Dheisheh Camp -- “It is illegal for a Palestinian to have a good mind,” Naji Owdah, a representative from Al-Feneiq Center, told our delegation. Al-Feneiq, which translates as “Phoenix,” is located in the Dheisheh Camp, just outside of Bethlehem. The camp was established in 1949 as a temporary site for the Palestinian families coming from one of the 46 villages that were destroyed by Israel. Today Dheisheh remains home to 12,000 individuals living on less than 1/2 km2. During our recent overnight stay, Owdah informed us that Al-Feneiq, which serves as one of the camp’s community centers, had been destroyed several times previously by the Israeli army. The Palestinians keep rebuilding the center, hence, its name.
During the evening presentation, which included a discussion with Suheir, his wife, Owdah referred to critical thinking several times, at one point stressing that “we [Palestinians] have no army, no guns. We have nothing but our minds.” I have heard discussion on critical and creative thinking several times during our journey to the Occupied West Bank, and it is a subject that we Indigenous Peoples within the geopolitical borders of the United States are concerned with as well. As a university faculty member working in the Indigenous and American Indian Studies discipline, I am interested in the ways that pro-Native academics are nourishing intelligent and ethical Native-oriented thinking among students and other colleagues. It is my hope that this current nourishing will contribute to the future work of sovereignty.
It is clear that that our respective and collective Nations (and descendents) are relying on our ability to shape and focus our resources—including our intellectual capabilities—to liberate our lands (i.e., sovereignty and self-determination). This involves long-term thinking, a strategy often referred to simply as “7-Generations” (recognition that our decisions involve the generations to come). Visiting Al-Feneiq reminds me that we Indigenous Peoples can contribute and volunteer our resources despite everything the United States continues to do to impede our current struggle for liberation.
For example, throughout conventional K-12 pedagogy, the U.S. discourages or prevents the fostering of our allegiance to our nations and tribes while it simultaneously encourages historical amnesia. The U.S. also encourages us to believe that we ought to live only in the Diaspora, or sites of relocations, away from our tribal homelands and communities. To circumvent this continued colonization, we take it upon ourselves to contribute to the flourishing of our communities and the stabilizing of our lands/territories, including the restoration of treaty making. All of this requires the ability to utilize a basic tool that we can all possess—our thinking.
Critical and creative thinking. We all possess it but it is not so simple or self-evident to use intelligently. There are many reasons why, including that in this time in our history, the United States attempts to undermine our struggle for self-determination by setting up mechanisms that encourage Indigenous Peoples, as one of my colleagues refers to it, to “outsource” our thinking to the United States. When we can no longer think for our benefit our tribes, but instead think for the benefit of the United States, this is colonization. Anytime we put the interests of the U.S. ahead of our respective nations and tribes, this is colonization. Anytime we work for non-native communities at the expense of our tribes and nations, this is colonization. Anytime we hesitate or refuse to contribute to the spiritual, cultural, economic, social, environmental, political, and intellectual well-being of our tribal communities, this is colonization. Anytime we make apologies for the U.S., this is colonization.
Owdah’s thoughts on critical and creative thinking, coming as they do from a life lived within Israel and U.S. sponsored genocide and occupation, reminds me that the fostering of Indigenous self-determination thinking is the responsibility of our communities. Our ability to think for ourselves and for our People (and never for the United States) is one of the sources of our right to live as Indigenous Peoples and Nations. When an Indigenous individual has a good mind, which means a sharp mind, a decolonized mind, a mind that works on behalf of the People, then such a mind might be considered a national security risk to the United States. It is the responsibility of Indigenous Nations to support such critically-conscious, pro-Native individuals.
For more information about the Dheisheh Refugee camp, see
http://www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net/dheisheh.htm
- June 2008
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