The Israelis came to Lydda and forced us to flee. It is a picture that does not leave my mind … Thirty-thousand people walking, crying, screaming with terror … If you see such things your mind and heart alter … Humans must change the world, they must do something, they must kill if needs be. To kill, even if that means we in our turn become inhuman.
Even if it means we become inhuman.
That’s George Habash, founder of the PFLP, quoted in Yezid Sayigh’s Armed Struggle and the Search for State.
I’m not including it here because I agree with the sentiment or any particular use of force. I’m including it because he acknowledges that to resist or reprise violence robs oneself of one’s own humanity.
Tags: israel-palestine