Arundhati Roy: Palestinians are not expendable
JVL Introduction
We are pleased to publish this hard hitting speech by writer Arundhati Roy’s given in acceptance of her PEN Pinter award in London on 10th October. After acknowledging writers who are in jail in India – and elsewhere – she speaks mainly about what is being allowed – or rather supported – to happen in Gaza, linking this to previously given US (and other countries’) support for genocide. She “.. refuse(s) to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.”
And powerfully she notes: “…which of us sitting in this hall would willingly submit to the indignity that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been subjected to for decades? What peaceful means have the Palestinian people not tried? What compromise have they not accepted—other than the one that requires them to crawl on their knees and eat dirt? (My emphasis Ed)
LL
This article was originally published by The Wire on Fri 11 Oct 2024. Read the original here.
'No Propaganda on Earth Can Hide the Wound That Is Palestine: Arundhati Roy's PEN Pinter Prize Acceptance Speech
Writer and activist Arundhati Roy has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize 2024. This is an annual award set up by English PEN in the memory of playwright Harold Pinter. Shortly after having been named for the prize, Roy announced that her share of the prize money will be donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. She named Alaa Abd el-Fattah, British-Egyptian writer and activist, a ‘Writer of Courage’ who she would share her award with. The following is her acceptance speech for the prize, delivered on the evening of October 10, 2024, at the British Library.
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if one could pay for this speech to be printed in every newspaper for a week or a month or as long as it takes to get the message through the thick thick skulls of the UK & US governments . . .
This is a wonderful speech
What a wonderfully clear speech
In answer to Tony Burford – if the ethnic identities of dead indigenous victims and settler perpetrators were inverted rest assured this speech would already be in every news outlet of our racist media.
Sadly for the Palestinians their right to life and children with intact limbs, is not as important to the US led west, as having a strategic settler society, slam bang in the middle-east.
However much I might full-heartedly underwrite and endorse your activism, forcefully displayed in your acceptance-speech of the Pinter PEN-award, I am too much of the conviction, that the endgame of political Zionism, is to do “whatever it takes” – including genocide by bombs and starvation – to finally cleanse the entire “biblical” Eretz-Israel area from all autochthonous Palestinians, in order to be able to realise the “divinely promised” mono-etno Jewish state for “the chosen People”.
And yes, almost the entire western Christian-Zionist world is explicitly complicit with this racist and fascist settler colonial monstrosity, for they are not only facilitating this exercise of systematic “Umvolkung” of Palestine (i.e. replacing the autochthonous Palestinians with allochthonous Jewish Zionists), but they in reality are full-blown religious stakeholders in this murderous enterprise themselves.
After all, Christian Zionists do seriously believe, that “the Jewish People” are unconditionally ordered by THEIR Christian god, “to Return to Sion”, in order to make possible “the second coming of Jesus” (“the Return to Sion” commandeered by “Jaweh”, in order to realise “the first coming of the Messiah” from a Jewish Zionist perspective that is of course).
As I type, there are confirmed reports in Hebrew media [reported in Warfare Monitor / Middle East Observer / Suppressed News / Al Mayadeen] that up to 80 Israeli soldiers in the Gilani Brigade Base, just outside Haifa, have been hit with a suicide drone and are either killed or injured. Five local hospitals in the Haifa area are on high alert to take the airlifted casualties.
The Lebanese resistance is battle-hardened from its experience fighting US- backed Isis in Syria, and the Israeli forces are becoming exhausted and demoralised.
This quote from the article above is probably the most poignant in terms of struggle for the Palestinians and those fighting colonialism elsewhere:
“When South Africans were chanting their popular rallying cry, Amandla! Power to the people, were they calling for the genocide of white people? They were not. They were calling for the dismantling of the Apartheid state. Just as the Palestinians are.”
None of us can begin to imagine the trauma and violence being endured right now in Gaza, but the “the monster” is suffering crippling blows, which serves only to threaten its resolve, whilst strengthening the resistance to occupation.
How I wish that I had the eloquence to issue such a clear cry for justice on behalf of the Palestinian People.
It is a call that shames the leading politicians of the USA, the UK and all the other countries that are afraid of the truth that EVERYONE can see.
As shocked and frustrated bystanders, as most of the general public inevitably are, our spirits sink as we hear and witness the extraordinary blindness of our own Prime Minister, his government, the EU and the USA, as they unflinchingly stand aside and facilitate, through prejudice and self centred political design the genocide underway in Gaza. Why is so difficult to condemn what Israel is doing in Gaza? Yes, unlike the respected author of this article, I do condemn what happened when the hostages were taken. As a Christian Socialist I believe evil acts are evil acts, irrespective of who or why they are propagated, although I do understand the agony and frustration of the suffering Palestinian people, and why they feel obliged to meet violence with violence. There truly is only one pathway to eventual resolution and that must start with the outright condemnation of the genocide taking place in Gaza, and the continuing persecution in the West Bank and now Lebanon. For the first time in my life, 82 years old, I feel ashamed to be British. Sadly, politics is no longer driven by fundamental humanitarian values, morality, and belief in inclusive justice. Some would say it never was, but as an ex-Labour councillor I think there was a time when it was more so than not.
BUT, from time to time I feel regenerated in my spirit and this wonderful article has done that for me! Thank you to the author, and thank you for publishing it.
It was a moving piece, stirring our emotions, even making us more determined to fight against those Politicians that are supporting this Genocide and hiding behind sentences like. “Israel has a right to defend itself”!!
We can keep on challenging Starmer and his Cabinet, especially Lammy, who appears to have morphed into a full blow Zionist supporter, saying some ridiculous statements.
It was good to read Neil G’s comments, where Israel’s soldiers could be rebelling, even though it’s because they are being killed. Let’s hope their disgruntlement spreads through to other soldiers being put at risk by Netanyahu and his desperation to expand the War, to put pressure on the US, even the UK and possibly others to start sending their troops and war paraphernalia to help.
He will have already known that Israel will not be able to fight a war on multiple fronts without help.
What a wonderful article full of wisdom and insight.
Shalom.
Well, that was better than Kenan Maliks piece in that trash, The Guardian aka the former pro slavery newspaper.
Bravo Ms Roy for the brilliant exposure of imperialism and its offspring Zionism
Regrettably, most regrettably, Ms. Roy simplifies a very complex subject, characterized by, among numerous other things, a tortured history. She, also most regrettably, peppers and sprinkles her narrative with slogans-type words and phrases, along with catchwords and the like. To my eyes and mind, she views this conflict in the simple terms of angels vs. devils. If I were grading her, her grade would be a clear “D”, with the notation, “Needs remedial instruction.”
Arundhati Roy teaches us the meaning of ‘unflinching’ in this fearless and brilliant speech.
Absolutely stunning analysis and beautiful writing of the very difficult truth. She is my hero. I love her. She Gives me inspiration.
Superb. So grateful to JVL for republishing this speech
I am so very, very proud of your courage, Ms Arundhati Roy in expressing so eloquently what so many of us feel but feel also powerless to voice except in marches. My heart is moved and feels vindicated by your unequivocal stand against the butchery that is taking place in Gaza and Lebanon. The powers that be are trying with all their might to turn reality on its head but NO and No, the emperor remains naked. Thank you and may the Creator protect you because while people like yourself continue to live and speak, Good will always conquer evil. ☘️
LOVE ROY’S PASSION for Telling it Like It IS
JAH GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION ON HER LIFE AND THE LIVES OF ALL FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND WRITERS ALL OVER THE WORLD 🙏🏽❤️💛💚🖤💞😍🔥🔥🔥