Palestinians are not terrorists, Trump. Our cause is a homeland that we demand or we die and we are excused!!

One of the ironies and ridiculous wonders of this time is that everyone who tries to defend his right to live in his homeland freely, without occupation, is demonized and branded as an extremist and terrorist!!

Every now and then, someone emerges who believes that every Palestinian falls within this category! We've heard it repeatedly from war criminal Netanyahu, President Trump, and key members of his government!

Are we Palestinians really terrorists?!

A question I asked myself, accusing my fate. I said I would present my biography and the challenges that surrounded us, and I would leave the judgment to those who believed that the war criminal Netanyahu and his allies in this unjust world have a debt.

I was born two years after the first Nakba in 1948. My family and I suffered greatly from the harshness and hardship of life in the refugee camps in the southern Gaza Strip. We relied on the food, drink, health, and education provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA was responsible for all the improvements and prosperity we have experienced, as this international organization helped us preserve our human dignity and enabled us to become among the most cultured and highly educated people in our nation.

The occupation after the 1967 defeat was a heavy burden on us, a shock we hadn't anticipated. While conditions remained difficult, the children of the first Nakba were growing into young adults.

Israel opened the door to these young men as cheap labor, and they flocked in search of a livelihood, some of them leaving school to earn a living and support their families.

Our lives gradually began to improve, and these young people, who had seen the land of their fathers and grandfathers and had taken action on it, now aspired to one day have a hand in liberating it. For them, life was no longer just about food and drink, but rather feelings, nostalgia, and national ambitions.

Two years after the 1967 defeat, I finished high school and traveled to Turkey to study at one of its universities. However, my family's financial means didn't allow me to continue for long, so I left Turkey to study in Egypt. After obtaining my university degree as an engineer, I went to work in the UAE. From there, I received a scholarship to America to complete my postgraduate studies. I spent nearly twenty years there, completing my master's and doctorate degrees, and then moved to work in Washington, D.C.

In Washington, where politics and the media are raging, the world has opened its doors to us, and many paths of awareness have been stimulated and matured, along with the knowledge and culture we have already gathered, as well as our understanding of the history of peoples and nations.

In fact, in Washington, D.C., we witnessed the faces and movements of many of the world's aggrieved, demonstrating and protesting the injustices inflicted on their countries and peoples. Their presence and human rights and humanitarian activities were met with positive response and support from politicians and media figures. Washington also seemed to be the capital of the movements of aggrieved people from all over the world, with demonstrations by such individuals and groups constantly taking place in front of the White House or in the courtyards of Congress buildings.

Amidst this vibrant scene of movements and media activity, I found myself engaging in it in support and solidarity with the people's right to freedom and independence. As a Palestinian with a cause, and a son of a people suffering under the bitterness of occupation, I found myself, along with other Palestinians and Muslims, mobilizing and raising our voices, demanding freedom and the end of the occupation.

In fact, during my graduate studies at the University of Colorado and Columbia University, I encountered many Americans, especially college students and academics, who showed compassion and offered a helping hand to those who were oppressed and had their grievances addressed.

Even before coming to work in Washington, as a college student, I had stood in solidarity with my fellow American students in protesting against apartheid in South Africa, demonstrated against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and sympathized with the Irish protests in Belfast and their demands for independence from Britain.

With the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, there was a great deal of interaction with it, even here in Washington, and protests in solidarity with the Palestinians' right to freedom, independence, and an end to the occupation.

The Oslo Accords were a milestone on the road to independence and partial liberation from occupation. It's true that some had reservations about them, but not everyone supported them. They viewed them as a mere security agreement that would not resolve the core issue. At the time, we understood the opposition of many Palestinians, but ultimately, we viewed them as a step toward a solution.

As a person of social, national and religious standing, I was inclined towards the solution of (one-state-binationalism) as a mechanism to end the conflict that has been rooted in its historical, political, religious, legal and ethnic dimensions for nearly a hundred years.

In fact, I was a supporter of the one-state solution, for reasons related to the history of this region of the world, where the three divine messages were: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. These religions coexisted in various forms for thousands of years. I was convinced that true peace could be achieved, and its foundations could be built on a formula for a federal state in this holy land, where Jews and Palestinian Arabs, both Muslims and Christians, could coexist. Each party, through this sharing and openness, could fulfill its spiritual, religious, and political needs, and everyone in this blessed land could enjoy stability and security, with prosperity and peace prevailing throughout its lands.

Unfortunately, the extremists of the Zionist right succeeded in killing Yitzhak Rabin, the true partner for peace with the historic leader, the martyr Yasser Arafat (may God have mercy on him). From among these extremist Zionists came those who brought us back to the square of hostility, hatred, and revenge against the advocates of the zero-sum equation in Israel, such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and before them Meir Kahane.

Of course, in light of this Israeli denial and extremism, our people had the right to struggle to regain their freedom after Oslo failed to achieve the minimum Palestinian aspirations, which was to obtain a state on the June 4, 1967 borders.

In the midst of all these forms of injustice that befell our people, and the decline of hopes for the fulfillment of our dreams of having a homeland in which we would enjoy freedom and stability, with the state of impotence of the Authority and its failure to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinians, as a result of Israel’s denial and Netanyahu’s reversal of everything that was stated in the Oslo Accords, it was natural for popular movements and party organizations to emerge that viewed resistance as a path and a legitimate right for our people on the path to freedom and independence.

In this state of oppression, injustice, arrogance, and Israeli supremacy, it was only natural for people to react by rallying behind the resistance adopted by Hamas and other Palestinian factions as an approach to struggle for our people's right to an independent state. This was especially true after the West's disregard for the plots of war criminal Netanyahu and the extreme right in Israel. This, in fact, is what led to the escalation of violence for the purpose of self-defense and to pressure the occupying state to halt the ongoing aggression of settlers and extremists against Al-Aqsa Mosque and our people in the West Bank. Historically, people will never accept living under the oppression of occupation.

We have learned from the struggles of the Vietnamese people, the South African people, and even the Afghan jihad, that resistance, whether peaceful or violent, is bound to bear fruit, even if it takes years of struggle.

During our stay in America, we read about its history of struggle and how it gained its independence from Britain, which would not have happened without the sacrifices and blood shed during the American people's resistance to the British forces there.

It is worth noting that when the events of September 11, 2001, occurred, my family and I were living in Washington, D.C. We were shocked and stunned by the terrorist attack. Along with other Islamic figures, organizations, and associations, we immediately condemned the act. We considered such behavior unacceptable in Islam and unacceptable in any religious context we believe in. We issued numerous statements denouncing, condemning, and denouncing such terrorist operations in the name of religion. Despite this, the American arena was not free of targeted campaigns against American Muslims, which sparked panic and fear among them, causing many of them to leave for Canada or return to their countries of origin. Unfortunately, manifestations of Islamophobia became widespread, fueled and inflamed through the media by extremist Jewish groups and Zionist institutions in America.

Returning to the Palestinian arena, which witnessed fair elections in January 2006, and Hamas won the majority, I saw - as a political figure - that there was a real desire and orientation within the movement and the government to open up and engage with the West, and recommendations for the necessity of reducing the intensity of the confrontation with the occupation. At the time, I was a political advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (may God have mercy on him), and from that official position I moved to visit many European countries, and we had a good share in what Switzerland presented as a vision for a political solution that would end the chronic conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis in what was called (the Geneva-Ahmed Yousef Document), which was met with European approval, but Israel rejected it and continued with its policies that reject every idea of peace and the realization of the Palestinians’ dream of a free, independent state.

Netanyahu was never a partner for peace. Rather, he was a right-wing Zionist to the core, and he found in his alliance with Ben-Gvir and Smotrich the means to destroy all the understandings and opportunities for security and stability achieved by Oslo.

With the political and security horizons blocked and the foggy outlook swirling, mistakes made their way into the Palestinian political landscape. The rift between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and its government widened. This division played a role in the mistakes and transgressions that occurred, opening the door for Netanyahu to use them as pretexts to overthrow Oslo and work to nullify everything it entailed.

October 7 was a huge mistake that would not have happened if the Palestinians had been united under a single leadership framework.

The situation in the Gaza Strip was dominated by fears of an Israeli strike planned by the Netanyahu government and its allies from the religious Zionist right, in what was called the "decisive plan." The leaked plan stirred up a great deal of apprehension and panic among Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip.

October 7 was a miscalculation and a miscalculation, giving Netanyahu the pretext to wage a genocidal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Unfortunately, American complicity under President Biden's administration was extensive, contributing to the spread of the policy of killing, starvation, and siege.

All statements made during the Biden administration and currently under the Trump administration have all indicated that US policy remains biased and complicit in the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip, and that the forced displacement plan pursued by war criminal Netanyahu enjoys significant support and endorsement from President Trump. The tweets I sent out about deporting Palestinians to neighboring countries and the Gaza Riviera are behind the war criminal Netanyahu's continued plans to achieve this.

The truth that Netanyahu failed to cover with his sieve is that we are not terrorists, that we are an oppressed people, that our fundamental issue is with the Israeli occupation, that we have suffered because of it for decades, and that we, as a people, aspire to freedom and independence like the rest of the peoples of the world.

Therefore, we will not accept to be a burden on anyone. This blessed land is sacred to us, and we will not leave it as long as there is a pulse within us. Our steadfastness will remain the title of this desire to live and survive.

As a Palestinian thinker, university professor, and former politician, I hope that hatred and desires for revenge will not return among the peoples of the region, following the loss of trust in the international community and international legitimacy platforms, unfortunately fueled by this inhumane and immoral Western bias and complicity.

We truly hope that there will be room for forgiveness, tolerance, and the desire to live in peace in this world filled with all forms of racism and hostility.

With the demonstrations that spread to American universities, we were hopeful that this student awakening would push for balance in American politics. Unfortunately, however, we discovered that the Trump administration is denouncing academic freedoms and viewing them as anti-Semitic.

The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, and Dr. Badr Khan, an Indian Muslim who is married to my daughter, Mafaz, who holds American citizenship, and who works as a lecturer at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on the grounds of protesting the ongoing war of extermination in the Gaza Strip.

This behavior is reprehensible and unbecoming of America's image as an oasis of democracy, civil liberties, and academic freedoms, and one that shares economic ties with the countries of the Middle East and strategic interests that require these shared relations to be at their best, not in the context of antagonizing the peoples of the region and its intellectual and political elites.

The extent of the Palestinian injustice we are witnessing, and the Western and American complicity in the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, if it continues, will lead to the spread of hatred and hostility toward America and the West in general. If this continues to grow, it will not serve the interests of these countries or their relations with the peoples of the region in the future.

The aggressive religious tone we are witnessing from President Trump and members of his administration leads us to believe that someone is playing the religious card, as if someone is paving the way for the return of the Crusades!!

For our part, as the Palestinian people and a Muslim nation, we do not want religious wars to return. Historically, Palestine has been a land and homeland of peace, and the three heavenly religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have coexisted on its soil and holy sites. Tolerance, forgiveness, and acceptance of others have been the repository of stability and the master of judgment.

In short, we Palestinians are not terrorists, nor do we support terrorism. Rather, we are its greatest victims, and Netanyahu's brutal war on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank bears witness to that. We are a people like all other peoples of the earth who have been subjected to injustice and occupation throughout history. We demand a right to a homeland where we can live with dignity, or die and be excused.

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October 7 was a miscalculation and miscalculations, giving Netanyahu the pretext to wage a genocidal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.