THE LIE OF A LAND WITHOUT A PEOPLE
Jihad el-Khazen
Dar Al-Hayat
D/10-2007/Article-20071022-c7e712b2-c0a8-10ed-0179 -461d1e890b2d/story.html
Oct 22 2007
Lebanon
This week I have examined two books written by my colleagues Zaki
Shihab and Camille Tawil entitled Inside Hamas and Al-Qaeda wa
Akhawatuha, and today I go on with the discussion of other books
deserving attention.
In front of me there is a book or atlas entitled The Return Journey:
A guide to the Depopulated and Present Palestinian Towns and Villages
and Holy Sites, published by Palestine Land Society and written by
Salman Abu Sittah, a reliable authority in his field.
The guidebook is published in Arabic, English, and Hebrew and it is
made up of 250 color papers including the maps of 1500 cities and
villages, 5,000 holy places, and 4,700 sites. I also found with the
book a large beautiful map of Palestine that explains the partition
plans under the title ‘Palestine between the Mandate and Looting’.
I immediately remembered a book entitled So as not to Forget: the
Villages of Palestine that Israel Destroyed before 1948 and their
Martyrs’ Names/ All That Remains The Palestinian Villages Occupied
and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 by Dr Walid Khalidi who needs
no introduction. I have an Arabic copy and an English copy of the
book which is published by the Institute for Palestine Studies. Such
books constitute an argument against Israel, against the lie of a land
without a people, and against the lie of linking the Jews of the world
with the land of Palestine where they hardly have any presence, except
for the Jewish minority that lived in Palestine throughout history
and that underwent increase and decrease in number at various stages.
The readers who are interested in true history and testimony may have
to look for another book by Dr Khalidi entitled Before their Diaspora:
a Photographic History of the Palestinians 1876-1948.
This historical documentation with maps, pictures, and names shows
that there were no other people in Palestine than the Palestinians
and small minorities including the Jews.
I move on to another book that I can only describe as amazing. Its
topic is new to me or much greater than I had estimated.
The book is entitled Palestine in Modern Spanish Poetry by Dr Mahmoud
J’aidy and it is translated and reviewed by Dr Hussam Al-Khatib.
We all know that there is great sympathy with the Palestinians and
with Arab and Islamic causes in general in Spain and Latin America.
However, the efforts made by Dr J’aidy, who is of Palestinian origin
and a professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Madrid, go
beyond my information about him. Some poems are written by poets with
whom we have no ethnic link, but they seem to be written by Mahmoud
Darwish or Samih Al-Kassim.
The book includes poems by poets whose names indicate they are of Arab
origin, such as Theodor Al-Sakka and Edwardo Matta, but the majority
of them are only linked to us by humane feelings. The Argentinean
artist Alberto Cortes looks for the sun in Sabra and Shatila with
the word, the melody and the voice. Cuban poet Pedro Oscar Gwyneth
travels to the land of Palestine and demonstrates his love in the
Kanaan Mountain. Spanish poet Miguel Anchel Tshulia looks for a spark
of hope and writes poems entitled ‘Dear Mohammad’, ‘My New Night in
Palestine’, and ‘The Guitar of Palestine’.
I do not want to be unfair to other poets due to my time and space
limit. But I need to stop at the Argentinean poet named Pedro
Tshakmakian. The name is Armenian and the poet was born in Buenos
Aires, but the author confers on him the title The Intifada Poet. In
his poem entitled ‘Only One Martyr’ he says:
‘When your eyes overflow with tears While they are looking down They
are decorated with your sadness and you cover your head with the veil
When I see you My heart breaks and produces floods of words I feel
the same way you do, Mother, You are my mother too …’
I know that poetry can not be translated, but humane feelings find
their expression in one language. This Armenian Argentinean poet, who
is getting out of his people’s Holocaust, reminds me of many Armenian
Palestinians who did not stand the creation of Israel and emigrated
to Lebanon and other countries as a result. My high school geography
instructor Mr Kotojian was one of them, and so was my Armenian friend
Mike Kharabian.
>From the world of poetry back to reality, I conclude today with a book
entitled Where Now for Palestine, the Demise of the Two State Solution,
edited by Jamil Hilal, a sociologist at the Bir Zait Univesity.
The book comprises eleven articles written by prominent experts like
Ilan Pappe, a professor at the University of Haifa who earned the
title of ‘The most hated person in Israel’ after he expressed his
support of the Palestinians and identified the falsity of Zionist
claims in their land.
Dr Hilal could be expressing the collective thoughts of other
writers. He says that for political Zionism, the first priority is
to occupy the land, keep the smallest number of Palestinians in it,
or evict them from it. The views of all the authors have consolidated
since before the creation of Israel, David Ben-Gurion’s time, and
until now.
The discussion is to be continued with other books.