“A Land of Slaves Shall Never Be Mine”

Saulat Nagi

The US flunkies – for some, its poodles – gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, not to deliberate but to endorse their master’s voice. They came to sanctify decisions already taken in Washington, to dress subservience as statesmanship. The conflict they pretend to address was born in 1917 with Balfour’s promise to Zionism. A pledge that subsequently materialised in 1948 with the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of Palestinians and the exile of 750,000 from their home to uncharted seas and undreamed of shores, while the world watched and called it the birth of a new history – not made by ‘men’ as Marx envisaged, but by a handful of imperialists. Being an imperialist construct, it is ‘unmade’ by the Palestinian resistance daily and flunkies have to gather its fragments from the dustbin of history.

Gaza – a narrow 25 kilometre long strip where 2.3 million Palestinians had been caged for decades, came alive on October 7, 2023 when the wretched of the earth, with nothing to lose, broke their fetters and entered their land occupied by a settler-colonial entity. They sought to take as many Israeli hostages as possible to exchange for their prisoners – men, women, and even children held illegally and unjustifiably by an apartheid entity, without charge, without trial, without hope.

The revolt against occupation gave settler-colonialism – backed by US Imperialism – the pretext to start a genocide aimed at eliminating the Arab majority to create a Jewish state, that could only be built upon the graves of Palestinians, a dream now becoming a nightmare. Two years on, the genocide could not break the spirits of the Palestinians of Gaza. The massive bombardment – far surpassing what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – along with an Israeli made-famine that starved innumerable civilians including children and infants – a number close to 6,800,000, nearly 40 percent of Gaza’s population – with the complete complicity, especially of the west, and generally of the world at large, mirrored the alienation capital and their self-interest impelled them to indulge in.

Finally, when exhaustion and genocide-induced fatigue overtook Israel, and international disgust isolated the apartheid entity, its most allied ally, the US stepped in to save its blushes – as it did in the case of the 12 days aggression against Iran – with a 20-point peace agreement endorsed by Hamas a year ago but condescendingly rejected by Netanyahu. It was repackaged by Washington and sent to Hamas. What irony – hundreds and thousands of lives that could be saved a year ago were allowed to perish for the imperialist lust of hegemony and Lebensraum.

Sharm el-Sheikh was a pageant of obeisance – an orgy of submission masquerading as diplomacy. It had nothing to do with peace but blowing Palestine to smithereens and to gratify the narcissistic ego of Donald Trump, the latter gloating about his supposed skill in making deals. Everyone knew the grotesqueness or the striptease of civilisation staged on the international stage. They knew what was in stock – endorsement of what was already decided – a peace accord never to be materialised. It was a spectacle both farcical and obscene – a drama badly rehearsed and terribly staged. The beggars – some looking for financial crumbs, others for their security – encircling Trump, crooned swansongs of their loyalty that outstripped even their master’s appetite for flattery. As they fawned and fluttered, their master, drowned in the mire of praise, became a caricature of power – a laughing stock before the world.

At its heart was a grotesque theatre: a premier from Pakistan, eager to toe the imperialist line, offering recognition to a state whose legitimacy is soaked in Palestinian blood. In that bowing and fawning the premier sold more than his dignity – which always eluded him and his family – he sold the honour of 250 million Pakistanis. Honour, brought into the marketplace, becomes a commodity.

“Trust not for freedom to the Franks –

They have a king who buys and sells.”

No Byron walked those halls to warn the slave. Even if he had, Shahbaz Sharif was not listening.

Shahbaz’s speech indicates not only the depth of slavish mentality but the unfathomable indignity to which the Pakistani ruling class is prone to fall. One wonders what they would be doing in privacy – literally kissing Trump’s shoes?

In the chequered history of Pakistan, people have never seen any Pakistani foreign dignitary – not to talk of a premier – stooping so low below diplomatic norms. The expression of Gorgia Melonie, the Italian extreme right premier, standing right behind Sharif, was a case in point. With one hand on her lips, she watched the drama unfolding in amazement, shock and dismay, with a wry smile on her face, and the sarcastic smile of Konstantinos Tasoulas, the president of Greece – who lost his Pyrrhic Phalanx long ago. Their gestures said it all.

Recall Kissinger’s grim observation: align on the left of empire and you live under permanent threat; on its right and you are damned. Pakistan’s class of rulers has long preferred the latter kiss of death, time and again trading popular interest for short-term patronage. Each betrayal is accompanied by weeping and self-pity. But given a chance the temptation to return to the US fold is prompt and predictable.

This is a moment for Pakistanis to reflect. How long will the people be bartered for a fistful of aid while most endure poverty, fundamental rights are trampled by those who call themselves guardians, and the country – a loveless child – teeters toward economic ruin? How many more crises will be created to sacrifice the interests of people at the altar of foreign approval while a province burns in separatist fury and neighbours are reflecting to attack the country for its failure to live with them peacefully?

It’s time to recall what Byron in his poem the “Isles of Greek” said,

“The land of slave shall never be mine

Dash down yon cup of Samian wine.”

Gaza – who cared about Gaza? It was all about Israel. Had it been for Gaza, Hamas would be sitting right next to the stooges to decide the fate of the Palestinians. It will continue to burn and we will continue to march in the streets chanting for justice, and keeping our rage honest while protesting against their genocide.

Creating a spectacle is an art. In Pakistan, no one but Bhutto perfected it. Later, trying to mimic him, the incoming politicians made a mockery of themselves. Seeking prominence, lacklustre Shahbaz spoke in Arabic – learnt during his family’s forced exile to Saudi Arabia under the Musharraf regime – to curry favour with the sheikhdoms. The media back home highlighted this as a great quality, as if their own proficiency in the language conferred authority. Is it some sort of a quality to be multilingual? Maybe. But history is ruthless. It shows that economics, and not linguistic chicanery, or language proficiency, determines the status of nations. Chinese first premier Zhou Enlai spoke fluent English and French but never used them publicly. Though China hadn’t yet achieved economic might, revolution had determined its fate. Nationalisation of the means of production had given it a direction from where the revolutionary gains, once achieved, could never be reversed. Zhou believed that China wasn’t dumb. In recent times, Russian president Putin is known to speak excellent English but not in public – because he lets his economic weight speak for him.

For Gramsci, “A democratic state is not the product of a kind heart or liberal education; it is the necessity of life for large scale production, for busy exchange, for the concentration of population in modern capitalistic cities.” Language facilitates this exchange, as Lenin alluded. Engels revealed the possibility of one or two languages maintaining their hegemony and dominance in the world. English became one, and Mandarin is likely to replace it gradually. For now, English as medium of expression has become the lingua franca and the US dollar its economic and military arm. That’s why it’s a second language for most of the European countries, China, and the Subcontinent. At the international level, even the linguistically proud Arabs express themselves not in Arabic but in English.

“If you have tears,” Shakespeare says, “prepare to shed them now” – or perhaps to laugh spared from the miseries of life. After ruling Pakistan for the last 35 years, with some interruptions, the Sharif family is still unable to master the one language that matters – the language of decency, sovereignty, and justice. Any fifth-grade Australian child could deliver a cleaner sentence than a premier mouthing half-truths written by invisible advisers – some of whom, like apparitions, appeared out of the thin air in the UN, causing embarrassment to the government.

When Shahbaz pointed and gestured towards Trump, the act read as abject subordination – an intimate public display of fealty. It was the story of a premier currying favour with a narcissistic president beholden to Miriam Adelson – an American more loyal to Israel than to the US – as admitted by Trump. Currying favour is an art – though an affirmative art – perfected by the Sharif family.

“The rulers of the world are losing their metaphysical features” – the Shahbaz family had none. “Their appearance,” Marcuse says, “on television, at press conferences, in parliament, and at public hearings is hardly suitable for drama beyond that of the advertisement, while the consequences of their actions surpass the scope of the drama.”

The writer is an Australian-based academic and has authored books on socialism and history. His Latest Work: God’s Republic: Making & Unmaking of Israel & Pakistan is available in Pakistan & on Amazon.com. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com