54 Tllt-I ylK STIO N OK PAI.ESTISK freedom from exile and dispossession, freedom from the cultural and psychological ravages o f historical marginality. and freedom also from inhuman attitudes and practices toward the oppressing Israel. How docs one think through the present obstacles to these long-range goals? The first, perhaps very small, step is an attempt at under­ standing. I said above that Zionism has been studied and discussed as if it concerned Jews only, whereas it has been the Palestinian who has borne the brunt of Zionism 's extraordi­ nary human cost, a cost not only large, but unacknowledged. Therefore it behooves one now to try to come to terms with Zionism as a theory, ideology, program o f historico-political action with definite conscqucnces for Palestinian A rabs, as well as for Israeli and other Jews. Oncc that reality is admitted into debate and rational understanding, then we can begin to understand also what enlivens Arab life. In other words, my aim here will be to open the discussion of the question of Palestine to a m uch-denied, much-suppressed reality— that of the Palestinian A rabs, o f whom I myself am one. A s first steps go, this is perhaps not as modest and academic as it may initially seem. The premise o f my discussion will be that as much as in Palestine itself as in debate about Palestine, no serious attention has been paid to the full human reality of the Palestinian A rab as a citizen with human rights, someone who is not m erely a symbol o f the intractable, anti-Semitic terroristic refugee. Providentially, how ever, there has been no previous occasion when such a discussion could have been fruitful, let alone possible. But with a conciliatory mood appearing intermittently to prevail— although more war and more senseless talk about a “ peace process" are equally real now— -the necessity for a widespread grasp o f the issues seems imperative. In the pages that follow I propose a two-part attempt at com prehension: first, in Chapter T w o. a considera­ tion o f Zionism as it has affected the Palestinian A rab who was not its bcncficiary but its victim; then, in Chapter Three, a descriptive analysis of modern Palestinian experience, includ­ ing the contem porary actuality o f corporate Palestinian life.