Opinion: Why Does the World Focus on Only One National Liberation Movement?
![Illustration: Catalan flags in Barcelona (Image credit: Josep Renalias - Lohen11 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/599529_dd7e4a576e9549dfae9a0d3bc925eaf5~mv2_d_4591_2743_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_586,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/599529_dd7e4a576e9549dfae9a0d3bc925eaf5~mv2_d_4591_2743_s_4_2.jpg)
Illustration: Catalan flags in Barcelona (Image credit: Josep Renalias - Lohen11 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Some of the current headlines have reminded us yet again about many of the unresolved national movements simmering or outright boiling over in the world today.
There were the elections in Catalonia so fiercely opposed by Spain (the Basques are waiting in line), and the similar elections in Kurdistan (the Iraqi branch) fiercely opposed by Iraq and all its neighbors that contain a large Kurdish community.
Tibetans frequently suffer oppression and humiliation under the Chinese boot, as Han Chinese are moving in to challenge them demographically.
In Chechnya, Russia has placed the country under its iron grip rather than even entertain a hint of independence.
The list is long.
There are another dozen similar movements around the globe representing peoples with a very long presence in a particular land that has been taken over by an outside power/culture and brutally handled.
It is interesting that none of these national liberation movements attract much sympathy or attention from the world community. Not from the UN, the EU, the US, a myriad of "human rights" NGOs, nor from the world press. Have I left someone out?
No BDS movements, no repeated censures, no daily scathing heart-rending editorials, no academic full court press, no violent campus assaults, no flag burnings, and no massive financial support.
But how could there be any of that? They are all so busy with the "Palestine" issue.
Why are they so busy with the “Palestinians”? It stands to reason that the preoccupation with them is not really about a people that were recently invented. Rather, it is totally about the people who this conglomerate of Arabs from neighboring lands want to replace (and commit genocide against, of course).
No, it is much more logical that the world’s obsession with “Palestinian liberation” is about the Jews. Now that has historically been a reason for consensus if there ever was one. As the old Tom Lehrer song, “National Brotherhood Week," so correctly sang: "And everybody hates the Jews."
According to polls taken in the last few years, anti-Semitic attitudes are harbored by a staggeringly large portion of the world’s population: on the Left and Right in every continent. This fuels their remorse for the "Palestinian" people making it so all-pervasive that there is simply no room for attention to any others around the globe.
We are currently celebrating the happiest of Jewish holidays, Sukkot. It reminds us of the protection that G-d offered us when we left Egypt, and of His destruction of the murderous Egyptian army.
It is indeed crazy out there in the world today. To a large extent the nations are aroused and united in their defiance of G-d and his promise to His People. But we have His Sukkah. Rejoice!
Shalom Pollack, veteran licensed tour guide, is the director of Shalom Pollack Tours: Personalized Tours in Israel.
