Reading the Plight of Violence as an Anti-Orientalist Perspective

According to what we write, declare, and broadcast, our view as a society toward the plight of violence and murder—generally with exceptions—is derived from the perspective of the Israeli authority and elites toward us and their attempt to evade any responsibility toward us and towards the policies that have created this reality with all its details, including violence. Indeed, the discourse that begins and ends with showcasing the number of victims of violence in the Arab community, or morning news about the killing of "a father and son from Tira" or the killing of a young man in Sakhnin—all of this language confines the plight within the Arab community and suggests that the issue is internal and connected to it. Meanwhile, the discussions that circulate, especially in Arabic-speaking media, create an impression that there is an Arab state in these lands unknown to us, where all this killing takes place, and that the failure lies with the Arab representatives, mayors, and school heads, and so on. Thus, most of the questions posed by media workers reinforce this impression, especially with phrases like "Where is our community heading?" and the wailing and lamentations from this presenter or that anchor.

It is true that the victims are Arabs, but it is also true that the vast majority fall at the hands of organized crime. This alone should completely change the direction and content of the discourse. At the very least, it is crucial to separate this type of crime—an exclusive responsibility of the state, its institutions, and its agencies—from family violence or that stemming from neighborhood disputes or altercations happening everywhere. Here, I will attempt to "organize" this destructive violence and the more chaotic aspects of its characterization and response.

- The colonial, superior, and arrogant perspective and policy have intensified in the last two decades, resembling a resumption of the colonial aspect in the experience of the Jewish community toward our society. Racist policies attribute the burden of its conditions to them, knowing that there are extensive colonial applications, such as land confiscation and making every Arab town a population enclave surrounded by a blue line or an administrative decision that demolishes, prohibits, restricts, and penalizes, turning most Arab towns into densely populated demographic hotspots. 20% of the population lives on 3% of the spatial area—this fact alone explains a large part of the phenomenon. I mean the extreme population density. Or "much more people and much fewer opportunities"! Imagine, for example, if every Arab town retained its entire land reserve, and if there were no housing crisis! This is a completely stunted renaissance and a total dead end facing the town and society. Urbanization without a city and a suitable space has created social, demographic, and economic distortions that are the responsibility of a state that controls the planning levers as tools of control and regulation, not as tools to facilitate people's living and develop their life opportunities.

- The cases of population explosion in Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, Bangladesh, the outskirts of Tokyo, and African-American neighborhoods in Michigan and Washington itself and around Paris—all produce higher rates of violence than what we witness here.

- All cases of absence of state and the rule of law and deterrence from any space in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and the abandonment of the periphery by the center and leaving its residents to their fate will inevitably lead to destructive violence, especially if the army and security forces are the source of 90% of the weaponry and crime technology—as is the case here! Not to mention the emergence of poverty, need, and economic dependence on the center, which implies the disintegration of society and its "readiness" to do anything within the framework of the struggle for existence. This is the situation in relatively large areas of our society.

- The state has abandoned the Arabs by more than fifty percent (it continues to demolish their homes and impose exorbitant fines on them, and it still collects taxes and national insurance fees without providing them with electricity and infrastructure)—I fear it has come to a decision to let them drown in their blood. Just as the authorities of apartheid South Africa did for decades. This decision is manifested in that it has loosened the noose for crime families or "has befriended them" or used them, so violence or "the state of governance" becomes part of the outcomes.

- The more alienation grows among population groups, and the more they are marginalized and excluded (and we are indigenous, which deepens the alienation and spreads despair about the possibility of redress), the more fertile the ground for violence becomes, especially when one reaches the conclusion that everything is completely blocked in front of them, that the law is a jungle law, and that they must take the reins of "law" into their own hands to survive or die!

- It is unavoidable to approach violence from a multi-faceted perspective—historical, economic, political, social, and legal—for the reading to be accurate. Our discourse must be sound, and we must know exactly who bears this share or that of the responsibility, so we do not throw despairingly repetitive words, but rather we say responsible words, which is the necessary starting point to confront this plight.

- Compare the conditions of our villages and towns in the fifties and sixties with our situation today, or compare the conditions of an Arab Palestinian town east of the Green Line with a town of similar population west of the line—and you will arrive at questions that challenge the theory of authority and the theories copied from it.

- As for sociologists, educators, "activists," political actors, and "opinion shapers," including Arab media professionals and their questions, as well as presidents and representatives—I say: No society can rise or confront its fate unless it reads itself and its plights in its own language, because the foundation is to take control, including the will to read the plight or crisis. In other words: The plight of violence cannot be solved as long as the reading is orientalist and colonial in nature. Even due to the fact that orientalist policies are involved in producing this violence and are not serious in their discourse about combating it. It is worth noting here that the state alone holds the authority to maintain the security of people, their lives, and their properties, and that none of the "Arab representatives" and "presidents" holds any authority to raid a crime den or disarm anyone!

Finally - our reading of violence in an orientalist manner does not differ from our reading of politics in this way and other aspects of our lives—it is true that people write in Arabic at times, but their content is not Arabic!