Once upon a time in Palestine

Scientists say that time travel is not possible. One cannot go back in time. Even if it was possible to travel back in time, scientists argue that one wouldn't be able to change anything or interfere in anything because that would change the course of history and defy logic. But one such scientist, namely Einstein, also said that imagination was more important than knowledge. We may not be able to go back in time but we sure are capable of imagining such a scenario and correct history because history sure is full of many mistakes.

One such mistake was the creation of Israel. The Nakba literally means catastrophe. I have plagiarised the topic of this article from one of my favourite movies Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which is a great work of art by Quentin Tarantino. A little background is important in order to understand the thinking behind the movie.

In the 1960s, there was a beautiful and aspiring actress in Hollywood with a very promising career. Her name was Sharon Tate. On the night of August 9, 1969, her life was suddenly taken in one of the most gruesome murders the world had witnessed. She was pregnant and the baby was due in less than 2 weeks. A bunch of Hippies at the time inspired by the cult leader Charles Manson went into her house and killed everyone there. The infamous story is detailed in the book Helter Skelter. Tarantino's movie reversed the facts of the original story. In the movie, the killers do show up but they are killed by Brad Pitt and DiCaprio. Tarantino kept Sharon Tate alive and instead showed us the Hippies getting killed brutally.

I can't help but imagine the same scenario for the Palestinians and their Israeli murderers. A movie where the Palestinian children, who are in reality getting slaughtered by the Israelis, would actually cause and see the Israeli soldiers getting killed would be so worth watching. We may not have a Hollywood movie where the children of Gaza would be kept alive who would shred into pieces the bodies of the IDF soldiers who'd come to kill those children.

We may be able to recreate such a history in our writings because while we may not have the resources and the freedom to produce such films, they can't take away from us our ability to think and imagine. Imagine how beautiful those children would be looking today if the western society had warned Israel that it would impose sanctions and perhaps even invade Israel if it dared attack Gaza where civilians were absolutely sure to die. After all, it wouldn't be a weird demand because after Israel attacked Iran, the United States warned Iran not to attack Israel or there would be dangerous consequences. Imagine if on October 8, President Biden had issued the same threat to Israel.

Imagine if after the 1967 war, the United States had not done the adoption of Israel as a cop on the beat state in the region. Imagine if the Muslim states in the region had not quarreled with each other and presented a united front against this Jewish terrorist state.

In a book that I might write, we would imagine the best situation yet, where Theodor Herzl is rejected by the world because of his outlandish and violent ideas, where despite Herzl's perseverance, England wouldn't entertain and execute the idea of dumping the persecuted Jews from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union into Palestine. Even if that still happened, I would love to reimagine the history where the decent host that the Palestinians played toward the incoming Jews would eventually understand the evil designs of their guests and expel them before it was too late. We would be telling the stories of those evil and thankless immigrants today, who tried to own the land of their hosts once.

Once upon a time in Palestine.