I
t is over 50 years since Israel occu-
pied the West Bank and began seizing
Palestinian land and building Israeli
settlements, illegal under international
law. Peace and justice in the region seem
further away than ever. The question
arises, how is it possible to live under
occupation and maintain hope? For Pal-
estinian writer, lawyer and human rights
activist Raja Shehadeh, the answer is a
tenacious refusal to be denied the joys of
life and also in ‘exposing the ills inflicted
on my own society. Not in the distant
yonder but in the dirt, pain and suffering
of the here and now’.
Shehadeh’s family were driven out of
Jaffa following Israel’s founding in 1948,
and he currently lives in the West Bank. In
1979 he co-founded the respected human
rights organization al-Haq, and in 1991
he was adviser to the PLO delegation at
the Madrid peace negotiations. His books
include Strangers in the House, an account
of his childhood, and Palestinian Walks,
winner of the 2008 Orwell Prize. In his
most recent work, Going Home, he cites as
an inspiration Bergman’s Wild Strawber-
ries, a film imbued with memories and loss.
From his home in Ramallah he gave
me his response to the idea that remem-
bering is the duty of those oppressed
while forgetting is the luxury of the
oppressor. ‘So true in the case of the Pal-
estinians. We carry the memory of the
Nakba [catastrophe] year after year like
a duty and a burden because forgetting
would be like abandonment of a right
we’re still struggling to realize. In con-
trast most Israelis have the luxury of not
only forgetting about the Nakba but that
it happened at all.’
Throughout his writing, Raja has
returned to the concept of sumoud orsteadfastness as a tool of resistance. He
told me how this expresses itself on a day-
to-day basis. ‘For a long time it has been
Israel’s objective to drive the Palestinians
out of their land and take it over. Building
homes, establishing new businesses, and
making life more tolerable for the Pales-
tinians is a way of opposing [this]... Every
person who returns after a period of
study abroad to establish himself/herself
here feels like a victory for sumoud.’
Under conditions of oppression, the
simplest act speaks of resistance. Walking
in his landscape, bearing witness to his
community, is an ongoing dialogue for
Shehadeh. He told me that he agrees with
Rebecca Solnit’s idea that ‘the history of
walking is a history of freedom and of the
definition of pleasure’. He writes evoca-
tively about the tended spaces encoun-
tered on his walks around Ramallah. You
can, he says, always tell when a garden
is the product of a hired gardener or the
loving hands of the owner. Ramallah,
once surrounded by vegetation, is now
hemmed in by Israeli settlements and for
Shehadeh the cultivation of green spaces
is an important component of sumoud:
‘The openness and access to the sur-
rounding countryside have been severely
compromised by the presence of the set-
tlements. This has also diminished the
knowledge of and attachment to the land
which adversely affects sumoud. Those of
my generation would miss the land more
than anything else when we leave here
even on short vacations.’
In Occupation Diaries, published in
2012, Shehadeh wrote that ‘the veneer of
civilization and decency in Israel is getting
thinner’. I asked him if he saw this process
as irreversible, with Netanyahu, embold-
ened by Trump, brazenly disregardinginternational law. His reply encompasses
both legal and moral dimensions: ‘Unless
Israel’s flouting of international law is
checked, getting away with the illegal
annexation and gross violations this
country is committing will seriously con-
tribute to the demise of this body of law
to the detriment of all. Israel is doing its
best to ensure that this process of illegal
annexation is seen as irreversible but this
then is part of the psychological warfare
it is waging: why continue the struggling,
if all is lost and the process is irreversible.
We cannot afford to succumb to this.’
Raja’s tone has, understandably,
become increasingly melancholic with the
passing years but never bitter or defeated.
He has written of his belief that a just set-
tlement in Palestine could eventually
lead to a regional confederation of states.
I asked if this remained his hope for the
future: ‘With age one begins to see things
in perspective and take the longer-term
view. We must not stop insisting on ending
the occupation and the establishment of
a Palestinian state even if as a transitory
measure for a future regional confedera-
tion. I strongly believe that the Middle
East should not be fragmented and is
bound to be united. You could call it geo-
graphical determinism. We, in this region,
continue to suffer from the effects of the
colonial meddling in our region that has
lasted for a very long time. But there are
fundamental changes that are coming.
Perhaps a time will come when the only
option will be co-operate or perish.’ O
GOING HOME: A WALK THROUGH FIFT Y YEARS
OF OCCUPATION BY RAJA SHEHADEH HAS
JUST BEEN PUBLISHED BY PROFILE BOOKS. HE HAS
ALSO CONTRIBUTED AN ESSAY TO THE BOOK BRAVE
NEW WORDS – SEE PAGES 64-71.MIXED MEDIASPOTLIGHT
RAJA SHEHADEH
74 NEW INTERNATIONALIST