By Ayman Hakki
It is impossible to try to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, without admitting its intractable nature. To solve it with methods that have failed for decades is insane. It’s time to change our focus, to prevail.
The year was 1991. I was at a medical conference trying to eat a box lunch at an empty table, far from the other tables, in a vast conference hall. Seven other doctors came and sat at the table I had chosen for its remoteness. Their name tags alerted me to the fact that they were all Israelis. Seeing my name tag prompted their group leader to inquire with a heavy Polish accent; “Dr. Hakki, Ver Argh You Frghom?* Syria, I said, confirming their suspicion that I am, who I suspected they’d assumed from my name tag, I was.
After exchanging sly glances, the same thick-necked blue-eyed Dr. asked me: “Vy don’t you vant peace?” I looked around the table, and in an even low volume voice I said; “if I can show you why ‘you,’ not ‘me,’ don’t want peace…will you let me have my lunch in peace?” I’m sure they expected I was going to launch into one of the many clichéd answers they’d heard over and over from us. They again exchanged glances, this time with barely hidden smiles. I had no intention of entertaining them with the many slogans we’ve all heard for years about Palestinian rights Israeli occupation etc., etc. They watched me intently.
I took out my wallet and asked them to pass around two laminated photos of my handsome U.S. Marine Corps Son and my beautiful college student daughter. I handed them out to my left and once I retrieved them from my right, I looked each one of them in their eyes and after an admittedly dramatic pause I said; “we are all plastic surgeons, right?” They all nodded. “If we have total unconditional peace between us, please tell me how you will be able to avoid having your kids marry mine, in order to preserve the Jewish nature of the State of Israel!” It was not what they expected to hear, they all looked down, in silence, at their lunch. I finished my lunch in peace and left to continue seeing the lectures.
Our struggle as Arabs for land, a mini-Palestine, has been futile. It is time to struggle instead for our rights within the State of Israel, including the right to vote. Give us equal rights, not land-for-peace.
*“Dr. Hakki, where am I from?”