Dying to Live

Dying to Live
April 27, 2002 @ 15:00 GMT
Elissar Haikal

"We are not a statistic. We have faces. We have names. We have hopes. We have dreams. Just like you. Just like you." That is what "Palestine. Dying to Live." (www.dying2live.com) resolved to greet its website's visitors with. That is what the beautiful Palestinian children portrayed on the site want the world to know.

That is what the world should know.

As a reaction to the unceasing immoralities deliberately perpetrated by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, the advertising and media community members in Jordan have heartily joined forces to give rise to a media campaign in an earnest and conscientious endeavor. Their objective is to rally Western public opinion in the direction of the Palestinian right of existence. The team's mission rests upon opening the world's eyes to the Israeli war machine's scores of outrageous abuses and Human Rights violations it inflicts on Palestinians on a daily basis, hence the team's goal of putting across the Palestinian plight and suffering by using the language the West understands.

"Palestine. Dying to Live" has gifted us a fine, cherished desire - a mental image of the future.

On the website, they have their campaign embodied in high-resolution images that any viewer can download for positioning onto any medium he/she desires or deems fit, be it in local newspapers, as posters, on T-shirts, mugs, or any cause-promotion materials. The team, which consists of volunteers, provide the artwork and the message and "the rest is up to you." You can circulate it in your local community, publish it in your school/university newsletter or paper, add it to Activist Kits, use it in educational or artistic galleries raised for advancing public or international Palestinian crisis awareness.

Here, it is well-timed to note that one unjustifiable defect in the Arab World's political scene of action has primarily been its communication incompetence. Till today, there still isn't one Arab, solid, strategic message of substance aimed at the Western mind and conscience. The West is not fully mindful of what is going on in this part of the world, the Middle East. It acknowledges that there is an "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" in the process of which two flaming "equal" parties compete over a piece of land. That is how Palestinians are viewed, thanks to the greatest non-Arabic mass media specialized in distortion of facts, CNN and its likes. The West realizes that acts of "terrorism" are on the rise. Yet, which side is the terrorist and which is the terrorized, there poses the wonder. No documentary films evidencing the past 54 years of Israeli assaults on the Arab world had been satisfactorily produced in foreign languages by the Arab media, particularly ones unveiling the Palestinian Exodus, ethnic cl
eansing that Israel has been extremely prominent at, and the numerous Palestinian Refugee Camps massacres that had generally passed, alas, unnoticed. Assorted recognized Arab satellite channels, who've got enough financial means and capable human resources, still broadcast their news sessions in Arabic only.

Yet, It is never too late to be what we might have been.

The Internet has been a forceful tool of reaching out to the rest of the world, giving it the opportunity to be acquainted with the "accuracy" of the matter. The unprejudiced "honest" accuracy. Great electronic news networks had been expertly and comprehensively started, by English-speaking Arabs, Arab-Americans, and Western talents who had succeeded at safeguarding their brains from American and other one-sided washing machines. These booming networks of joined causes and campaigns have been presenting the side of the coin that had been concealed by famous pressure groups and other like factors for a very long time now. The Arab side of the story is out in the open and no CNN "live coverage" would be able to prevent it from being confronted. The Palestine Chronicle, Al Hewar, the Electronic Intifada, Arabia.com, Planetarabia, Ramallah Online, and many more, have all proven that any noble cause can assume far-reaching notice and concern only by putting enlightened thought and upstanding drives into action.
They have capably shown that English is a language simple to use and hire in both, times of crisis and lulls before storms. Talking to oneself is a waste of vocal chords. Trying to act upon the already convinced is a waste of time, energy, and resources. Our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds and it's about time that we start making our difficulties known and understood, hence later supported by people of moral sense. It's high-time that we start communicating with "the other."

Of late, "Palestine. Dying to Live." has deservedly added itself to the fruitful and winning abundance of humanitarian efforts aimed at the other. Its remarkable team has not only worked out an intense message, but also one that captures the very weight of the Palestinian crisis in an attractively aesthetic and originative mode. The undying Palestinian symbol, the Kufiah, adorns the background of charming photography illustrating lovely Palestinian children, each dreaming in his/her own right. Bassem dreams of becoming a new Charlie Chaplin;
"silently, he's dying to laugh." Einstein is Khaled's beau ideal, "but to Khaled, the equation of the universe now is: Hopelessness = Fear x Uncertainty. The solution to the formula starts by asking why Khaled is dying to hope." Ahmad, on the other hand, dreams of peace and freedom, what the Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of and fought for. But "the path to peace begins by understanding why Palestinians are not even free to yearn. Ahmad is dying to believe that such a path exists." Every unique dream highlighted on assorted DyingtoLive posters speaks volumes. The red, white, green and black add to every dream the touch of hope every Palestinian child yearns for; that of an independent state he/she would call "home," of a national anthem he/she would rise to and learn by heart, and that of dreams he/she deserves to work for and make real.

Dreams are forms of resistance too. To dream when darkness is all around is not a sign of failure or desperation but a manifestation of strength and determination, which, if defended, would rend the hardest moments and convert them into hints of hope.

We cannot live only for our own personal welfare and well-being. There are thousands of fine threads joining us to our fellow human beings, and among those threads, our pain and willingness to support and aid run as reasons and driving forces, and they come back to us as answers and concrete results. And to the fellow human being in need, they come as emotional relief. They come as "life" and legitimate dreams that can be realized.

Reverence for life is more than a feeling of concern or sensitivity. It is the belief in "united we stand, divided we fall." The belief in the fruits of brotherhood and the oneness of humanity. It is the respect for the sacred right of human life to exist. It is the sovereign consciousness of consciousness itself.

Print this page