Klaus Bung:
Enter Hamas
The Palestinians are not the first people who had to defend themselves against settler colonialists (1). The legend of William Tell tells the story of the fight of Swiss patriots against Austrian oppression. Peaceful resistance did not work. So, reluctantly, the Swiss took up arms, and William Tell, with his cross-bow, assassinated their main oppressor, Gessler, aka Netanyahu, triggering an intifada all over Switzerland. On 7 October 2024 (2), the ghost of a dead Hamas freedom fighter was seen on, and heard from, the Elsinore Minaret (3) of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem reciting a speech from Schiller's play "William Tell" in Arabic, at a volume that could have raised the dead, forty-thousand of them by then. It is reported that, all over Jerusalem, people from other nationalities, intruders, staunch admirers of the oppressors, heard the speech in their own languages, in Hebrew, German, English, French, Polish, Russian, Latin and in Esperanto, a veritable Pentecost (4) (aka Artificial Intelligence). They trembled and thought of the day of reckoning:
"Tuba mirum spargens sonum,
Per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum." (5)
"Though this be madness, yet there's justice in't." (6)
7 October 2023
Enter Hamas:
Israel has no right to exist.
The Palestinians have the right to defend themselves.
HAMAS:
Nein, eine Grenze hat Tyrannenmacht,
Wenn der Gedrückte nirgends Recht kann finden,
Wenn unerträglich wird die Last – greift er
Hinauf getrosten Mutes in den Himmel,
Und holt herunter seine ew'gen Rechte,
Die droben hangen unveräußerlich
Und unzerbrechlich wie die Sterne selbst –
Der alte Urstand der Natur kehrt wieder,
Wo Mensch dem Menschen gegenübersteht – (7)
Zum letzten Mittel, wenn kein andres mehr
Verfangen will, ist ihm das Schwert gegeben –
Der Güter höchstes dürfen wir verteid'gen
Gegen Gewalt – Wir stehn vor unser Land,
Wir stehn vor unsre Weiber, unsre Kinder!
(Friedrich Schiller, 1759-1805: Wilhelm Tell, II:2)
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Translation
HAMAS:
The might of tyrants has its limits:
When the oppressed fails to find justice,
When the burden becomes unbearable, his hand
Confidently reaches up to heaven,
And fetches his eternal rights,
Which reside there, unmoveable
And unbreakable like the stars.
The ancient state of nature then returns
Where men confront each other face to face.(7)
As a last resort, when nothing else
Will help, he may take up the sword.
We are entitled to defend the greatest treasure
'Gainst violence - to protect our country,
Protect our wives and our children.
(Translated by Klaus Bung)
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Footnotes
These footnotes are not intended for publication, but editors may publish all or some of them if they wish.
(1) Settler colonialism: see Sai Englert (2022): "Settler Colonialism - An Introduction." Pluto Press, London, 227 pp
(2) 7 October 2024: The anniversary of 7 October 2023, the day on which Hamas Freedom Fighters burst out of their Gaza concentration camp and tried to inflict maximum damage on the settlers (all of them, not only their military), who had been trying to deprive them of their land and their liberties since 1948 and longer. See:
- Ilan Pappé (2006): "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." Oneworld Publications, Oxford, 384 pp
- Nur Masalha (2014): "The Zionist Bible - Biblical Precedent, Colonialism and the Erasure of Memory." Routledge, London, 356 pp
The Jewish occupiers (settlers, colonists), aka "Israelis" (Misraelis), responded by intensifying their campaign of removing as many Palestinians as possible (not only members of Hamas) by killing or displacing them or harassing them and restricting their freedom of movement (aka ethnic cleansing).
(3) Elsinore Minaret: The Al-Aqsa mosque has four minarets. Calling one of them "Elsinore" is a reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet, which is set in a castle called Elsinore. At the beginning of the play, the ghost of the murdered king, Hamlet's father, stalks the battlements of Elsinore Castle. Hamlet was not a descendent of Noah's son Ham and not a relative of Hamas.
(4) Pentecost: A major Christian festival, the descent of the Holy Spirit, 50 days after Easter. The Bible (New Testament, Acts 2:1-12) reports that on that occasion, St Peter addressed a crowd of many nationalities, and all people present heard it in their own language.
(5) Tuba mirum:
"Tuba mirum spargens sonum,
Per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum."
A trumpet spreading a strange sound
through the graves in all lands
will force everybody to appear before the throne.
(translated by Klaus Bung)
From the medieval Sequence "Dies irae" (Day of wroth), which used to be sung at funerals and describes doomsday, the last day of the world, when all humans, living and dead, will be called by the sound of a trumpet to stand before the throne of God and answer for their deeds and misdeeds and be rewarded or punished accordingly.
(6) "Though this be madness, yet there's justice in't.":
The original line reads
"Though this be madness, yet there's method in't." (Hamlet II:2)
(7) In modern society, subject to the "rule of law", the law stands between the contesting parties and decides what is due to each of them. In the ancient state of nature, prior to the introduction of law, the contesting parties have to fight it out directly with the sword. This situation arises again if the oppressor does not abide by the rule of law.
(8) For more background of this story, see also:
Margaret C Ives: "In Tyrannos! Rebellion and Regicide in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell and József Katona's Báank Báan." German Life and Letters 30, no. 4 (1977): 269–82.
