Note: Plain text is the other person, and bold text is my reply.
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 21:29:35 -0300
Subject: salaam
I hope you get this while it's still relevant. If not, it's still a soothing exercise for me.
DO NOT FIGHT THE DEPORTATION. Their system will not let you win. The sooner you get to Canada the better. Getting home should be your highest priority right now. It'll be no loss to you... you'll become stronger with time, and will be able to help even more.
For my sake, do not tangle yourself in their bureaucracy. Bureaucracy has no conception of time. Don't bother with all the hearings, they're bunk. Accept the deportation. Do what you can to speed it up. You're too weak to stop this train right now, so just get on board.
Mohammed - if you're reading this, please pass on the message to Tarek.
Salaam
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 04:05:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: tarek Lubani
Subject: Re: salaam
Salaam.
I can't even believe what I'm reading! Your comments are actually still relevant, but I assure you that they will be ignored. The point of any sort of morality is not to *win*, but to *work*. And the point of any 1984 system is to convince you that you can never win, so you might as well not work.. The organs of the government of Israel want us out of here and want us to lose so that we can never come back and lose our ability to fight. I agree: they will almost definitely "win". But by taking them to task, we expose the hipocrisy of the system. Imagine a system in which peaceful, non-violent demonstrators are deemed a security threat and killed and prosecuted!
I think, though, that perhaps your perception of time is skewed. Let's say that they jail me forever, effectively silencing me. Does that mean that I've lost? maybe personally, yes. Does that mean that the cause has lost over the next 50-100 years? HELL no! Israel can jail and deport one activist. They can do it to ten or a thousand. But what if every international in the world decided it was time for this to end? What if every human being decided that it was time to assert their humanity? How could we ever reach that critical mass if we are individually afraid of what happens to us?
Accepting deportation is accepting the legitimacy of this bullshit system. Why did you never accept it when I used to steal your chocolates when we was little chillun? It is always "easier" in the short term to accept violations against you. But in the long term, almost never!!
Anyhow, I'm now on bail, and fighting the deportation will continue as long as it possibly can. I only have one chance to stand up and die for what I believe in, so this probably isn't it. But that doesn't mean that I will give the Israeli government no problems in completing their agenda.
tarek : )