The Long History of Palestine – Why the Palestinians are Winning the Legitimacy War

Strangely enough, it was Israeli historian Benny Morris who was right when he made a candid prediction about the future of his country and its war with the Palestinians.

“The Palestinians look at everything from a broad, long-term perspective,” he says said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2019. “They see that there are five-six-seven million Jews here right now, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs. They have no reason to give in, because the Jewish state cannot continue to exist. They will definitely win. In another thirty to fifty years they will conquer us no matter what.”

Morris is right. He is right in the sense that the Palestinians will not give up, that there can never be a situation in which societies can survive and flourish indefinitely within a permanent matrix of racial division, violence and exclusion – exclusion of the other, the Palestinians and isolation of the Palestinians. yourself.

The history of Palestine bears witness to such a truth. If the oppressed, the inhabitants of the country, are not completely conquered or decimated, they will likely rise up, fight and regain their freedom.

It must be extremely frustrating for Israel that all the killing and destruction going on in Gaza has not been enough to affect the overall outcome of the war: the “total victory” that Netanyahu continues to talk about.

Israel’s frustration is understandable because Tel Aviv, like all military occupiers of the past, continues to believe that the right amount of force should be enough to subjugate colonized countries.

But Palestinians have a different intellectual trajectory that guides their collective behavior.

Of the many classifications of history, modern French historians distinguish between ‘historical history‘ – event history – and ‘long duration‘ – long history. In short, the former believes that history is the result of the accumulation of successive events over time, while the latter views history at a much more complex level.

A credible history can only be seen in its totality, not merely in the sum total of events in history, recent or ancient, but in the sum of feelings, the culmination of ideas, the evolution of collective consciousness, identities, relationships and the subtle changes that occur in societies. over time.

The Palestinians are the perfect example of how history is shaped by ideas, not weapons; memories, not politics; collective hope, not international relations. They will ultimately win their freedom because they have invested in a long-term trajectory of ideas, memories and common ambitions, which often translates into spirituality or, better said, a deep, unshakable faith that grows stronger even in times of horrific wars.

In one interview I, together with former United Nations Special Rapporteur Professor Richard Falk, in 2020, framed the struggle in Palestine as a war between those with weapons and those with legitimacy. He said that in the context of national liberation movements, there are two types of war: the actual war, such as soldiers carrying weapons, and the war of legitimacy. Whoever wins the latter will ultimately triumph.

Palestinians indeed view “everything from a broad, long-term perspective.” Agreeing with Morris’s statement may seem strange, as societies are often driven by their own class struggles and socio-economic agendas rather than by a unified and coherent long-term vision.

This is true long duration becomes most relevant in the Palestinian cause. Even though the Palestinians have not made a common agreement to wait for the invaders to leave, or for Palestine to once again become a place of social, racial and religious coexistence, they are, even if unconsciously, driven by the same energy. who forced their ancestors to fight back against injustice in all its forms.

While many Western politicians and academics are busy blaming Palestinians for their own oppression, Palestinian society continues to develop based on a completely independent dynamic. In Palestine for example sumor resilience, is a deeply rooted culture, which is hardly subject to external stimuli, political or academic. It is a culture as old as time. Innate. Intuitive. Generation.

This Palestinian saga began long before the war, long before Israel, long before modern colonialism. This truth shows that history is moved not only by events, but by countless other factors; that while “eventual history”—the political, military, and economic aspects that contribute to history-making through short-term events—is important, long-term history provides a deeper understanding of the past and its consequences.

This discussion should involve everyone who is concerned about the struggle in Palestine, and who would like to present a version of the truth that is driven not by future political interests, but by a deep understanding of the past. Only then can we begin to slowly free the Palestinian narrative from all the convenient histories imposed on the Palestinian people.

This is not an easy task, but it is an unavoidable one, because it is crucial to break free from the confines of imposed language, historical events, recurring dates, dehumanizing statistics and outright deception.

Ultimately, it should be clear to any astute reader of history that while fighter jets and bunker bombs may influence historical events in the short term, courage, faith and common love shape history in the long term. This is why the Palestinians are winning the war of legitimacy, and this is why freedom for the Palestinian people is only a matter of time.