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May 6th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
African-American artist Nina Simone, also an activist in the American Civil Rights Movement, experienced the most important turning point of her life when the Curtis Institute of Music rejected her application as a student because of the color of her skin. Simone expressed her disappointment at being deprived of the opportunity of becoming the first Black classical pianist in the United States. This racist incident gravely impacted Simone’s life and forced her to work in bars. Later, she decided to write her own song lyrics. Some of those songs became revolutionary icons as they fueled Black people to be proud of who they were, united them against white supremacy, raised their self-confidence, and urged them to discover themselves and cherish their Blackness and culture.
Simone lived long enough to witness the era of many icons of the Black struggle in the United States and worldwide. A little while before she died in 2003, she was surprised to receive a honorary diploma from the same institution that had rejected her in the past. This compels us to pause for a moment and think about the racist structure of the colonial mind: What exactly happened to make the Curtis Institute of Music apologize for their racism against Simone? Why would such a racist power, enjoying superior privileges, reconsider its position vis-a-vis the rights of the oppressed? The answer lies in the legacy of the cumulative resistance of Black people.
Considering lessons learned from the struggle of Black women over the years, we, Palestinian women of color, have reached the conclusion that it is time for us to endorse intersectional feminism with its struggle against the monopoly of theories of feminism by white-middle-class women. White, middle-class feminism clearly disregards race, class and most importantly, colonialism, which we cannot separate from the context of our socio-liberatory struggle. Intersectional feminists acknowledge that patriarchy, capitalism, racism and colonialism are all oppressive forces that have different backgrounds but the common aim of dehumanising “the Other.” We, therefore, must radically dismantle the structure of all these oppressive forces simultaneously in order to achieve comprehensive justice in full harmony with itself.
Reflecting on Nina Simone’s experience, and those of other Black women from the US to South Africa and Latin America, we can conclude that a clear political vision for our own Palestinian resistance is needed in order to reach the stage of compelling the Zionists to offer us a historic apology.
The question, then, is how to dismantle this racist ideology? In other words, what does the future that we want look like?
Hegemonic, Zionist ideology in apartheid Israel, manifested in Jewish supremacy, functions in the same racist spirit that manifested itself in the American South, and apartheid South Africa. The question, then, is how to dismantle this racist ideology? In other words, what does the future that we want look like?
The Palestinian liberation movement has gone through many challenges. After initially adopting the principle of full liberation for historical Palestine, it fell into the trap of agreeing to so-called interim solutions that have, naturally, led it to compromise our basic rights through the disastrous Oslo Accord, and later, the establishment of a Palestinian self-governing authority, which came into existence as an attempt from the international community to liquidate our cause and promote the so-called “two-state solution”.
This unjust solution, in which we get only 22% of historical Palestine, was indeed rejected by the Palestinian people in 1947 after the partition plan was announced. Moreover, it does not take into account the rights of the Palestinian citizens of apartheid Israel and fails to address the suffering of millions of refugees who live in camps and in the diaspora. In other words, the two-state solution reduces the Palestinian people to only those living in the 1967 territories, i.e., the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Additionally, apartheid Israel has made the two-state solution impossible by expanding the existing illegal settlements in the West Bank, imposing a siege on the Gaza Strip, and by annexing Jerusalem and declaring it its eternal capital, all of which have created irreversible facts on the ground. Moreover, it disperses the Palestinian people and confines them into isolated cantons, each with its own concerns that do not converge with those of others.
The recent rise of the far-right in the US, Europe and Israel and the failure of the Arab Spring led to a program of normalization between Arab governments and Israel led by the Trump administration. This caused a push back against the Palestinian cause and made the liberation of Palestine less of a priority on the Arabs’ agenda. All these factors make the already unjust two-state solution more impossible, unfitting with all the sacrifices the Palestinian people have made.
Looking at the experience of other colonized and oppressed people, we learn that we, Palestinian women, are able to imagine a future that is more just.
Looking at the experience of other colonized and oppressed people, we learn that we, Palestinian women, are able to imagine a future that is more just, one that aligns with our principles based on equality for all. What other vision could be better than fighting for a single democratic state for all its citizens in historical Palestine regardless of religion, race or gender?
It’s our legal right to return to our initial liberation project and fight for the liberation of all of historical Palestine, from the river to the sea. Just like the apartheid regime in South Africa was dismantled and the South African people elected Nelson Mandela as their first Black president after he had been a political prisoner for 27 years, we aspire to dismantle Israeli apartheid and the abandonment of Zionist colonial privileges. That cannot be achieved without the return of Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages of origin, compensation for their children and grandchildren, and the establishment of a democratic, civic constitution that guarantees the cultural, social and religious rights of all citizens of Palestine after the distribution of wealth by a just system that ensures the irreversible demise of apartheid and settler-colonialism.
This scenario possibly seems to be utopian, considering that our vision of liberation has been distorted by the exclusionary ideology of the two-state solution. However, the one democratic state solution is the only answer that can guarantee our basic human rights, including the right of return and the right of self-determination. This solution can be achieved through an alliance between Palestinians and anti-Zionist Israelis, who support the right of return and are willing to give up their privileges as the descendants of colonizers in order to share the struggle for a better future for all of us. Also, this goal can be achieved with the support of freedom-loving people of the world, international civil society and intensifying grassroots resistance, with the Palestinian-led BDS movement that aims to isolate apartheid Israel at the forefront of this.
With all these means of resistance, not only will we be able to liberate the Palestinian people from colonial oppression, we will also liberate the colonizer oppressors whose collective consciousness, admittedly, will not be easily penetrated as they are not going to give up their privileges as colonizers willingly. But, we can reach the rendezvous of victory through our collective efforts and the Palestinian legacy of resistance, together with a clear-cut political vision that has wide popular support, and the lessons we have learned from other liberation movements, international law and the world-wide Palestinian solidarity campaigns.
This is the last hope that can guarantee that an apology be given to the Palestinian Nina Simone’s who have been fighting for justice for more than 72 years now.
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