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khetsia's review
5.0
some of my many, many thoughts...
I. Chroniques de la tristesse ordinaire//Journal of Ordinary Grief
5/5: In this Journal, Darwish uses vignettes, dialogues (real and imagined) to hold space for the grief that life meant to him as a Palestinian Israeli: a foreigner at home. His journey starts in 1948 when at the age of seven his family choose to flee Israeli persecution and rip Darwish from the womb of his motherland and into the hostility of refugee life: waiting… waiting for what? waiting for peace? waiting to die!
The Nakba (“disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”) refers to the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948, and the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian Arabs at the hands of Zionist Jews (*allegedly),By 1949, the operation is “satisfactorily successful” majority of Palestinians have been cleansed from the historic land of the Jews:
“When my grandfather realized that the fruits in the orchards he had planted, now being eaten by the Jews, had turned into a card for receiving food relief, he became aware that our departure had been a mistake... We didn’t know we were going to be exchanging refugee status in Lebanon for refugee status at home. And we didn’t realize that our physical presence in the homeland constituted an absence in the eyes of the law the conquerors quickly implemented. They called us “present-absentees” so we would have no legal right to anything. At the same time, we found out that thousands of these returnees were shoved into trucks as soon they were arrested and immediately dumped on the border like damaged merchandise. We knew that hundreds were shot dead so that others would stop thinking of returning....”And here starts the lifelong period of waiting. And here festers the anger and the frustration. And here is legalized the injustice and the restriction of freedoms and above all here is child's yarning to go back home.
“Which was more painful, to be a refugee in someone else’s country or a refugee in your own? When, as a result of the current state of affairs, the Arab citizen sees the Israeli plow biting into his land and his body to produce grain and grapes for those who have come from all parts of the world, and he cannot do anything about it and is even forbidden to make a pilgrimage to it – the question that mental anguish constantly imposes is, “Can the land be so holy?” For the Palestinians, the answer is yes.”
*el jglux and I have an ongoing debate regarding the roots of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians: was it a core component of the Zionist plan’s for the creation of Israel (1948) or was it a pervasion of Zionist ideals (1967)
My thoughts and feeeeels: This book was so so magical; I truly feel like Darwish has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of sorrow, frustration and confusion for the reader to lose themselves in and be able to take on his perspective of life as a refugee turned intruder! One thing I particularly appreciated witnessing was the complacency of non-Jewish Israelis (non-Palestinian Arab immigrants) in perpetuating anti-Palestinian rhetoric! From my understanding, the political instability of the time (which affected those from neighbouring regions at the very least due to its resulting refugee crisis) may have led to many resenting their push-back as a “barbaric” persistence to disturb one’s peace and this resentment may have also helped justify the limits on their right to return/apathy to their sorrow. But yeah, this is simply hypothetical!
Most impactful sections imo: « Variation sur la Sourate de Jérusalem//Improvisations on the Sura of Jerusalem », for those somewhat knowledgeable about Abrahamic religions; « Silence pour Gaza//Silence for Gaza», most relevant to the current state of affairs; « Quand se présente au Monde l’exclu du Monde//Going to the World», which talks about the hypocrisy of the nations and those in power who never have condemned Israel’s abuse of power; and finally this controversial gem which describes the conversation between a Palestinian and an Israeli….
VII—Why this arrogance? I have inherited my religion and ethnicity. It was never a question of choice. Now let me ask you, Who among you has chosen to be a Jew? Who?
Chaim Weizmann used to say, “I know that God promised the Land of Israel to the children of Israel, but I don’t know the boundaries allotted by the Lord.”At that time millions of Arabs used to laugh in mockery of Weizmann and Ben-Gurion. When today you consider the secret boundaries “allotted by the Lord” that go beyond Palestine, you realize that “Israeli reality” is “larger than the Zionist dream” and Jewish history, and remember the writer who said to you, “This is the difference between you and me. I’m not simply a Jew: I have chosen to be one.”
—This is the difference between you and me. I’m not simply a Jew: I have chosen to be one.
—How?
—The issue is not subject to discussion. Jewishness can be understood only by Jews. That is the source of my pride that you call arrogance.
—I can understand that you have chosen to be a Zionist, or an Israeli. Is that what you mean?
—Not exactly. I mean that I have chosen my Jewishness and have remained faithful to it.
—And how does this faithfulness manifest itself?
—In the historical homeland.
—And what is this historical homeland? Is it vague, like your identity? Have you chosen, or inherited, it?
—It’s vague and clear at the same time. I have chosen and inherited it at once.
The speaker was a writer who rebelled against the distinctions that some people drew between Jewishness, Zionism, and Israeli-ness. He believed that Jewishness can only manifest in Zionism, and Zionism cannot be realized except in Israeli-ness. From this perspective, renouncing Zionism means forgoing Jewishness. And when you ask him what the historical homeland means in reality, he reminds you of the famous dialogue that took place between Ben-Gurion and an Arab thinker in 1936, when Palestine was still a Zionist dream. When Ben-Gurion was asked what was the “historical homeland,” he answered that it was the territory open to Jewish settlement.
—What is the territory?
—The Land of Israel.
—What are its borders?
—The borders of the Land of Israel are known from history.
—Borders are artificial things. They could be here one day, and over there tomorrow.
—The Land of Israel is that which lies between the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east, between Sinai in the south and the source of the Jordan in the north.
—You include Transjordan as well
—Of course. The Jordan is not a border for the Land of Israel. It’s a river within the Land of Israel
Will you laugh again, as the Arabs laughed fifty years ago, or will you hand down your dreams to the children born under the bayonets of the Occupation?
II. Poèmes Palestiniens//Palestinian Poems:
No rating for it would be unjustly based on my limited comprehension of his verses & even more because this is a translated work!
In the Palestinian Poems, here translated by Olivier Carré, Darwish moves between poems that reflect the ongoing injustice he faced in Israel to poems that testify to his love and longing for a return to the « stolen » mother(land). Some of the latter are truly no different from sonnets about tragic, unattainable, sweet yet bitter love while some others focus specifically on the atrocious pain that is to wait for something that shall never come. Overall, I would say that the intensification and dramatization of his feelings and experiences of yearning while at first shocking and confusing forced me to look inwards and to realize admit to myself that that as an agnostic Westerner & second-generation immigrant I both grasp the connection one might have to their historic land (mostly from my parents’ perspective) and yet I have never felt this connection for myself!
On my Unfortunate Lack of Understanding: The truth is that I had a veryyy hard time going through Darwish’s poetry and so my description of it must be taken with a grain of salt. I do list below some of the poems that were able to touch me, and I believe that they are some of his less nebulous ones for readers who haven’t read his [b:Palestine as Metaphor|52375513|Palestine as Metaphor|Mahmoud Darwish|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566710941l/52375513._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73055358], a short collection of Darwish’s interviews which I stumbled upon as a was nearing the end of this book and which I wish I had read beforehand for it discussed, among other things. But yeah, with this in mind I am sure to return to Darwish again and again in the future as I keep learning and educating myself about what happened « before, during and after Darwish »…
Some of the most touching poems from this collection: « Le captif a grandi », « La victime numéro 48//Victim Number 18 » (tiré de « Les Fleurs du sang »), « Chant Patriotiques: une partie », « À l’adresse de ma mère//To My Mother», « Attente de ceux qui rentrent », « Chanson naïve pour la Croix-Rouge » and above all else « Identité//Identity Card » & « Accourir à l’ombre de tes yeux// Ana Atin ila Zilt 'aynayki//I am Coming to the Shadows of your Eyes)
...[Palestine,] You are my grief and joy,
my wound and my rainbow,
my prison and freedom.
You are my myth
and the clay from which I was created.
...
You are mine with all your wounds,
each wound a garden.
...
You are my sun at its setting,
and my lightened night.
You are the death of me and the kiss of
Life... (I am Coming to your Shadows, 1970)