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Can we speak about Palestine/Israel without thinking of the British, Zionists or the Americans? Can we write about Palestine/Israel without analyzing power struggles, colonialism, aggression, dependency, control and guilt?
Can we think of Palestine/Israel without addressing prejudice, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Arabophobia or Apartheid?
These are some of the questions we are focusing on in this discussion.
Nor can one not forget issues related to identity, narcissistic wounds, humiliation and dignity.
Dr Martin Kemp's presentation, “Defenses against guilt as a factor in determining relationships …”, is insightful from a psychoanalytical point of view and powerful from a political point of view.
However, the relationships Dr Kemp addressed are complicated. Victims of the Holocaust in Europe have become victimizers of Palestinians on another continent.
As an Egyptian of Muslim background, I grew up with the wound I felt after the defeat of the Arabs, the loss of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Egypt is and always has been one of the main actors in the region and in this conflict.
As a child, I loved to read. In 1946 at the age of eight, I made an agreement with the paperman to give him part of my pocket money to borrow his papers and magazines for a few hours each day. I may not have fully understood what I read, but I was proud of Egypt's heritage and followed closely what was happening in Egypt and in Palestine.
The British still dominated Egypt. I read about their equipping and training the young Israeli forces and sadly about the scandal of defective arms sold to the Egyptian army, all seemingly contributing to the traumatic Israeli victory. After 1948 I felt wounded. The Egyptians felt wounded, the Arabs felt wounded and narcissistically injured. I suspect all of us felt guilty.
As Dr Kemp described brilliantly the mechanisms of defenses against the guilt of the West and Israel, one can address indeed the guilt of the Arabs in general and