<html>
<body>
<font size=3>The weapon of the occupied <br>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10031.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10031.shtml<br><br>
</a>Matthew Cassel, <i>The Electronic Intifada,</i> 16 December 2008
<br><br>
<img src="http://electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/2/081216-cassel-shoes.jpg" width=483 height=322 alt="[]">
<br>
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/<a href="http://www.maanimages.com">MaanImages</a>) <br><br>
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.<br><br>
But others, especially many in the Arab world, might recall another event
where flying shoes made the front pages. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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 <i>en masse</i> 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."<br><br>
A move of such arrogance could only be matched by Sharon's good friend
eight years later.<br><br>
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!"<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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? <br><br>
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."<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<i>Matthew Cassel is Assistant Editor of The Electronic Intifada.</i>
<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>