During the Vietnam war, when public outrage against the United States was at ample yet ignored, Jean-Paul Sartre, the French writer and philosopher, and Bertrand Russel the British writer and philosopher and a few others decided to organize a mock trial for the United States' crimes in Vietnam. As I recall, Bertrand Russel was the prosecutor, Jean-Paul Sartre was the judge, and there were a few other Western intellectuals. They could not find anywhere to hold this trial. Western countries, including their own countries of France and the UK, were implicated in the crimes of the US. So holding such a trial in those countries was meaningless. It could not be held in communist countries either, as it would be tainted a communist effort and these people were against Marxism. There was not a free place in the world to hold this trial. So it was held on a rented ship over high seas. When a group of intellectuals wanted to protest against blatant crimes committed by the US in Vietnam, they would either take to the streets, like what happens today, when there is a conference on globalization (globalization under the leadership of the US), there are street protests with a number of protesters and police presence. But these protests are just a means of protesting, and are of little importance and influence; or if they wanted to create a bigger impact, there was no place in the world they could rely upon. So they chose a ship and went to the high seas, with no connection to any people and no national bonds. In such a world, where there was no place or space to talk about serious matters—in a country, not on a secluded place like a ship or a limited place like a football pitch—in one of the most strategic regions in world geopolitics, the middle east, a nation of tens of millions took to the fronts with an extraordinary motivation and protested, not just against the United States and its allies and their imperialistic plans, but also against the Soviets who were at the opposing end in front of the US.
November 3, 2001
Sartre supported nations against their colonizers
During a period of colonization, Western intellectuals voiced support for the people of the Western colonies. For example, Cuba was colonized by Spain and its wealth, Cuban sugar, was exploited. Jean-Paul Sartre supported the people of Cuba, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara against the colonizers and wrote the book "Hurricane over sugar".
In other words, in a period of time, Western intellectuals were fighting against their own governments for the oppressed people.
May 12, 1998
When Jean-Paul Sartre was deceived into writing "A homeless nation, a land without its people"
The Israelis' extortive domination on Palestinians had three main dimensions: The first dimension was the Israelis' brutality towards Arabs; they treated the original owners of the land with a great deal of cruelty and brutality. Indeed, there was no trace of leniency.
The second dimension consisted of distorting global public opinion. Their lies to the global community are truly bewildering. They indeed spread a great deal of false news, both before and after their occupation, through the Zionist media which was then under the rule of Jews. Such false pieces of news were constantly spread, and it was due to these very lies that some of their capitalists were sued. Many believed their lies. They even deceived the French social philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, whom I once used to admire in my youth.
Jean-Paul Sartre published a book which I read 30 years ago. There it was written: "A homeless nation, a land without its people." This means Jews were a nation with no land; they came to Palestine which was a land with no people! What does this mean when they say there were no residents? There was a whole nation working there. There is ample evidence to support this. One of these foreign authors once said: "Across the whole land of Palestine, wheat fields were like a green sea that spread to the horizon." What does "A land with no people" mean? Israelis were trying to make the world believe that Palestine was abandoned land, and it was them who made the country prosperous and habitable: an instance of deceiving public opinion.
Israelis have always tried to depict themselves as innocent people. Even today this is a trend that they are pursuing. In some American magazines like "Time" and "Newsweek" -- which I sometimes read -- should the slightest mishap occur to some Jewish family, every detail, including the picture and the age of those who have suffered, is reported and the innocence of their people is exaggerated. Conversely, thousands of such instances of cruelty and brutality do occur against all Palestinians -- their youth, their children, their women, and their families -- both in the occupied lands of Palestine as well as in Lebanon, but they are never reflected [in the media].
The third dimension is that of their conspiracies or to use their own terminology "lobbies". Israelis hold several meetings with various governments, characters, intellectuals, politicians, authors, and poets with intentions of conspiracy in mind. There have so far been three main aspects to their actions; it was very much due to these factors that they managed to occupy the country.
December 18, 1999
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