To remember Deir Yassin is to remember the broken body of Palestinian history. It is an act of reconstituting an identity that has been fractured and dismembered by force and violence. That is why the commemoration of the massacre at Deir Yassin is so important, up till this day.

The guest speaker at the Deir Yassin commemoration at the PWTC this Sunday is none other than Israel Shamir.

Shamir is perhaps one of the most important figures in the present conflict taking place between Israel and Palestine.

As a Jew who has gone against the grain of public opinion in Israel and who has fought for a truthful and comprehensive account of his country's own history  one that takes into account Israel's role in the systematic obliteration and erasure of Palestinian history  he has risked not only his career but also his life in the pursuit of the truth.

Till today, he remains as one of the few intellectual figures in Israel who has had the courage to ask his fellow countrymen to take into account the plight of the Palestinians whose land they now occupy.

A committed democrat and peace activist, Shamir has struggled for reconciliation between the two sides in the conflict and has tried to disabuse his fellow Israelis about the myth of 'Jewish innocence'.

His work has been directed towards uncovering the webs of conceit and deception that have allowed successive Israeli governments to turn a blind eye to the recent past, while focusing only on the collective sufferings of the Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

'If the Jews of today can remember the sufferings of the generations of the past, why can they not understand the suffering of others in the present?' has been the question in much of his work.

The fact that Shamir has been invited to Malaysia today is of crucial importance. Coming at a time when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been reduced to a simplistic clash between religions, his very presence in Malaysia reminds us of the fact that the Jewish people are not a monolithic bloc.

Contrary to the claims of some hardcore anti-Israelis, not all Jews are anti-Arab or anti-Islam per se .

One factor that has been left out of the equation altogether is the simple fact that the brutal policies of the Israeli state has been attacked by some of the most prominent and outspoken Jews in the world: Norman Finklestein, for instance, has attacked what he calls the 'Holocaust industry' in the United States and Western Europe; Noam Chomsky has been at the forefront of criticising the double-standards and hypocrisy of the American government whose support of democracy and human rights has often stopped short at the borders of the Arab world.

Inclusive dream

Shamir's presence in Malaysia reminds us of some vital points that should never be forgotten:

Firstly, the struggle of the Palestinian people began as a struggle for national self-determination and sovereignty. The dream of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was an inclusive one that had space for everybody. It was the dream of reconstituting a Palestinian state that was democratic and multicultural; one that gave equal rights and representation to all cultural and religious groups- Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Shamir's support for such a democratic multicultural state captures the values and spirit of that movement for universal justice.

Secondly, the very presence of someone like Israel Shamir should convince Muslims that there is a desperate need to form instrumental coalitions with progressive democratic forces the world over in order to universalise the plight of Muslims that has, so far, been thought of in particularist terms.

Rather than waste our time forming alliances with crackpots and hoodlums like neo-Nazis and fascists who happen to hate Israel just because they happen to hate Jews, Muslim activists, organisations and governments need to understand the necessity to form ethical alliances that transcend the immediate needs of realpolitik only.

And thirdly, the work of individuals like Israel Shamir should teach us all the importance of the recovery of history in the broadest, most comprehensive and inclusive sense.

Shamir's insistence that his people should recognise and accept the truths of the past is a universal message that has relevance to us all. For those who have dedicated their time and work towards the recovery of the past, there is no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' history.

Historical facts remain facts, however problematic and difficult they may be to accept. Failure to do so does not deny the past  it merely robs us of our anchors to the present.

Shamir's insistence on reminding his readers of his country's complicated and painful past is a labour that seeks to reconstitute the identity of present-day Israel and Palestine. It strikes at the very existential being of Israel and Israelis themselves; it reminds them of the fact that their land once belonged to others; that the soil upon which they have built their state had been prepared by the labour of others; that their very existence is predicated on the erasure of the Other.

This is more than a problem of politics  it strikes at the very core of modern identity itself, based as it is on a dialectical understanding who we are and who is the Other. Thus it reminds us of the fact that we all carry the past in us, buried in our language, culture and history.

This Other still needs to be recognised and accepted: If being a Palestinian means being the uprooted and homeless Other that continually seeks a voice and who reminds us of our ethical obligation to recognise the Other, then there is, in a sense, the Palestinian in all of us.

Remembering Deir Yassin (Part 1)

DR FARISH A NOOR is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist. The Other Malaysia' tries to unearth aspects of Malaysia's history and culture that have been erased or relegated to the margins in order to remind us that there remains another Malaysia that is often forgotten.

The commemoration of the Deir Yassin massacre will be held at 10.00am on Sunday April 7 at the Dewan Tun Dr Ismail at the Putra World Trade Centre. Attendance is free. Those interested can contact the organisers on (03) 4252 8699.