I Like That We Palestinians Treat Sacrificing Our Children To Expiate Our Ancestors’ Shame As Totally Normal

by Fadi al-Masri, Local Hamas Committee Director

Gaza City, July 13 – I love many things about our culture: the dance, the food, the Islamic art, the Gaza-specific maritime vibe, the desert that suffuses the Bedouin element of our identity. Most of all, however, I confess that above even those I place our dedication to undoing the disgrace of the Nakba, a dedication so strong that we will destroy our descendants’ chances of ever leading healthy, productive, secure lives to accomplish that reversal.

Anthropologists have discussed at length the differences between shame cultures and guilt cultures. In guilt cultures, the negative associations of an action attach to the action, meaning that the person can atone for the act of he or she puts in the work. In a shame culture, the shame attaches to the person, and cannot be expunged without expunging anything and everything that calls the shame to mind. Thus the Nakba: the failure of our ancestors to destroy the nascent Jewish state and push the Jews into the sea, as promised by our leaders, and which instead led to dispossession and decades of limbo for millions, cannot be permitted to fade unless and until we eliminate the entity that brought about that shame. Our failure to overcome Jews whom we outnumbered, outgunned, and whose food supply we cut off, must motivate us to accomplish the genocide we were promised, regardless of the cost. Honor is everything! Our children’s lives pale in comparison.

That’s just the way things are. Any attempt to change the culture, to introduce a different way of looking that things, implies something wrong with the way we have always seen things, which would only compound the shame. Like in 1967, when all the surrounding armies prepared for another genocidal campaign against the Jewish State, only to lose even more territory than in 1948 – in a guilt culture, we might be prompted to reconsider our entire approach, but since this is a shame culture, and admitting error only exacerbates the shame, we tripled down with the Three Nos of Khartoum. Yes, that means putting our children in harm’s way for propaganda purposes; it means forcing them to dig attack tunnels; it means arming them and teaching them to kill Jews; it means allocating our resources to fighting instead of to educating and preparing our children for life as productive citizens.

What are looking at, you freak? This is a totally normal thing for a culture.

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