin, at one point blew up the King David hotel In Jerusalem be cause they knew of some British citizens in it. Who cares for the other Innocent lives In the hotel? I wonder if the British government remembers this. Shamir, ex-prime minis ter of Israel and Begin s disciple. ironically, refused to
negotiate with Palestinian "terrorists."
In 1948. after the declara Hon of an Israeli state, the Jews still did not have a majority to form a cohesive Israeli government, the Encyclopedia Britannica writes: "the Irgun stormed and captured the village of Dar Yasin and massacred much of the population, terrorizing the Arab villagers, who began a mass exodus from Palestine " By 1949. the depar lure of 1.000,000 Palestinian Arabs finally gave Israel the Jewish majority tt required to form a government. Does all this sound similar to what the Palestinians have been trying to do In their hopes of having a state of their own? One people s terrorists arc other people's freedom fighters and soldiers against injustices.
This brief peak into history and current events would not be published In an American newspaper because tt would be considered anti-Semitic. Therefore. I hastily add that I am not supporting Iraq's aggressions and disrespect for human lives nor am I condoning any Arab terrorism. I propose that the resentment be-
tween the West and non West will not end with a Middle-East peace settlement The Hizbollah will not stop Its belligerence. Israel in itaelf doe* not represent a threat to the non Western world, die West's double standard and selective memory does.
Of course, the non Western world is no better In its amnesia. Sadly, we are all only biased and dogmatic products of our cultural upbringing. A good solution to selective memory would be to forget and forgive all of history. Arabs and Muslims. forget Western hypocrisy. West, forget Arab terrorism and past persecution of Jews. Of course, this solution does not work. History will continue to haunt us. There is a saying: "history is written by the victors". Therefore. Serbs, who will eventually lose, will always be correctly labelled racist "ethnic-cleansers" who don't see Bosnian women and children as people, and Zionists who terrorized Palestinians back in 1948 and did not recognize the Palestinians as human beings will remain heroes and patriots, not ethnocentric nor racist Such is life.