Get Rid of the Palestinian-Israeli Myth of Ownership or Surrender to Sisyphean Peace

Staff Writer

Table of Contents

One thing with any myth is that it is conceived without proof and transmitted from one generation to another as a matter of convention. At times, it goes on to help shape or form a people’s mindset and can lead to different extreme beliefs and disputes. Palestinian and Israeli territorial narratives are becoming mythical to both insiders and outsiders, ingroups and outgroups, and many inimical political actors and neighbours who take advantage of Palestinian-Israeli little foibles to fan the flame of hatred, violence, and war.

To the Palestinians and Israelis, it is not a myth; it is real. It is about survival; it is about their heritage. It is about true peace, harmony, and togetherness.

What will bring peace in the Middle East, or peace between the Palestinians and Israelis? Many have asked. If Palestine or Israel does not exist or have no place in the Middle East, then no nation exists in the Middle East. Some countries in the Middle East want Israel gone from the region and some want Palestine gone from the region. But this is not going to happen.   

There’s no legendary myth that is so absurd and cruel as the Myth of Sisyphus. The myth that either Palestine or Israel does not belong to the Middle East is as cruel as the Sisyphean myth. That is why you need to get rid of the Palestinian-Israeli Myth of Ownership or surrender to Sisyphean peace.

The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus is an essay about ‘Man in revolt,’ written by Albert Camus in 1942 (in French: Le Mythe de Sisyphe). The Myth of Sisyphus is Camus’ philosophy of the absurd, that is, the meaningless or unresponsiveness of the universe to the plights of human conditions. For Camus, such absurdity should not lead to suicide but rather to revolt. It became anecdotal when he compared the human situations in absurdity with the Sisyphean ordeal.

According to Greek mythology, in Homer’s Iliad BK VI, Sisyphus was described as the son of Aeolus and father of Glaucus; after Homer, he was described as the father of Odysseus. He was known as the founder of the Isthmian Games dedicated to Poseidon, the sea god. Nevertheless, when it was his time to die, Sisyphus contrived and chained death up so that no one died, and by so doing, he cheated death. Finally, when it was his time to die, a second time, for cheating death in the first, he was sentenced to a perpetual punishment in Hades.

For punishment, he was tasked to roll a boulder up a mountain, but as he and the boulder got to the tip of the mountain, he and the boulder rolled down, and that continued ad infinitum.

Death is a kind of eternal peace if your soul is at rest. But for Sisyphus, if that was peace, then he would not wish that for anybody. This is the struggle of everyone on earth. It is one of life’s puzzles: What can bring us peace?

One can argue that the Palestinian-Israeli myth of ownership engenders the proliferation of violence, threats, and attacks; the need to tackle them, and the ‘unreasonable arguments’ by Palestinian and Israeli neighbours, regional leaders (religious and political), and citizens in response to the violence, threats, and attacks. The Palestinian-Israeli myth of ownership is the reason some extremists have intentionally grouped and condemned themselves to perpetual attacks and donated them as weapons for carrying out further attacks.  

Misconceptions of Ownership

What is happening in Palestinian-Israeli inhabited territories is cruel and absurd. It is cruel on one hand because people are involved, children, women, and innocent people.  The struggle for ownership has brought untold suffering and hardships to the region. At times, you begin to wonder if their neighbours get any satisfaction from seeing the kind of pain and injuries the people go through. It is cruel because other occupants (other countries in the Middle East) of the region seem to lack empathy or compassion for the Palestinians and Israelis.

You see the leaders of the countries in the region gloating on television and different social networks at the suffering and pain of the Palestinians and Israelis.

On the other hand, it is absurd, because of the senseless killing and maiming of children and young people. It is irrational because of the destruction of life and property. Sending rockets of destruction that target civilian populations is cruel and barbaric. It is at odds with anything humane, reason, and godly. It is an outright human’s inhumanity to humans.

The Palestinian-Israeli myth of ownership is a cultivated misconception of the genesis of the different nations occupying the region and who owns which area of land. It is a false knowledge that has circulated and become a tradition (that is, a false belief that has been transmitted from one individual to another, and from one generation to another).

This misconception is the reason for so many violent deaths occurring daily in the region. This misconception leads to misdirected anger: against the innocent, against children, against women, against young people, against life, against love, against peace, against togetherness.

The myth is the misconception that Israel's first appearance in the Middle East was on May 14, 1948, after the United Nations approved the partition plan for Palestine, which led to the establishment of a Jewish state and an Arab state.

History tells us that the area currently inhabited by Palestine and Israel had been previously inhabited by various peoples, such as the Canaanites, the Israelites, the Philistines, and many other people in ancient times.

History also tells us that for many centuries, the region was occupied by different groups after conquest, such as the Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, Ottomans, and the British.

Any narrative about who owns the area currently inhabited by Palestinians and Israelis is a complex one. Both can claim rights to the area’s historicity, regionality, and jurisdiction. Both have deep cultural, religious, and supernatural ties to the land. Hence, the Palestinian-Israeli myth of ownership continues to be worrisome.

Path to Togetherness, Tolerance, Understanding, Respect for Each other

It is time to get rid of the Palestinian-Israeli myth of ownership of their currently inhabited piece of land. Both nations have great ties and deep historical connections to the same piece of land.

The way to live together between the Palestinians and Israelis can follow three pathways:

  1. Social Peace – There is a need to inculcate social peace that fosters living in harmony and Israelis and Palestinians co-existing together. Their systems must entrench social justice, treat everyone with respect, give everyone their rights and shun all forms of oppression against themselves.
  2. Inner Peace – It is when they learn to co-exist as a people though unique in culture and history, they will start to have that inner peace, and harmony, and promote the dignity of each other.
  3. Political Peace – At this third level of peace, both nations are at a plethora of conscious non-aggressive behaviours. At this level, the citizens of both nations are kind and show kindness to one another, they think about the well-being of their next-door neighbour and the welfare of others. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Connection between a Personal Name and Name Groups in Shawnee Social Organisation

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Shawnee People The Divisions The Name Groups and Personal Names I’m always attracted to and interested in the culturally distinct and characteristic elements of different traditions or societies. Reading about the Shawnee people of Native American tribes is no different. I immediately fell in love with the linkage between Shawnee name groups and personal names. The name groups seem to present the Shawnee as a one-descent group with five major divisions. To examine this connection between a personal name and name group, a brief description of Shawnee will help in understanding the Shawnee social organisation. Shawnee People The term ‘Shawnee’ written in different forms ( Shaawanwaki, Shaawanowi lenaweeki, and Shawano ) is Algonquian like the archaic term ‘ shaawanwa ’ meaning ‘south.’ Thus, the term ‘Shawnee’ is (pronounced shaw-nee ) meaning the ‘southern people.’ The Shawnees are categorised as Algonquian-speaking North American Indian people whose pristine ho
Continue reading »

Early Contacts between Christianity and Islam

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Early Contacts between Christianity and Islam Monk Bahira The Migration to Axum Kingdom Christianity and Islam have always been two noxious bedfellows and yet always proclaim and wish peace on earth. It would not be a crass assumption to state that the two religions have over the centuries crossed paths and re-crossed paths many times. Crossing paths might have been in their ideologies, conflicts, doctrinal interpretations and even sharing some physical spaces. Therefore, in this brief writing, we will explore the early contacts between Christianity and Islam and see how they have influenced each other. Early Contacts between Christianity and Islam The early contacts between Christianity and Islam were not short of frames.  According to Kaufman et al., “frames are cognitive shortcuts that people use to help make sense of complex information.” They are means of interpreting our world and perhaps, the world of other people around us.  Such interpretations helped them to
Continue reading »

The Akamba – Concept of the Supreme Being & Totems

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Supreme Being (Worships and Venerations) Mulungu   Mumbi  Mwatuangi  Ngai  Asa  Ancestors Totems Here is a brief account of the religious beliefs of the Akamba. Spanning through Central Bantu, the Akamba ethnic group is estimated to be about 4.4 million people and occupies Southeastern Kenya in areas, such as Kangundo, Kibwezi, Kitui, Machakos, Makueni and Mwingi Districts and the Ukamba. A swathe of the Akamba population can also be found in the Mazeras and Kwale Districts of the Coast Province in Shiba Hills. The Akamba languages are Kikamba and Swahili. Globally, the Akamba are not exclusively a Kenyan or African tribe. They can be found in Uganda, Tanzania, and Paraguay, which makes it partly an indigenous group and partly an autochthonal group. Argument from migration theory suggests that Akamba came from Kilimanjaro (a word that means ‘mountain of whiteness’), basing their arguments on the similarity of certain cultural features with the Wachagga people of Kili
Continue reading »

Begrudging & Infightings: Aztec’s Theogony & Cosmogony

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Tezcatlipoca Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc Chalchiuhtlicue Nanauatzin Cosmic Order – The Balance Aztec is a name used to describe the Nahuatl-speaking people who thrived in central Mexico circa the 14 th  and 16 th  centuries as an empire and dominated large parts of Mesoamerica. Variously, the Aztecs had different names. They are known as Aztlan (which means ‘White Land’), the Tenochca (a name adopted from one of their ancestors called Tenoch), and the Mexica, which was a derivative from Metzliapan (which stands for ‘Moon Lake’). Ancient Aztec religious beliefs and practices were tied to their understanding of the world; the people were deeply amazed by the thought of the unknown, the universe and the end of time. These thoughts arouse some curiosity and awareness to understand better their world and how it came about. I used the term ‘theogony’ to describe the Aztecs’ generations of gods however, not in the context of Greek mythology where the ‘primordial deities’ were the fi
Continue reading »

President Biden’s Age is now the problem! Where’s the ADA?

Staff Writer
After the first US presidential debate, and the slow start of the incumbent, President Joe Biden, the democrats lost their minds. The democrats started to play with the acronym “SCAMPER.” They wanted a ‘substitute.’ They felt like ‘combining’ forces. They sort to make some ‘adaptations’ in their campaign strategy. They ‘modify’ the President’s schedules and so on. They wanted to ‘put into another use’ some tactics and styles. They outrightly wanted to ‘eliminate’ the President’s candidacy in the bid to ‘rearrange’ the campaign strategy to win the election come November 2024. Are you sure about that? Why all these jostles, sniffing and gossips? His crime is that he is 81 years old. They fear that he will lose them the presidency to an opponent whom the law has christened felon, the supreme court anointed a king through their presidential immunity verdict, and most Americans consider a venal potentate should he be re-elected as the president. I believe the people who criticize Mr. Bi
Continue reading »

The creator god, Tirawa - the Pawnee of the Native American Tribe

Staff Writer
Table of Contents The Pawnee The Holy Corn Tirawa and the Stars Culture of the Stars The religious beliefs of the Pawnee Native American tribe stand out as practices that are primarily Astro-theological and astronomical. As such they use or interpret the laws or culture of the stars to determine when it was safe to plant corn. Accurate calculation of these laws or cultures means a better harvest for the people. They were possible because Tirawa was their causer, teacher, and sustainer.   Corn is an essential crop that is not only a means of subsistence living for the Pawnee, but it is also a symbolic mother through her, and with her, the sun goddess, Shakuru blesses the people. The Pawnee The Pawnee are a North American Indian tribe who originally lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas before finally settling in today’s Oklahoma. Linguistically, they belong to the Caddoan family and call themselves the Chatiks si chatiks , meaning “Men of Men.” As with many Native American India
Continue reading »

Nigeria’s Pledge Vs the President’s Mandate: An Antithesis of Patriotism

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Nigeria’s Pledge The President’s Mandate Loyalty to the President or the Constitution? In recent years, the Nigerian polity has been bedeviled by one general term, ‘mandate.’ As years passed, the term mandate gained more ground and replaced the allegiance or any public or private declaration of loyalty to Nigeria, as a country. The contract the people signed with the country was gradually torn into bits by the politicians (or leaders) and by extension, the citizens, (and foreigners living in Nigeria). The current political and economic climate of Nigeria is the main reason for this article. The people have openly rejected Nigeria’s Pledge and have taken recourse to different political mandates of some politicians. The aim here is to bring to the fore the salient points of Nigeria’s Pledge against the mandate of the president. Nigeria’s Pledge The clear and concise words of Professor Felicia Adebola Adedoyin in 1976 describing the terms of the Nigerian oath of
Continue reading »

The Gi-ant of Africa and the goddess, Nemesis

Staff Writer
Image
Overview Nigeria is popularly known as the giant of Africa perhaps because of its population estimated at over 250 million people. It is a country with the largest concentration of black people in the entire world. In her halcyon days, the oil boom of the 1970s, with an unparallel rapid revenue expansion, peace and happiness, Nigeria began to enjoy the reputation as epitomized in the statement by the erstwhile Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon: “Money is not Nigeria’s problem. But how to spend it.” Such a statement was reflected in their leaders’ behaviours and thinking. From the 1970s to 2024, Nigeria’s leaders have not shifted from such mindsets. Both her military and civilian leaders continue to entertain careless, unaccountable, and foolish behaviours that brought a jinx upon the nation. The oil boom became a curse to the people by the Nigerian goddess called Gi-ant .   Gi-ant stands for “government issues – accountability, nepotism, thievery.” These are the three manifes
Continue reading »

The Weyekin in Nez Percé Tribe and Catholic Angels

Staff Writer
Table of Contents The Nez Percé People Catholic Teachings on Angels The Spirit, Weyekin in Nez Percé Tribe This writing is to briefly identify and recognize some cultural values of the Nez Percé tribe, especially their belief in Weyekin, often described as a personal guiding angel. The concept of a guiding angel provokes Catholic teachings about angels and comparison with the Nez Percé Weyekin, as the guiding spirit. But that will be a new piece of writing for the future. There can be a cross-cultural gleaning of ideas from nature, beliefs, and interactions.     The Nez Percé People The term Nez Percé, meaning “pierced nose” is the French coinage to describe the Nimiipuu tribe. The term Nimiipuu, meaning “we, the people” is a name the tribe used for themselves and their language, a part of the Sahaptin family. Early contacts with the Europeans, especially French explorers made the name Nez Percé popular because they unfairly adopted the name Nez Percé and used it for the Nimiipuu and n
Continue reading »

The Conflict between the Deities (Igwe and Amadioha) in Igbo Mythology over a Heat Wave

Staff Writer
Table of Contents Introduction The Deity – Igwe The Deity – Amadioha The Conflict between Igwe and Amadioha Introduction The current heat wave reminds me of the conflict between two Igbo deities, namely: Igwe and Amadioha. Just as it was noted somewhere in this blog: Nigeria's Diversity and the South-East/South-South Peripheral Inclusions: Biafra's Raison d'etre , November 15, 2021, the Igbo people are the third-largest ethnic group who live in southeastern Nigeria. They have a very rich culture and tradition among which is their concept of God which varies from one community to another but essentially, they believe that the gods guide and control their life and affairs in many ways. The Igbo concept of God stems from the idea of a chief god who creates everything. This god is supreme. The Igbo variously call this god Olisa bu uwa (the god who carries the world), Olisa bini Igwe , (the god who lives in the sky), Chukwu (the great god), or Chineke (the god who creates
Continue reading »