A sign of hope: On the anniversary of the release of President Nelson Mandela (By Samia Khoury, February 11, 2010)

On the anniversary of the release of Mr. Nelson Mandela, Mr. Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister said: “His story reminds us that there is no corner of the earth so far away, no injustice so entrenched, no enemy so powerful that people of good conscience cannot campaign for, change and win”
Indeed how very true. And thanks to Mr. Brown for pointing that out, because it certainly gives us -Palestinians- some hope, especially that Palestine is not that far away from Britain. Neither is the long history of the dispossession of the Palestinians unknown to the prime minister at 10 Downing Street. After all the root cause of the tragedy of Palestine started in Britain in 1917 with the Balfour declaration and the British mandate which lasted until 1948.

It would seem to me that Britain should be the first country of conscience to redress the grave injustice “so entrenched” since 1948 and further exacerbated by the occupation of the rest of the Palestinian Territories in 1967. Indeed the enemy has proved to be powerful to an extent that it has marginalized the role of the United Nations, and turned the super powers into a tool that it can manipulate.

People of good conscience are already campaigning for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, a campaign similar to the one that brought down the Apartheid regime in South Africa. So I hope that Britain will have the moral courage to set the record straight, and ride the wagon of the BDS, until the occupation comes to an end. Or will the rhetoric we heard on Nelson Mandela’s anniversary of freedom simply wither into thin air, and the “powerful enemy” will continue to gloat over the fact that nobody will dare meddle with its policies?

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke