People ask me all the time what it's like to be Palestinian. Its as if we are an experience all our own, outside humanity itself and I suppose we are outsiders to a certain extent. The question itself doesn't offend me because it's intended as a bridge to understanding usually.
I can't explain what its like to be Palestinian in Occupied Palestine. I hardly remember that, but I can tell what its like to be Palestinian in Exile. Yet, something in me won't allow this to be the bigger picture. There are others who suffer so much more than me outside Palestine.
The other day, I was at an Arabic grocery store with an American friend. I needed lamb and she wanted to explore what she considers exotic fare. I asked the clerk for the best lamb, all the while noticing how knowledgeable he was about the cuts of meat and how skilled a butcher he actually was. I was aware that he was very shy and further, not very old, perhaps 16.
I struck up a conversation and found out that he too was Palestinian, as I had suspected. He had just arrived a few months before with his younger brother who stood quietly to the side and blushing every time I spoke to him. They had left their parents and siblings behind and were wards of their uncle now.
Since they hailed from my home town we spent time trying to determine if we were related or knew anybody in common. Failing that connection, we tried local ones and found that my great uncle is a freind of the family. Palestinians in the states generally have to know something about you and if we connect with family, that is the ideal but if we don't, then we continue on until we find a sense of belonging to each other somehow, some way. And when we do find that connection we hold each other closely and forever. Diaspora.
My friend, when finding out that the boys were recently arrived congratulated them! She said, "That is good, you are better off here.", meaning well. The boy smiled and nodded politely. I told her, "It's good yes, they are safer here, but its bad because they can never go back to live and they left their entire identities behind." The boy nodded again in agreement but this time, he had sorrow in his beautiful eyes. "Do you not miss it?" he asked.
The sadness overwhelmed me because I understood that it was more than being homesick, it was more than missing the people he loved so much. It was the fact that he and his brother, as young as they are, had taken a step in which there was no turning back and they took that step as if they were adults, but prematurely. They are 15 and 17 respectively. Once in diaspora, always in diaspora as long as there is no Right to Return. Even these children understand this much. But I still had to answer his question.
Its rather hard to say after 40 years that I too can miss my country, but I do. Yet, because I don't live in fear, I don't see the atrocities first hand and if I were to be victimized, I can fight back without fear of retribution. I can achieve justice, its my inalienable right, one that I am free to execute. Further, I came with my parents and because of that, I didn't have to prematurely learn a skill to support myself. I was able to concentrate on studying, not survival. I was very young and had time to adjust at home before being thrown into a school (the boys begged me to find them friends their age who understood what they were going through). While I struggle with survivor guilt, I don't dare claim to be suffering in comparison.
I therefore told the boy, "I have no right to miss it in the same way you do but I do miss it and no matter where I am in the world, no matter what passport I carry, I am always first and foremost, Palestinian. You will never stop missing your family and you will always want to touch the land of your childhood memories with your bare hands, but that also means you will never forget who you are and if you don't forget, you won't abandon our people."
For a fleeting moment, his smile partnered with the sorrow in his eyes.
|
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?x...
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?x...
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=370...
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11056.sht...
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=370...
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
fikkrya 29p · 804 weeks ago
I didn't get a message. Did you send to the email? I just looked, nothing there.
Just want to remind everybody, the time difference is going to mess me up so if you are not stateside, you might have to wait until the next day for any response from me. I promise though, that I'll be diligent in responding. Thanks.
I4P 42p · 804 weeks ago
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
On the other hand.....i will like to ask you your opinion about this:
I dont realy want to write about this because i dont want in any case that this happens but i would realy like to hear what you think about this:If we look objective,the situation with aqsa mosque is not good,the israelis are diging more and more tunels under the mosque and already many holes and cracks can be seen on the mosque.What is more frightening is the fact that nobody talks much about that.That fact in my mind points me to the situation that arabs dont care what will happen to the mosque and that aqsa will colaspe in the future,and nobody from outside would give a damm.Although we see that woirld powers say in their pathetic speaches that east jerusalem will be a capital for the palestine state in the future,the reality on the ground shows us that the hypocrite world powers will in the end change their policy and say in the future that east jerusalem will be for the israelis.I think that only things that dont alow that scenario to happen is the mosque.If mosque falls,i fear that the story about east jerusalem is over,and with her many setlements near also.
SO MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS:Do you think that if aqsa mosque colapse that the story of the east jerusalem is over and that it will become undivided capital of zionist entity and that the evil will win in the end?
Please if you have time,i would like to hear you opionion.
stay good Fikkrya!:)
fikkrya 29p · 804 weeks ago
Unfortunately, I cannot predict what will happen in the end.
Its a deeper issue than a simple response to a comment could allow and unfortunately, I have to run off to work........thanks for your support though.
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
fikkrya 29p · 804 weeks ago
I am still learning how to use the new comments program so bare with me. I'll go look for your comment and try to figure it all out. Be patient.
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
see yaa.
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
I4P 42p · 804 weeks ago
cheers,
irish4palestine
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
I4P 42p · 804 weeks ago
my suggestion is to slow down on posting lots of comments in only a short time, spread them out over time. and shorten the length.
I installed this because I don't have time to be online often enough to approve comments from people who comment regularly on the blog.
so most of your comments will go through easily without me having to do anything. The ones that and up in moderation will jstu be stuck there until I am online to approve them. this is the best I can do
SaladinQB 58p · 804 weeks ago
Yes you are right.I make a mistake because i always send few coments in a short period of time.Now because i know how the program works i will not post many coments in the same time.I just needed to know how the sistem works to adapt easily,because its litle difernet than before.But again i think this is much better and that you did a good decision to instal this program:)
I4P 42p · 804 weeks ago
"Since they hailed from my home town we spent time trying to determine if we were related or knew anybody in common. Failing that connection, we tried local ones and found that my great uncle is a freind of the family. if we don't, then we continue on until we find a sense of belonging to each other somehow, some way."
You could have been talking about the Irish here as well. We do this very same thing, we do it in America, and we even do it here in Ireland. I always thought it was an "Irish" thing. I can understand it in a foreign country, but here in Ireland, if people are at some event, or meet at someones home for a night, the first thing is where do you come from, then once you know the surname that gets it all going until some sort of connection is found, be it a town or family connection. I am happy to see we have this in common with Palestinians as well.
fikkrya 29p · 804 weeks ago