[News] The weapon of the occupied

[Anti-Imperialist News]

The weapon of the occupied
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10031.shtml

Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada, 16 December 2008

[]

A Palestinian boy holds a shoe during a demonstration in Gaza City 
calling for the release of Muntadher al-Zaidi, 16 December 2008. 
(Hatem Omar/<http://www.maanimages.com>MaanImages)

It's not surprising that since the George W. Bush shoe-dodging 
incident the US media has been recalling the infamous "shoeing" of 
the Saddam statue by a few Iraqis after American forces had brought 
it down. These images were aired over and over in the international 
media to show that Iraqis celebrated the toppling of their former 
ruler. Reports later emerged that this event had been mostly staged 
by the American military and the media had not accurately shown how 
few the numbers of people who had actually been around to hit 
decapitated statue with their shoes. Most Iraqis did not celebrate 
the event because many were frightened in their homes, or packing 
their bags to leave their country and the extreme violence that their 
occupiers had brought with them to Iraq.

But others, especially many in the Arab world, might recall another 
event where flying shoes made the front pages.

It was 28 September 2000. Then opposition candidate to become Israeli 
prime minister, Ariel Sharon, decided to take a "stroll" to the 
al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. He claimed 
the move was not meant to be provocative, and that he was just taking 
a walk "to see what happens here." However, the previous decade, 
there had been at least two incidents during which Jewish Israelis 
threatened the mosque compound and Israeli forces carried out several 
mass killings of worshippers, and Palestinians revolted leading to 
the death of nearly 100 Palestinians by Israeli forces.

Sharon's provocation led to clashes between Palestinian worshippers 
and more than 1,000 of Sharon's occupation forces who just so 
happened to be in the area and armed with rubber coated steel 
bullets, tear gas and full riot gear. The Palestinian worshippers on 
the other hand were armed with their shoes. Images of this incident 
made it around the world as worshippers flung shoes at the Israeli 
occupation forces. The reaction to Sharon's visit quickly spread 
throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as Palestinians en 
masse took to the streets. Israel's response, gunning down dozens of 
unarmed Palestinian protestors in a few days, led to years of 
violence. This incident, led to what many say was the incident that 
ignited the second Palestinian intifada, while after leaving al-Aqsa, 
Sharon arrogantly claimed, "There was no provocation here."

A move of such arrogance could only be matched by Sharon's good 
friend eight years later.

After five years of war that ousted a dictator and replaced him with 
blood-filled chaos and an American occupation more deadly than the 
invasion, war-maker Bush made a surprise final visit to Baghdad and 
claimed yet again that the war "is decisively on its way to being 
won." It was upon hearing these words that Iraqi journalist Muntadher 
al-Zaidi stood up and like those confronted with Sharon's 
provocation, threw whatever he had on him that could be easily made 
into a projectile. Al-Zaidi was also sure to send a verbal attachment 
with the shoes when he shouted in Arabic, "this is a goodbye kiss, you dog!"

Had more Iraqi civilians been allowed into the press conference, we 
can be sure that most of their shoes, keys, cell phones and whatever 
else they had on them would've also landed on the stage. But they 
weren't and instead they've taken to the streets of Baghdad and 
elsewhere around the country to demand al-Zaidi's release. Reports 
have also emerged of US military convoys, in the latest round of 
Iraqi insurgency, being shoed by Iraqi civilians.

What can a shoe do when thrown against the side of a heavily armored 
US military vehicle? Make a loud thud. Perhaps some dirt from the 
shoe might come off and stay on the vehicle.

Shoes are a weapon of the masses. The fact is that most do not have 
the means to defend against their foreign invaders equipped with 
superior American-made weaponry. Shoes, like stones and most other 
projectiles used by the masses, are not about defeating or causing 
physical damage to the enemy. It is a symbolic act, and one filled 
with anger. It is a clear and simple message from the people to the 
occupiers that they are not welcome. And it is a message that the 
occupiers and their media so arrogantly refuse to admit.

It was an image seen throughout the world as Iraqis and much of the 
world opposed to the US-led war applauded. On the following day in 
Cairo, a man walking through an outdoor cafe where I was sitting 
encouraged people to buy the newspapers on the back of his bicycle by 
shouting, "Al-Zaidi throws shoes at Bush!" Egyptians circled the man 
to purchase copies of the paper as they laughed and cheered at what 
have become historic images of al-Zaidi taking aim and Bush's blurred 
head dodging the flying shoe.

But why did Western media constantly explain that shoe throwing is 
considered offensive in Arab culture? Unlike the entire Western 
media, I'm not going to claim to know the answer to this great 
cultural phenomenon. Maybe it's not a phenomenon at all. Maybe it is 
what any of us would do if someone as arrogant as Ariel Sharon or 
George W. Bush visited the place that they've brutalized for years.

I would've liked an explanation then of the significance of eggs in 
American culture and what it meant when one was hurled at Bush's 
motorcade during his inauguration in 2001. Many hungry Palestinians 
or Iraqis might view an egg as too valuable a resource to waste by 
throwing at a despised politician. Or what about an explanation for 
the pie-in-the-face tactic commonly used by activists to humiliate 
someone they do not agree with? Or what about vegetables? I remember 
as a kid always watching cartoons or films in which performers would 
have vegetables, especially big juicy tomatoes hurled at them if they 
did a poor job. So why is it so hard for a culture that brings rotten 
vegetables to a theater in order to throw them in the event that the 
singer was off key, to need an explanation about why someone would 
remove his shoes and throw them at Bush?

Even Bush himself seems to have understood the gist of the message 
without the media's cultural interpretations when he responded to a 
reporter who asked about the incident, "It's like driving down the 
street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers."

Could it be that Iraqis and Palestinians aren't as armed and violent 
as they're portrayed, and that the shoe is just something that 
everyone is armed, or rather footed with, and can easily be thrown? 
Perhaps, but when described in the US it always has to be exaggerated 
to fit into Bush's simplistic equation that "they" are so much 
different than "us."

Like 2000 in Jerusalem or 2008 in Baghdad, shoeing incidents are most 
likely not premeditated. Forget the cultural differences when it 
comes to the meaning of shoes for a moment and focus on the real 
question: will an occupied people ever accept their occupiers? There 
is no more straightforward answer to this question than a shoe 
whizzing past the US president's head.

Matthew Cassel is Assistant Editor of The Electronic Intifada.



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