Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday marked what would have been the 96th birthday of Alija Izetbegovic, who served as the independent country’s first president.
Izetbegovic was a pivotal figure in the troubled history of the Balkans region in Europe.
The politician, writer, and lawyer, who came to international prominence during the country’s bitter 1992-1995 war, is remembered with prayers every year on his birthday at Kovaci Martyrdom in the capital of Sarajevo.
Palestinian political analyst Sari Orabi believes there are parallels between the Palestinian and Bosnian struggles.
There was a liberal Bosnian project after the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Serb rejection of Bosnia's independence. And the Palestinians have a similar project that is being blocked by several Arab and global parties.
The two cases are similar to the existence of an extermination project and the negation of a political presence, which, as Orabi put it, is universally overlooked.
“Both countries are exposed to regular wars against the roots of their original identity,” said Orabi.
The character of Alija Izetbegovic is a combination of many aspects that are supposed to be found in the personality of any leader of a nation fighting for liberation from occupation, he said.
“I think the most important aspect of Izetbegovic’s personality is the moral aspect. This was evident in his leadership of the Bosnian liberation project as a project of the entire Bosnian nation, not a personal project,” said Orabi.
He believes that contemporary Palestinian political leaders are experiencing a moral crisis that is reflected in political performance. This can be seen in the unclear political rhetoric of Palestinian leadership which is still without a clear vision.
“Alija Izetbegovic knew what he wanted at the intellectual and political levels. He wanted to revive the Bosnian identity and save the Bosnian people within available possibilities of a small population in return for a very large amount of collusion against them,” said Orabi.
The Palestinian writer called for inspiration from the clarity of Izetbegovic's intellectual and political history by Palestinian political leadership to introduce a serious and well-defined liberation project.
“There is an old moral crisis in the Palestinian liberation movement. It is suffering from using it for personal interests, and this is not be found in Izetbicovic's personality,” said Orabi.
He sees the Palestinian cause lacking intellectual leadership that has three major components summarized in the moral personality, clear political vision, and intellectual thesis that provide Palestinians with a strategic vision for action in the liberation project./aa
