Image from Planet Volumes.

Oddly enough, it was Israeli historian Benny Morris who got it right, when he offered a frank 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 said. said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2019. “They see that right now there are five to six million Jews here, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs. They have no reason to give in, because the Jewish state cannot last. They are destined to win. In 30 to 50 years, they will defeat 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 survive and thrive indefinitely in a permanent matrix of racial segregation, violence and exclusion – exclusion of the other, of the Palestinians and the isolation of peoples. self.

The very history of Palestine bears witness to such a truth. If the oppressed, the indigenous people of the country, are not completely defeated or decimated, they risk rising up, fighting and regaining their freedom.

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

Israel’s frustration is understandable because, like all military occupiers of the past, Tel Aviv continues to believe that a sufficient amount of violence should be enough to subdue the colonized nations.

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

Among the many classifications of history, modern French historians distinguish between “event history‘ – event history – and ‘long lasting‘ – a long story. In short, the former views history as the result of the accumulation of consecutive 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 just the set of historical events, recent or ancient, but the sum of feelings, the culmination of ideas, the evolution of collective consciousness, identities , the relationships and subtle changes that occur in societies. over time.

The Palestinians are the perfect example of a history shaped by ideas, not weapons; memories, not politics; collective hope, not international relations. They will eventually gain their freedom, because they have invested in a long-term trajectory of community ideas, memories, and aspirations, which often translate into spirituality or, rather, a deep, unwavering faith that strengthens , even in times of horrible wars.

In a interview I conducted a conversation with former UN Special Rapporteur Professor Richard Falk in 2020, who summarized the struggle in Palestine as a war between those with weapons and those with legitimacy. He explained that in the context of national liberation movements, there are two types of war: the war itself, such as that of armed soldiers, and the war of legitimacy. Whoever wins the latter will ultimately prevail.

Indeed, the Palestinians “consider everything in a broad and long-term perspective”. Agreeing with Morris’ statement may seem odd because, after all, societies are often driven by their own class struggles and socio-economic agendas instead of a unified, cohesive long-term vision.

It’s here long lasting becomes most relevant in the Palestinian case. Even if the Palestinians have not reached 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 driven, even unconsciously, by the same energy. who forced their ancestors to fight against injustice in all its forms.

While many Western politicians and academics are busy blaming Palestinians for their own oppression, Palestinian society continues to evolve based on completely independent dynamics. For example, in Palestine, sumudResilience, or resilience, is an ingrained culture, little subject to external, political or academic stimuli. It’s a culture as old as time. Innate. Intuitive. Generational.

This Palestinian saga began long before the war, long before Israel, long before modern colonialism. This truth demonstrates that history is not only influenced by simple events, but by countless other factors; that while “event history” – the political, military and economic aspects that contribute to the construction of history through short-term events – is important, long-term history offers a deeper understanding of past and its consequences.

This discussion should involve all those who are concerned about the struggle in Palestine and willing to present a version of the truth that is not driven 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 stories imposed on the Palestinian people.

This is not an easy task, but it is inevitable because it is essential to break away from the limitations of layered language, historical events, recurring dates, dehumanizing statistics and outright deception.

Ultimately, it should be clear to any informed reader of history that while fighter jets and bunker busting bombs may have an impact on historical events in the short term, courage, faith and Community love determines long-term history. This is why the Palestinians are winning the war for legitimacy, and this is why the freedom of the Palestinian people is only a matter of time.