Born Palestinian...in America

I often feel that, as people of color, our authenticating factor is the extent to which we've suffered due to our status as people of color, and also the specific ways in which we've suffered. And the more we have suffered in those ways, the more authenticly Other we are. If we have not suffered a sufficient amount in those specific ways, our authenticity is called into question. This can be a self-conscious feeling and/or actually expressed by other members of our group. Both our right to inclusion in our group and the work we do to help our communities might be called into question based on any educational, economic or citizenship privileges we may have or be perceived as having.

It seems that being Palestinian is synonymous with suffering, but what about being a '48 Palestinian who grew up somewhere else, who's parents grew up somewhere else? What about being a Palestinian American? Al-Falasteenyia's recent post summed up a lot of things that I have been thinking about recently.

And as I walked I began to imagine what would happen if these streets were filled with the IDF tanks…enforcing a curfew- locking everyone indefinitely in their apartments. What if soldiers vandalized these very shops- kill these very pedestrians-….and I tired to picture myself living, witnessing 1948. It’s one thing to always talk about it, but I am sure it’s nothing like being there, seeing it. It is like how I always talk about Palestine, and my identity as a Palestine, totally disconnected from the events that continue to effect me and shape who I am.
...
Looking back it, I was used to (and still am) experiencing Palestine in academic settings, intellectual panels/convo’s, and activism....that had shaped my identity. But all this was gone now, as I sat in a huge room with other Palestinians, waiting. Right then and there, I lost my identity. To be a Palestinian meant sitting at borders and checkpoints, it meant living it everday- and not through reading the news, or being an activist, or wearing a hatta, or thinking about Palestinians “over there”. It meant “being there”….and I know this issue has come up before in previous posts I’ve written- on being, or not being, a Palestinian. It’s just that this term has come to mean so many things….my life is different from other Palestinians in that I do not experience apartheid everyday. I acknowledge it of course, campaign against it, but I don’t actually experience it. and my brief 4 day journey into Palestine, was barely an experience….it was like the tip of the ice berg. On the other side of things, as an American, my ethnic background is always questioned: and people can never guess- I mean they try to- I’ve been previously classified as Russian, Romanian, Canadian, French, Spanish, Italian, British, Iranian, Albanian, Greek, Latina….i can go on- but the point here is classification. Everyone here in America must be classified (on a societal level). If you are multiracial, well people want an explanation….I’ve found out that they can’t not know your background. They want to know- and this is true of everyone. It only becomes an issue when the observer takes a look at u and cant decide right away if you’re black, white, or Dominican. So they become confused….afterall, how else are they to interact with you? And in these cases, after a few guesses I do not hesitate to tell people I’m Palestinian. For example, at the Doc’s office one of the technicians asked me and she seemed puzzeled at my answer…like she’s never heard of such a thing. Her colleuage turned to her and said, “Palestinian! Don’t you know? Palestine, next to Israel…” Then of course you have people who, no matter how many times you tell them you are Palestinian, insist that you are Pakastani- but I digress.

What does being Palestinian mean to me? I hadn't thought of it specifically before. To me, identifying as Palestinian in the US is important because it increases visibility, it let's people know that, yes, we do exist.

From Across the Gulf of Aqaba

I posted the following in my travel-blog last summer. Before spending a month in Amman, I had spent a month in Italy:

Sunday, August 20, 2006

hey everyone! i am here in aqaba, at an internet cafe next to the cinabon where my cousin and i just ate. we took a bus from amman with two of my aunts and four other cousins, and last night we stayed in a one bedroom, four bed apartment. the usual lack of privacy that one experiences around arabs was amplified times ten. we went to the beach last night after the sun set, and we went again this morning. it was so beautiful. we also did a lot of walking around shopping. there is a new store in aqaba called "china town" which is actually a collection of different stores, all with everything made in china, and all run by chinese immigrants who speak a teeny bit of arabic and a teeny bit of english. i bought a bootleg copy of sex and the city season 7 for 2.25 JD (i think this is about five american dollars, maybe a little less).

on the topic of immigrants, in amman, there are a lot of filipino immigrants working as nannies and maids. my cousin told me that, to hire a filipino woman as a live-in maid, it costs about $100 a month. another cousin told me that in lebanon, no lebanese work jobs like maid, nanny, janitor, etc. the people who work these jobs in lebanon are immigrants from sri lanka or philipenes. i am not sure if they are immigrants or temporary workers, i don't know how it works.

so i am coming home soon. i will miss my family, but i will also be kind of content to get away from them. i think that the next time i come to jordan i will stay in a hotel and rent a car so i can come and go as i please, and wear what i want and go where i want and eat what i want (not that i am ungrateful, i just need my independance). i have been gone from home a long time, and i am ready to return. see you soon!

Posted by Nadia at 7:17AM

I was thinking of Aqaba a couple of days ago when I was especially upset about an interaction with a so-called friend in which he subtly expressed an identification with Zionism. I thought about standing on the beach with my cousins. Heba saying, "Nadia, do you see that? Those white buildings? That is Israel." and standing together, quiet, looking across the gulf. We are '48 Palestinians, none of us lived in refugee camps, but it still means something to us. We grew up hearing stories of the home and the land that our family used to have. How a portion of the Tel Aviv airport fell on our land, and they paid us rent every month. And, as so many of these stories go, we locked the door, fled, and kept the key for the day that we return. I didn't have to directly experience this myself for it to mean a great deal to me. When your family has had everything taken away from it, the generations do not forget so easily.

There is no reason for me to spend any amount of time on people who don't understand this. This is not an abstract concept, this is real life, and it isn't a matter of "you have your opinion, I have mine." You do not tell me you were "feeling Zionistic" (especially when you ain't even Jewish), you do not tell me you admire Golda Meir and then try to cover yourself by saying that you admire anyone who makes an impact on the world (wtf?), you DON'T. You are not the first liberal white boy who tried to use me to do their "unpacking" for them, to do all the dirty work for them, and you aren't the first who's tried to put me in my place by running me down in a debate. Please realize that I am not having it, because you are wrong and because experience has shown that my energy would be better spent on anything other than explaining it to you.

Jews Speak Out

From Jewish Conscience:

Watch If Not Now, When?, a short film in which Jews speak out against the illusion of Jewish consensus on Israel.

Entire Palestinian Family Jailed in Texas

From a MySpace bulletin:

Start the New Year off Right, Please Help Save a Family

The Arab American Community Coalition (theaacc.org) has just learned of anentire Palestinian family – the Ibrahims – being held in jail in Texas whilewaiting an unjustified deportation. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) grabbed the family of five in a Gestapo-like raid on November 3, 2006.

The Ibrahims came to the United States legally and applied for asylum. They have been honest and forthright with immigration from the beginning. They were denied asylum and have filed to reopen their asylum case. In the meantime, the family is to be deported and is being held in jail! As an American citizen, the 2-year-old daughter was ripped from her mother’s arms and is in a foster home.

The plot thickens:

To make matters worse, as Palestinian refugees from the Occupied Palestinian Territories they have no travel documents. The US government has attempted to obtain Jordanian passports for the family but the applications were denied. The family will have to languish another month in jail while ICE contacts the Israeli embassy. Even though Israel has no jurisdiction to
issue travel documents to Palestinians to the Occupied Palestinian
Territories , ICE insists on contacting Israel . In the past, Israel has
issued illegal documents with ICE flying deportees into Tel Aviv and the deportees marched across the border to the West Bank in Palestine . It is extremely dangerous for Palestinians to enter Palestine with Israeli travel documents. The family would be marked with suspicion.

The family in jail:

The pregnant mother, Hanan Ahmad, is in one cell with her 5-year-old daughter, Fatem. The 7- and 12-year-old sisters – Maryam and Rodaina - share another cell. The 15-year-old boy, Hamzeh, is in yet another cell at T. Don Hutto jail. The father and husband, Salaheddin Ibrahim, is being held in another jail in Haskell , Texas . Born in the US , the youngest daughter, only 2-years-old, is living with strangers in a foster home.

The little 5-year-old girl, Faten, is constantly getting in trouble with the guards for not standing still during population counts, which are taken four times daily. Maryam, the 7-year-old cries for her mother at night. Maryam, Rodaina and Hamzeh have missed nearly two months of school. The children miss their father, their baby sister, other family members and friends. The pregnant mother feels sick, tired and overwhelmed. The family is separated and scared not knowing what the future holds.

Not only is this a waste of our tax dollars ($95 per person per day), it is inhumane and unjust!

What can you do?

Please contact ICE Field Office Director, Marc Jeffery Moore, @ 210-967-7175 and ask him to release the family on house arrest. You can also contact U.S. Department of Homeland Security @ Operator Number: 202-282-8000 or Comment Line: 202-282-8495

If you live in Texas , please contact your Senators and State Representative and ask him or her to intercede in this tragic story. Click on the link below to find out who represents you in the Congress.

http://www.congress merge.com/ onlinedb/ index.htm

You can either right your own letter or use sample letters attched to this email.

Donate money.

Legal fees to save the Ibrahim family will be costly. Please send checks
payable to:

“Arab American Community Coalition” Legal Defense – Ibrahim Family to:

P.O. Box 31642 , Seattle , WA 98103 .

All donations are tax-deductible with 100% of your donation going to the Ibrahim Family. Please don’t forget to check if your organization has a matching program.

For more information please contact info@theaacc. org.

Also you can check the links below;

http://www.counterp unch.org/ moses12282006. html

Video showing the family on local news

http://www.nbc5i. com/video/ 10471070/ index.html


Thank you,
The Arab American Community Coalition

Amin Odeh
http://www.Voicesof Palestine. Org

http://www.Theaacc. Org

"Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

The Myth of Happy Coexistence

Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel
George Bisharat, The Electronic Intifada, 2 January 2007

Anti-Arab bigotry is rarely condemned in Israeli public discourse, in which Palestinians are routinely construed as a "demographic threat." Palestinians in Israel's soccer league have played to chants of "Death to Arabs!" Israeli academic Daniel Bar-Tal studied 124 Israeli school texts, finding that they commonly depicted Arabs as inferior, backward, violent, and immoral. A 2006 survey revealed that two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in a building with an Arab, nearly half would not allow a Palestinian in their home, and 40 percent want the government to encourage emigration by Palestinian citizens. Last March, Israeli voters awarded 11 parliamentary seats to the Israel Beitenu Party, which advocates drawing Israel's borders to exclude 500,000 of its current Palestinian citizens.

holocaust denial

al-falasteenyia posted three articles written by Arab journalists, on Ahmadinejad's Holocaust deniers convention. Please take the time to go read the articles. The most interesting viewpoint expressed was that of a Palestinian former militant who, through the reading materials he had access to during his 18 years in an Israeli prison, changed his mind from disbelief to belief after reviewing documents and articles by Palestinian intellectuals. It is interesting to me that all of this Holocaust denial is purported to be for the sake of the Palestinians, yet it does NOTHING to help Palestinians and does everything to contribute to the feeling of persecution that is commonly used to justify the state of Israel.

The *other* most interesting thing was an analysis of the way this discourse seeks to equate Zionism with Nazism, while also revealing an identification with Nazis and a desire to "finish" what they started. What do you think we end up with when those who are oppressed seek to become the oppressor? This discourse turns the question of Palestinian human rights from one of social justice to something entirely different, something that creates ethno-religious hierarchies and puts one group on the bottom and one group on the top. This mentality is no different than the mentality that causes groups to feel entitled to land, resources, and women that are not theirs.

I am so tired of hearing Arab Americans speak about yahoodi this, yahoodi that. How exactly does it benefit us to advance a narrative that says that all Jews are Zionists? This narrative is already widely advanced by Zionists in an attempt to shut down conversation. I have noticed this topic discussed by several bloggers recently, here (you can read my comment at this one), here and here.