I got email from an American woman who lives in California, which said “please Kawther, know that there are many Jewish people in the U.S who feel this way. Salam, Noelle.”. She meant the gloomy sadness in the heart and memory of each Palestinian since the Nakba, and the tragedies since. The woman attached a link to an article entitled “Mourning the Jewish New Year,” written by Marc H. Ellis who is a university professor of Jewish Studies.
The writer said: I am a Jew. And I say: I am a Palestinian. Here’s what I want to say:
I don’t want you to mourn here, not even a funeral to carry my dark memories on my shoulders and walk with a buried head in the mud. We all have heard enough political speeches, we have read many articles about the Nakba, we drank lying promises, we are fed up with the news and commentaries. We all the victim of political greediness, we all have suffered from the repression and displacement. We – the Palestinians – have died a thousand times to be born again.
Yes, I don’t want to mourn, and I don’t want to rend my garments due to the absurdities of history, and due to this farce, which is not over yet. Mourning will not kill the grief, and rending the garments will not weave us a new dress for the happiness. Maybe little innocent dreams will defeat the bloody memories. Am I stupid?
Once, a Swedish friend who lives in America, wrote something to me after he got back from a visit to Tel Aviv: ” One day, you will see, you will come over to say hello to me, share an afuch at Cafe Asztor, where I will be enjoying the hot summer stickiness with my fellow Tal Avivi old boys gang, and I will come say hello to you in Gaza, gobble some bakhlava and feed the jellyfish, strolling along the beach. Deal?” After I read his words I felt mixed feelings, sadness and gladness, optimism and pessimism; but mostly delight. Will the day ever come to visit Tel Aviv?. In 21 years I haven’t seen a Palestinian city other than Gaza, never tread on Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Beer-Sheva … I haven’t even seen the capital, Jerusalem. Isn’t that ironic!
My friend can visit Tel Aviv, whatever time he wants, and can visit Jerusalem as well, while I spend most of my life in the one Palestinian city, Gaza! Would I beg you, Israel?! — Allow me to visit the village where you killed my family there in 1948? The village where you destroyed our homes and our hearts, which was then turned into a nature reserve. Is it impossible to visit it?
If a war will bring me back to my homeland, will make my dreams true, what is the good in this if you will lose your loved ones? Would I return to my home without my family? When will the time come for us to take back our freedom without needing a war? Or rather, when will the world stop wars?
These days, Jews celebrate their new year. Celebrate, please, dance over our dead bodies every new year, because every year the dead bodies of innocent people will bloom peace and love. Whether you like it or not.
Now I must to thank that America woman, who made my day, and made me feel good about the hope of the world’s solidarity with the Palestinians’ grief. Thank you, dear Noelle.
Kawther AbuHani is a writer and journalist in Gaza. She blogs at thisgaza.blogspot.com.
In 1988, there was a celebration of Israel’s 40th birthday. In Boston, a local TV station had a program on it and, in a 30-second-or-so slice taken from a 1-hour interview with my wife, a Palestinian-American, asked her if she could ever celebrate Israel’s birthday. She thought a bit and then said, “Yes, I could, but only after we Palestinians have our own state.” A week or so later, we were in Brookline, buying bagels in a Jewish-run store and the young lady behind the cash-register said to my wife, “I saw you on TV, You were wonderful.”
The Jews in Tel Aviv do not listen to their hearts, these days, but to their fear (much pumped-up by the government) and to their land-hunger and sense of entitlement (to all of Palestine).
My wife is no longer with us. I doubt that I will live to witness the birth of a Palestinian state free of occupation. But I hope that there will be Israelis who will celebrate that birth and Palestinians able, then, at long last, to celebrate Israel’s birth. for both “sides” will understand by then what it means to long for the birth of their nation, and will understand what it meant to the “other”.
Very Moving. I am afraid we are doomed to live this tragedy for the rest of our lives, or at least until the day comes when Israel, drunk with its power and blind with its self fulfilment, picks on somebody stronger and pays the price. Only when Israel is humbled will its people remember their past and finally live their future.
Knowing he wanted to become a rabbi (in the US), as an undergraduate Mark Ellis went to black colleges to learn how other Americans experienced their religion.
‘eee’ represents they type of thinking that if followed will eventually lead to an apocalypse for the Zionist state of Israel. In time, the world populace will see how innately cruel is this Zionist colonial movement, the abrogation of any compassion/responsibility for the focible removal of the 800,000 Palestinians from their homes, the on-going ethnic cleansing, and the dispicable insincerity in their “desire for peace’ while continuing to build settlements. Israel is tainting Judaism beyond redemption.
That would be your reaction eee. That’s the problem with u eee (and your ilk), you think you’re perfect. You think Israel and zionism are perfect. Well in case you been living under a rock, or in your case intentionally ignoring reality, u would realize the whole world KNOWS you and Israel are not perfect.
And your childish “if u don’t like it, screw you” mentality achieves nothing but to further reinforce Israel’s flaws. ANALYZE YOUR LIFE!!