As everyone was stuck either to a TV screen or their computer watching news about the US election, I chose to watch the “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” comedy show. This episode was not about the election, it was about the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank. What really affected me was a short video of the mayor of Hebron who refused to engage with an Israeli counterpart. He said he will only engage when the Israelis treat Palestinians as equals, not as slaves. He added that dignity is nonnegotiable He is right. Dignity is nonnegotiable and, as long as Israel tries to subjugate the Palestinians as well as the Lebanese, it will face resistance. Israel is refusing to give Palestinians statehood and, instead, several leading figures have suggested giving them economic incentives like the ill-advised “deal of the century.” What Israel’s supporters do not grasp is that dignity is a primal need. There is no way that the Palestinians will exchange it for anything else. There is no way that they can live with dignity while under Israeli occupation. No one lives in dignity under occupation. This is why the more they feel humiliated by occupation, the more they strike, regardless of the medium; whether that is Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization or any other group. The need for dignity creates these organizations. When people look at Hamas or Hezbollah as the main problem, it is a shallow analysis. They might be a problem, but more importantly they are a problem created by a bigger problem: the grievances caused by the feeling of being humiliated. There is no way that they can live with dignity while under Israeli occupation. No one lives in dignity under occupation Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib A lady from the south of Lebanon I met last week told me that her house had been reduced to ashes by Israeli bombardments. Her family barely escaped the Israeli raid, otherwise they would have shared the fate of the house. She told me that, for her people, Hezbollah is a phase. Before Hezbollah, there was the Lebanese National Movement (Al-Harakat Al-Wataniyya), the Lebanese National Resistance Front (Jammoul), the communists, etc. The resistance has manifested itself in many different shapes, Islamic as well as secular, national and pan-Arab. However, she told me that the common denominator is the fact that the people of the south hold on to their dignity. Again, because dignity is nonnegotiable. Israel thought that, by humiliating people by inflicting casualties and pain on them, it can pacify them. Israel is wrong The lady also told me that the reason Israel never built settlements in south Lebanon was because they were never secure. They never felt confident enough to bring their families to live there. The soldiers lived in insecurity in south Lebanon. Ultimately, the Israelis had to leave. She told me that many members of her family had been killed by Israel over the decades. For her, they died so that she can live with dignity. She added it is not true that Israel has no ambitions in south Lebanon. It is Galilee, which is part of what they call “Greater Israel.” She went on: “You think they don’t want the south? They do, but we did not let them because our land is more than the soil in which we plant olive trees, it is our dignity.” Israel cannot be victorious unless the Palestinians admit defeat — and this is something that will never happen Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib Israel does not understand that the crueler it is, the more it nurtures the resistance. Even if Hezbollah and Hamas disappear, other movements will take their place. Other movements that will probably be more violent and more organized. Other movements that will learn from their predecessors’ mistakes and avoid repeating them. Analysts see the future as bleak for Gaza and south Lebanon, but it is bleaker for Israel. This is because Israel refuses to understand that dignity is nonnegotiable. Israel might think it has defeated the Palestinians. However, it cannot be victorious unless the Palestinians admit defeat — and this is something that will never happen. Israel does not realize that the West is starting to notice Palestinians and their need for dignity. Hence the John Oliver program I watched, which is a mainstream show. Israel has not noticed that the world has changed. The Palestinian narrative is now being heard. Israel can no longer carry out atrocities against the Palestinians and get away with it. On the one hand, Palestinians are tenacious people who will not give up on their dignity. And on the other, they have the West slowly freeing itself from feelings of guilt and starting to see what Israel truly is. This is a bad combination for Israel. The problem is that Israel is living in the moment and not seeing the future or learning from the past. If Israel were to look to the past, it would realize that subjugating Palestinians and humiliating them does not make them weaker. On the contrary, it makes them more determined to fight back. If it was to think of the future, it should imagine what future resistance will look like. If it understood the past and properly projected the future, Israel would come to know that dignity is nonnegotiable. Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.