Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/720024
14 CELEBRATED Lebanese writer Elias Khoury is in Malta to par- ticipate in the annual Malta Mediterranean Literature Festi- val organised by Inizjamed. I meet the 68-year-old writer and intellectual in his hotel in Valletta and I am immediately struck by his soft-spoken lucidity and profound humanity. Khoury came to prominence as a novelist, commentator, edi- tor and academic with unwaver- ing political commitment in the tormented 1970s where he was a direct witness of the brutal civil war in Lebanon. But he says that literature can- not change the world, it only changes literature. "The major impact of literature is on literature itself because it is the history of the human experi- ence and this history was writ- ten by hundreds of writers. And in each writer you find hundreds of other writers. So history is be- ing rewritten, by writers who add new things too. "But mainly, writers are part of a huge book and if you are lucky you write a sentence in that book." But he does acknowledge that literature changes individuals and possibly more. "It affects language and when language changes, perspectives change. Language is not only a way to communicate but also a way of perception. It changes politics indirectly. I have a duty to take positions as an intellectu- al, that's why I write articles. But when I write novels I don't do it for political change." Palestine has long been a cor- nerstone of Khoury's writing and activism, especially following the publication of Gate of the Sun in 1998 and he says that the novel on the Palestinian nakba – the catastrophe which followed the 1948 war – "rewrote the nakba from the point of view of the vic- tims, which was never heard be- fore. When you put forward the language and the perspective of the victims it is a political act." He adds that by definition lit- erature is an outsider to power. "Politics is about tactics but lit- erature is not and you cannot negotiate about the human con- dition." Khoury has in the past also ed- ited magazines and still writes a weekly column. I ask him wheth- er journalism and activism can coexist. "Journalism should be as objec- tive as possible. But what does this mean? Being objective means to show what is not seen in the political and economic realities covered by discourse. "If you are objective you cam- paign. The role of journalism, like all tools of knowledge is to know, to go beyond what is given to us. To search for the truth that is always covered. Power, not only capitalism but power throughout history, covers its domination. In ancient Egypt, pharaohs said they were gods and if a journalist had to go back in time they would say 'no he is only a human being'. That's being objective and cam- paigning at the same time, but mainly objectivism. Truth is always revolutionary.' Turning to the never ending Arab-Israeli conflict, Khoury points out that Palestinians rep- resent human existence "not be- cause they are victims, there are many victims. Not because they are refugees. There are many refugees. The number of Syrian refugees is bigger. The number of European refugees in the Sec- ond World War was bigger. The number of Holocaust victims is bigger. But because they are vic- tims of the victims. And because their victimisation was covered." "This is the first case history where the victims have no right to express themselves because their victimisation is covered by another victimisation and the co- lonial forces were cynical enough to wash their hands from Pales- tinian blood. The terrible thing is that in the daily life they not only not speak about their vic- timisation to others but they do not speak about it to themselves because the fabrication of reality has turned their cause into non- sense." He adds that he supports Pales- tinians not because they are vic- tims, nor because he loves Pales- tine or the Holy Land. "I love Palestinians, Jerusalem is like any other city in the world. Palestine is not sacred, the only sacred thing is human life. I iden- tify with the Palestinians, not be- cause I'm an Arab, not because I defend the revolutionary idea but because it is the example of my human sensibility." To the question about the pros- pects of peace, he simply says "there is no peace and there never was a peace process." He argues that since Israel has never lost a war, it has lost sight of reality. "We human beings are losers. If you win all the time you become mad. Nature is wise enough to make us taste both victory and defeat and learn how to be hum- ble. This idea that you can win all the time makes you impossible. Israel is an impossible thing." Khoury insists that the na- kba started in 1948 and never stopped. "We are still living in a nakba now. The first phase Pal- estinians do not exist, the second phase was that Palestinians can- not have an independent state but we'll give them some autonomy and we'll deal with them. Now it's apartheid and they say it openly." The Israeli government's dis- course reminds him of fascism, albeit "a different kind of fas- cism." "When you walk inside Israel's nationalistic-religious discourse, you cannot move because proph- ets are everywhere in order not to arrive to a peaceful resolution, it's like Abraham was only the father of Isaac but not of Ismail." Pointing out that 30% of the population in Israel is Palestin- ian, Khoury says these citizens were first put under military rule for the first 30 years of Israel's ex- istence. "Now they are being pushed down, not to second class citizens because they already were, but to third class citizens as if they are immigrants. They are using the same discourse used against Muslims in Europe. It's some- thing surrealistic, which makes Israeli politics a continuous pro- ject of wars and catastrophe." Khoury believes that Palestin- ians are passing from their worst moment in their history because the whole region around them is destroyed and the Arab world fails to defend them, at least in discourse, because he says, they never really defended them. "Israel is now in an alliance with the superpowers, US and Russia and they feel that they are free, and don't understand that this kind of fascism will not only de- stroy their enemies but it will also be an auto-destruction of their society." Asked whether the internation- al initiative to boycott Israel can work, Khoury says this is a legiti- mate movement but it should not be turned into a myth. "It should not be compared to the boycott on apartheid South Africa be- cause it only worked once the co- lonial forces decided that South Africa as a project is no longer viable." The boycott of Israel, he adds, is not at that stage yet. "The US is still a major supporter but at the least the boycott will help to iso- late Israel further and raise more awareness." Supporters of the boycott and critics of Israeli occupation are usually met by accusations of an- ti-Semitism. This he says is mak- ing the term banal. "When you use a term out of context you destroy its meaning. When you are anti-occupation and you want the dismantlement of illegal settlements and you are labelled as anti-Semite you might then think, 'oh anti-Semitism is right." Having been active in leftist movements for most of his life, I ask him whether the regrouping of leftist Palestinian parties ahead of the forthcoming local elections offers new hope or is it another false dawn? He says the biggest problem for the Palestinian left is that, with the exception of the People's Front for the Liberation of Pales- tine, it accepted to be part part of power and the peace process. "Being part of power was a big mistake and it took many people a long time to forgive them." He says the Palestinian Author- ity – which governs the West Bank – is a "terrible authority totally corrupted" and totally un- der control of foreign countries which fund it. "Leftist movements cannot be part of this structure. The new alliance is not something new. Something new must be born in- side Fatah, although I know the situation inside the party is very problematic. But I believe there is one part of Palestinian people which is pure and intact, that is the political prisoners inside Is- raeli jails." He says leaders such as Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sa'adat, who authored the document for national unity which was not tak- en up by Fatah or Hamas are the only hope. "After all, Palestine is a big jail so why not have the leadership in jail rather than people pretending to be presidents which is all bad theatre which nobody buys into any more." Khoury says the Palestinians' greatest enemy is not the lack of support from neighbouring Arab countries or internal divisions, but a classical colonial project "which is a very rational and cyni- cal project of ethnic cleansing." Turning to Syria he says that there are no good guys except for the Syrian people who have been killed, imprisoned or forced to flee the country. In a war which directly or indi- rectly involves Iran, Russia, Tur- key, the US, the Kurds, Qatari sponsored Islamist militias and Saudi backed ISIS, Khoury says Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is no longer an influential player. The foreign powers and the armed militias, including the Qa- tari sponsored Al Nusra Front and ISIS are the key players, he says. "Syria shows us that in this postmodern world we are tasting the meaning of the destruction of values," Khoury says, adding that "in all postmodern discourse there are no values, everything is there and not there as Jean Ba- udrillard once put it, the Iraq war never happened, it only happened on TV. But then you realise that one million Iraqis died and then you speak about TV, but actu- ally the dominant ideology is to behave as if it is a TV show, and then you don't feel, taste, smell the blood. This is now incarnated in the Syrian tragedy." A big chunk of responsibility for the Syrian war should be shoul- dered by the Syrian opposition, he says, adding that "the weak- ness of the Syrian opposition and Interview By Jurgen Balzan maltatoday, SUNDAY, 28 AUGUST 2016 Syria shows us that in this postmodern world we are tasting the meaning of the destruction of values SYRIAN TRAGEDY Truth is always revolutionary ARAB SPRING The left has no right not to reinvent itself because the left is the only tool to defend the people