Back in the early 1970s when I was making Five Minutes To Midnight, my documentary on global poverty and its implications for all, I had a verbal boxing match with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. After a day of filming with her as she collected some of those dying from poverty on the pavements to give them a few more days of life with shelter and loving care, she invited my camera crew and me to a frugal evening meal with some of her sisters. The question I posed for discussion over the meal was this: Which is the most important word in any language -- love or justice?
Mother Teresa argued with passion, sometimes angry passion, for love. I argued, with equal but not angry passion, for justice. If she was alive today, I would say to her, "Mother Teresa, it's justice not love that is required if the countdown to catastrophe in Palestine that became Israel is to be stopped."
But it was not only my complete identity with the Palestinians' irrefutable claim for justice and my admiration of the incredible, almost superhuman steadfastness of the occupied and oppressed that inspired, drove and sustained my commitment to the war for the truth of history. I feared, as I do even more so today, that if the information war that probably could have been won by now is lost, the end-game will most likely be a final Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine, followed, quite possibly, by another great turning against the Jews, provoked by Zionism's insufferable self-righteousness and contempt for international law.
For three decades, I have done my best to contribute to the understanding needed to prevent both obscenities from happening, but I have now reached and passed the outer limits of what I can do when there's a lack of will on the part of seriously wealthy diaspora Palestinian and other Arabs to assist the promotion and spread of the truth of history.
In the days and weeks to come, I will no doubt find myself wondering if I was naive to believe that I could help Palestinian right triumph over Zionist might. To those all over the world who through the years have expressed appreciation for my books, articles and presentations on public platforms of all kinds -- Thank You, your moral support helped to sustain my commitment.
A Palestinian friend once asked me if, on matters to do with Palestine, I was aware of the main difference between Arabs and Jews. He didn't wait for me to respond. He said: "Arabs almost never do what they say they will do. Jews often do what they say they will not do." I said I thought there was an element of truth in that.
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