Stories from Palestine

After spending time offering facts about Palestine, it seems right that now what I want to share are first-person stories of Palestine. There are three I want to share, but first of all, remember poet Mourid Barghouti in I Saw Ramallah, who said:

“It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from “Secondly.” Yes, this is what Rabin did. He simply neglected to speak of what happened first. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the world will be turned upside-down. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the arrows of the Red Indians are the original criminals and the guns of the white men are entirely the victim. It is enough to start with “Secondly,” for the anger of the black man against the white to be barbarous. Start with “Secondly,” and Gandhi becomes responsible for the tragedies of the British. You only need to start your story with “Secondly,” and the burned Vietnamese will have wounded the humanity of the napalm, and Victor Jara’s songs will be the shameful thing and not Pinochet’s bullets, which killed so many thousands in the Santiago stadium. It is enough to start the story with “Secondly,” for my grandmother, Umm ‘Ata, to become the criminal and Ariel Sharon her victim.” (Barghouti, p. 177 on Kindle)

So this slam poetry by Rafeef Ziadah. Shades of Anger

And this by Rafeef Ziadah as well: We Teach Life, Sir

Also, this poem, by Lena Khallaf Tufaha, I came across on Twitter about the warning calls before raids of buildings – performative humanity at play:

I can’t get this poem out of my head. pic.twitter.com/0GeA3HTI9V

— Joel S. (@jh_swanson) May 15, 2021

Text-based version of the poem (more accessible) here

And then this brief from Mariam Barghouti on how anger and hope work together here:

“We are angry because we have hope.” https://t.co/I2vFqYVqNm

— Mays Imad (@lrningsanctuary) May 16, 2021

Killing Gaza film (Dan Cohen) is free to watch on Vimeo (1h36m)

In light of the mass-murder campaign Israel is carrying out in the Gaza Strip, we have now made the documentary ‘Killing Gaza’ free. It’s available in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, German and Portuguese. Please watch, share and distribute widely. https://t.co/ZcAyBOmjmE

— Killing Gaza Film (@KillingGaza) May 15, 2021

The story of dispossession of Palestinians from their land in maps (sorry if I am using the wrong terms?)

pic.twitter.com/uX3p70sL7x

— AmyKarimWrites (Querying… Constantly) (@WritesKarim) May 12, 2021

This piece in the NY Times of a father telling the story of his child asking if Israel can bomb/find them in the dark:

I just wrote this piece for the New York Times. Please read and share with your friends and followers.
My Child Asks: ‘Can Israel Destroy Our Building in the Dark?'
by: Refaat Alareerhttps://t.co/8nUhR6qNSo

— Refaat Alareer 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) May 13, 2021

And then one last important thing not to forget. There are Jews and Rabbis calling for Israel to take responsibility, and this is an important part of this story

“The establishment of Israel as a modern nation-state brought with it the obligations to follow international law — including the laws of occupation.” https://t.co/vlnj5sVGfy

— Remi Kalir (@remikalir) May 15, 2021

And a side note. I found a curation of resources for teaching kids about Palestine. Mostly Arabic and some in English too.

Featured image of women holding Palestinian flag by Hosny Salah on Pixabay