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Where does the world’s wellspring of anger and frustration come from? From New York to Palestine to Hong Kong to Lebanon, we are living in an era of scarcely concealed rage, underpinned by grotesquely divisive and polarizing political models.
A crop of world leaders thrive on cultivating and exploiting social divisions — Jair Bolsonaro, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, Ali Khamenei, Bashar Assad, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As Trump’s former Defense Secretary James Mattis wrote last week: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.” These regimes function on the time-tested recipe of fragmenting and disemboweling society in order to monopolize power. Today we are witnessing the whirlwind.
America has been deluged by anger over police killings of black citizens. The US police have an appalling record of brutally exacerbating racial divisions, having in many states played a historic role in enforcing racial laws and perpetuating white privilege. Why are African-Americans more than two-and-a-half times as likely to be killed by police as whites? Why are African-Americans more than five times as likely to be incarcerated as whites?
I can’t begin to do justice here to the immense, damning history of American racist repression. “When you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity… then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait,” wrote Martin Luther King nearly 60 years ago, while himself in jail. Police brutality was further, horrifically, illustrated in the widely circulated video of riot police shoving a lone 75-year-old man to the ground and leaving him lying in a pool of his own blood.
In a chilling parallel that triggered “Palestinian Lives Matter” protests, an unarmed autistic Palestinian man, Eyad Hallaq, was last week shot dead by Israeli police officers who had been clearly warned that he was disabled and couldn’t understand their commands. Even when Israeli police officers have been charged over the frequent killings of Palestinian civilians in the past, they usually escape with just token punishments — cheapening human lives to the point of insanity. In Iraq, there has been little effort to bring to justice the Iran-backed Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary snipers responsible for killing hundreds of protesters.
When regimes violently lash out against citizens, this isn’t strength, but panicked and defensive weakness.
Baria Alamuddin
Renewed protests have broken out in my birthplace of Lebanon by citizens enraged with corrupt and incompetent political factions doing nothing to address the country’s chronic poverty and hunger. Hezbollah MP Jamil Al-Sayyed shockingly urged factional leaders, if protesters gathered near their homes, to “shoot them from your window.” These comments are staggering, while not being a galaxy away from calls by pro-Trump senators like Tom Cotton to “send in the troops” to violently crush demonstrations.
Citizens protesting against state violence are being confronted with state violence, perpetuating a toxic cycle of mutual mistrust and social alienation. I was struck by one banner in Washington that read: “Whites are not all racists. Blacks are not all criminals. Cops are not all killers. We are all human.”
Beyond our immediate requirements of water and food, humans have a basic need to be recognized for who they are, and to enjoy the freedom to express their identity without fear of violence. It is as fundamental as the laws of physics that repressed peoples will ceaselessly struggle to achieve their freedom. Whether it takes 10 years or 1,000, Syria will never enjoy peace until its citizens deservedly enjoy their full human rights — likewise Kashmir, Palestine, Iran, the Rohingya, China’s Uighurs, and minorities everywhere.
China is one of many autocratic states that has gleefully highlighted instances of American police violence, undermining efforts to hold Beijing accountable for a raft of measures curbing Hong Kong’s freedoms — most recently criminalizing the mockery of China’s national anthem and banning commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — reinforcing fears that the territory’s civil freedoms are finally being snuffed out.
Trump previously expressed admiration for the Tiananmen Square crackdown: “They were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.” When regimes violently lash out against citizens, this isn’t strength, but panicked and defensive weakness. Confident and respected governments don’t deploy tear gas or live ammunition against their own citizens. Strong governing systems are flexible, not brittle; they evolve to changing circumstances and unexpected crises, absorbing diverse views and acknowledging criticism. Robust systems are greater than the sum of their parts and are not beholden to the whims of a strongman dictator or corrupt oligarchy.
Although it feels as if the world has gone to hell, mass protests in America, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere give me hope. In the era of the coronavirus, where we risk our lives by stepping outside our front door, thousands of ordinary people — many only just old enough to vote — are taking a stand against injustice, oppression and racism. Indeed, placards in parallel protests in London and around the world emphasized that racism is a greater threat than coronavirus.
It isn’t just black victims of police brutality who are out on the streets, but also thousands of conscientious whites, Latinos, Muslims, Jews and every demographic imaginable. Yes, black lives matter, but this is more broadly about standing in solidarity with the oppressed and asserting our common humanity, whatever our race, religion, gender, orientation or skin color. Our streets will never breathe peacefully — we can never breathe peacefully — as long as we tolerate repression and injustice against any community.
As Netanyahu’s government readies itself to annex new swaths of stolen land, Palestinians are readying themselves to assert their dignity, identity and territorial rights. Will we stand with them in solidarity? Not because we may be Arab, Muslim or hold specific political beliefs, but because of our shared belief in our collective responsibility to stand up for the rights, dignity and freedoms of all mankind.
- Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.