“The usurping Zionist entity has registered one patent which is the ‘industry and practice of terror’ ”
In an interview with the President of the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) with Al-Quds Al-Arabi, he states that “Kuwait means a lot to me, since it was my launchpad into the real world”.
London- Interview conducted by Lina Abu Bakr
He was born in Jaffa on April 22, 1938, has Palestinian memories, and spent his childhood in Jaffa with his well-off family that owned a house which still stands. The house carries the name of its owners; , as a tattoo on a door, whose keys are still in the hands of its original owners, as evidence of the crime of forced transfer. He found himself along with his family in the middle of the sea, on cargo boats going towards remote banks that would not return them back till this day to the place of the first memory.
Starting from his memory as a child refugee in the town of Ghazziyeh, Lebanon, and becoming a towering figure of the world’s intellectuals, he has headed numerous international committees and councils, with the latest title being Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact Board in New York. He has acquired numerous honorary certificates and awards at the highest levels, such as the Decoration of the Republic of Tunisia, the Decoration of Independence of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur of France.
He owns various successful companies involved in the registration and protection of intellectual property rights.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh talks about the story of association with memory and all the challenges it brought on the road to success through a unique trip of steadfastness that consolidated his Palestinian identity and charged the determination and faith in the right of return and legitimacy of life for people. This people is one that the Zionist enterprise victimized with the greatest crime against humanity since the Nakba, which was represented by dispossessing six million Palestinians, among which are 4.5 million refugees registered with the UNRWA, thereby making them the largest refugee population worldwide.
Following is the interview.
How do you remember Jaffa? I’m talking about Jaffa where you were born and spent your childhood and the place which gathered loved ones. I’m talking about the part of the homeland that formed our entity, existence and identity, the homeland that we value more now that we have been separated from it and it has been taken from us. Tell me about the day of exodus. How did you pack your things? When did you expect to be back?
At the time, my mother took the key of the house with her on the basis that we would be back in a few days, as we were thinking that we would leave the immediate area but not the entire country. This is because our departure was motivated by the military activities going on. So we just wanted to leave to somewhere safer for the time being, and as such we didn’t carry anything with us because the idea of refuge wasn’t on our minds, and we didn’t think we’d be leaving as refugees. We found ourselves crammed on a port and people were pushed onto a cargo –and not a passenger – ship. I remember there were soldiers and we didn’t know where they were taking us on these boats.
Jaffa enjoyed a cultural and political awareness since it was the nucleus of journalistic activity during the British mandate which made it unique in revolutionary action, yet this didn’t prevent it from falling into the Zionist hands. What do you think Jaffa needed at the time?
Jaffa, as with all cities in Palestine, was a victim of the British mandate and colonial policy, and maybe Jaffa needed (to be in) a different time to be more invulnerable. As you know, the Arab region had just emerged from the Ottoman control that continued for centuries which had paralyzed civilization advancement and the adequate political awareness that would have been appropriate for that period. The alternative was that we had transferred into a phase of foreign dominance represented by the great British power that enabled the Jews to take over the land while also providing them with funds, weaponry, political cover and international legitimacy through the Balfour Declaration at the UN. This international conspiracy was drawn while the Palestinian was looking for rifles and bullets and selling the most precious items he has in order to obtain what allows him to directly confront the enemy and protect his homeland.
By nature, the Palestinian seeks stability and peace which is reflective of Palestinian societies at the time who were involved in agriculture, industry, education, trade and abundant ports’ activity witnessed by Jaffa and Haifa with neighboring countries. Maybe all this explains the rarity of weaponry among the citizens which allowed the conspiracy to be fulfilled.
Instinctive Awareness – the most important element of success
In the diaries of the Israeli Yousef Fais, the head of the lands directorate, he talks about the Israeli miracle in the forced evacuation of 15 thousand civilians, the destruction of villages and emptying cities of their inhabitants. This was also relayed in the book “The Palestinian Holocaust” by Dr. Nawwaf Al-Zaroo. So what Palestinian miracle surpasses this type of miracle?
The strength, insistence and iron-will determination that this people still arms itself with after the passing of all those years. We still haven’t melted away and haven’t lost our original identity. Also the Diaspora hasn’t affected us negatively or decreased our determination. As such, we continued with obtainment of our higher education degrees, built foundations, created and developed models of good societies throughout the world with intellectuals, innovators, scientists, businesspeople and economic experts, engineers, doctors and authors. We as Palestinians are renowned wherever we may be with innovation, commitment and integrity. As for the greater miracle, it is the instinctive awareness that is inherited by Palestinian generations, where others had gambled that the Palestinian cause would be forgotten. These generations crystallized a miraculous concept of Palestinian struggle throughout the ages, which has been fulfilled by a legendary equation of the Intifada children facing artillery and tanks. So what miracle can be greater than that?
On your website, you have some work for the late Naji Al-Ali. Did you meet him personally? How are you two alike?
Naji Al-Ali, may his soul rest in peace, has a special place in my heart. He was the voice of the nation and I used to meet with him in Kuwait always where my first endeavor was with my intellectual project. He was ever-present with his drawings and artistic masterpieces and these works spoke in the name of millions as he expressed the concerns and sufferings of the Arab citizen.
The last page of the newspaper was the first thing we’d start our mornings with, as we’d see what stories “Hanthala” would bring to us. When we’d talk about Palestine, we’d begin with the sea at Jaffa, then Haifa, Acre, Nazareth and the Galilee, then Gaza and the West Bank till we reach the eternal river. The dream of return would unite us as a legitimate right. We had faith that this usurping entity that lives among us as an alien must disappear. As you saw, the drawings he honored me with, I have included on my website, and they are the most precious pieces of heritage I have.
How did your life in the camps connect you to your Palestinian memory? Can you describe the misery of a refugee, his dreams, disappointments and will?
Actually I never lived in a refugee camp. After we immigrated to Lebanon, a Lebanese merchant who was a friend of my father had hosted us in the town of Ghazziyeh near Sidon and provided us with necessary support. Ghazziyeh, the south and all of Lebanon was a model for Arab hospitality and manners and was verification of Arab nationalism.
Naturally the way of life changed after the exodus, yet we were still much better off than those who lived in refugee camps that suffer from lack of services and appropriate infrastructure. There you’d see people gathered under difficult circumstances in tents that would be uprooted by winds, in addition to being flooded with water in the winter. They would lack the most basic life necessities, not to mention the economic circumstances for the heads of households, since there were no jobs available for them and they would wait along with their families till the end of the month to receive what they could from UNRWA (which was part of the international conspiracy) as far as flour, oil and other simple items are concerned.
I remember that my mother used to sew clothes and jackets for us from the blankets that UNRWA would distribute. Then we’d head out the mountain to pick wild thyme for our dinner. I also remember walking to school in Sidon daily for two hours, and then walking back to Ghazziyeh, and these four hours of walking every day was a blessing in the form of exercise, even though that blessing was forced on me so to speak due to the difficult conditions.
Today the refugees have overcome some of these difficulties. Because we are a people that does not know desperation, the camps transformed with time into population centers with a will that defeated the refuge, and organized life activities while not succumbing to a sense of bewilderment and dispossession. So life became organized and characterized with agriculture, trade, construction, education and various professions. Now you find the camp a focal point that releases leaders, intellectuals, poets and artists.
The camps are evidence of the crime of forced transfer which was first called for by Theodore Herzl the prophet of Zionism. How do we change the camps from a document of refuge to a document of return so to speak?
Firstly, the camp and its elements will remain a distinctive mark in the face of the world that attests to the criminality and historic injustice that befell the Palestinian people. The daily suffering of the camp’s inhabitants is a shameful indication of injustice for those who enabled Zionists to occupy the country. The camp’s people do not need much to remind them of their right to return, because every one of the camp’s members –whether the elderly, women or children- are steadfast about their return as an existential right. The gamble of Zionist leaders that time will allow the erasure of Palestinian memory has proven its failure before generations that have inherited the cause and hold onto it more strongly after every setback. I am a Palestinian and embrace my right and support my people’s insistence on its right of return –based on UN resolutions- and call for the creation of a Palestinian community on an Internet website for all those who hold onto the complete right of return with no compromise, conditions, alternative or diminishment of such right. With this, we can begin together to bring the Zionist occupation of Palestine to an end.
You left Ghazziyeh and Beirut after university and went to Kuwait. Did you feel that you were leaving Palestine again?
Kuwait is a country that means a lot to me, since it was a launchpad into the real world. And just as Ghazziyeh-Sidon embraced me as a refugee, Kuwait embraced me as a professional. I can honestly say that the patronage of this country and its leaders played a great role in the building and success of my organization, since it was launched in Kuwait in 1972. I’ll be honest that the trip to Kuwait at first in 1960 was quite difficult, since the means of comfort for a junior and beginning employee such as myself simply weren’t available. The most important item I’m referring to were air conditioners, and I didn’t have the financial ability to purchase one. So the temperatures would get extremely high, yet I would work very long hours in the office; sometimes up to 18 hours. This is the journey of hard beginnings.
In short, from the city of Kuwait the largest Arab professional and international organization was launched, founded by a Palestinian refugee, and is now the top firm worldwide in the field of Intellectual Property. Also in Kuwait we were able to change the leadership of the accounting profession in the Arab region to something with rich Arab experience. This is due to what the officials there afforded me in terms of support, trust and capabilities. So I would say that one of the constituents of the organization’s success is its Kuwaiti roots.
I know that you have projects to document heritage and history, so how do you protect the rights of geographical property represented in Palestine considering that country is an existential idea?
In confronting Zionist piracy, we need to withstand a lot in the area of documentation, resistance of changes to names and facts, and the protection of rights including geographical indications, utilizing all legal and media methods. The Zionist enemy surpasses the world in the piracy of real estate rights as with intellectual rights; it steals and monopolizes the identity of heritage. So for example, the traditional Palestinian dress that is sewn by our Palestinian mothers, is sold by Israelis under the name “Israeli dress” and is marketed in the USA and elsewhere based on this claim. Another example is the oranges of Jaffa that I used to eat and drink its juice as a child. It is exported as “Israeli oranges from Jaffa”. So for all the rights relating to Arab geographical aspects –and they are many- the Arab Society for Intellectual Property is working on the creation of a database that includes all these names and demands the respect of its ownership, by the international community.
The demographic danger was always one of the most significant challenges facing the enemy in the expansion of population control geographically so to speak. Maybe what the King document of 1976 called for, as far as the oppression of Palestinians are concerned contributed to fulfilling this goal. Now after the demographic equation has changed with 75.5% of the population being Jewish and 20.1% Arab, how do we continue to take on unequal conflicts?
The equation now is moving in the opposite direction slowly. Now leaders of parties and categories of the Zionist community admit that the dream of their entity is over. Neither settling inhabitants nor attracting settlers from across the world has helped in fixing the path of the demographic equation to the end, because what is exported to settlers on their way to the land of dreams shatters on the rock of reality. The land owners, the Palestinians, are regaining their right through holding onto a certain place and belonging to a real history that imposes its presence on a long age of unending struggle. So this project faces and overcomes all other schemes moving against it, because it is based on rights and truth; the continuous struggle for the right of return is the guarantee to equate the battle.
Serving the Palestinian cause through his work
How do your various ventures serve your Palestinian cause and your people?
Today, we are proud that we are the largest group of professional services. We carry a vision and mission and duties and responsibilities that we’ve dedicated our programs for, especially in the past few years, in order to build human capacities through training and qualification. I have deep faith that strengthening the Palestinian with scholarship and professional qualifications in addition to his awareness and faith in his cause and critical elements for steadfastness and proving one’s self. Therefore, the organization has taken the responsibility of qualifying thousands of accountants from the West Bank and Gaza, teaching them and granting them the Arab Certified Public Accountant (ACPA) certificate. I remember that during the battle of Jeningrad –as the late Abu Ammar used to call it- I wrote to him introducing an ACPA program to qualify one thousand Palestinians under occupation. You cannot imagine how confident I felt about the future when I received more than one hundred applications from Jenin while it was under fire. This is a people that cannot be defeated.
Also, our organization has worked with UNRWA to establish a community development center in the Gaza refugee camp near Jerash in Jordan. There the camp’s youth will be trained on various computer skills and will be offered the Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge IT Skills Certificate program. The objective is preparing them to enter the job market and take care of themselves and their families. We seek to expand this initiative to other camps, in addition to continuing our contribution of past years in the support of Palestine programs within the League of Arab States.
What patent does Israel have registered?
This usurping Zionist entity has one patent registered which is entitled “the industry and practice of terror”, with subtitles: assaulting others, oppression, killing innocent children, women, old people and civilians, land expropriation, uprooting trees, preventing 11 thousand families from their fathers and sons by illegally imprisoning them, and violating holy places and international laws.
When does Talal Abu-Ghazaleh feel homesick?
There is that feeling of homesickness that is inside of me and accompanies me like a shadow. And although I am the son of the great Arab nation that has embraced me, yet there is still a pain caused by longing to a stolen homeland that I miss, and miss smelling the oranges in its groves and enjoying its sea and the friendliness of its beaches. Despite all that I have achieved, my true feeling of estrangement is because of my distance from my home there in Jaffa, the house built by my father and which still has his name engraved on its stone. I miss the street named Abu-Ghazaleh in Jaffa and where childhood was spent, along with the rituals of Palestinian society and the social solidarity and richness. I still long for all this and for my roots and origin. Isn’t this feeling homesick and desolate?
What have you inherited from your father? What will you be leaving for your children from that?
I inherited his love for work and his commitment. He used to supervise all his businesses himself. He would wake up early and head to work, and used to say that “livelihoods are distributed before sunrise”. This wisdom is something I follow to this day, and many find it strange that I get to my office in any country before my employees do. I work late, and do not stop working during holidays. My father taught me the value of family connection and especially with regards to the Palestinians. He taught me to live seriously and work hard and stay true to my right of return.
What is your relationship with ‘time’? When has it been your ally, and when has it been your enemy?
My relation with time varies and it has a lot of challenge and love at the same time. I believe that every stage in a person’s life has its own special meaning and beauty, starting from childhood, going through youth and studying and work. Every phase has its joy and happiness. Since childhood, the ‘phobia’ of time has accompanied me as the most invaluable asset and precious of all treasures. My view towards it has matured as time has passed as it is the only thing that cannot be reproduced or re-made. So every moment that passes is gone forever. That is why time has been my friend and competitor as well which forced me to create a balance between accepting the passage of time and being happy with moving on to the next phase to enjoy something new. The highest authority is that of time since it determines our expiry date, which is why we must utilize it as much as possible.