I'm sorry you had to go through that experience on top of everything else. One needn't be shy about recognising cowardice and stupidity when one sees it - what sort of person can say to a Palestinian that the US's actions are about defending its own land? 'Insensitive' doesn't even come close. Propaganda might be everywhere, but believing it is still a choice. I hope you can find some peace in these terrible times, hard as it must be
Yes, but she probably didn't even see it that way. "My husband's Jewish, we believe in harmony and feel for both sides" is just the kind of thing these MSNBC libs say because they have no idea what the Israeli side is doing, and wouldn't believe it if they saw it
The response from people that “it’s complicated” infuriates me more than any other. Really?! In fact it’s one of the clearest examples of inhumanity and genocide ever to exist. What exactly is complicated about that? Israel needs to get the fuck out of Palestine and let people live!
There will come a day when people will look back onto this genocide with horror: "how could anyone have supported this?" and they'll swear up and down that they supported Palestine - but they didn't. We must say it till our last breath: Free Free Palestine.
I guess the thing that grips me when I read Ibsais’s pieces on Israel’s ethnic cleansing of non-Jewish people in Palestine is the tension between the depth of his despair and limits of his patience—of any principled person’s patience.
There was a scene in my first novel where an NYU English professor asks his students, four weeks after 9/11, whether words are enough. Whether the pen really is mightier than the sword. Whether people like Jesus, Mohammad, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Gandhi—or the fictional protagonist they were studying, Captain Nemo—truly had a choice between trying to change things from within the system, or if at some point a person of conscience without political power is compelled to resort to “even more desperate measures.”
As I sit here now, twenty-odd years on, I can’t help but think of the fictional students’ stunned and enraged responses to their professor’s query. I can’t help but think of Secretary Hegseth’s remarks about a 21st century “crusade” in the Middle East. About an American politician autographing bombs donated to Israel and purchased by American tax dollars, writing “finish them!"
I can’t help but wonder how much more of this we are expected to take.
My God,Ahmad. Your words are a hymn of grief that are staggering in their grim beauty.
Were I to be fortunate enough to meet you I would embrace you and sit with you and weep.
I am finding these times the most difficult that I’ve faced in my long life. My love for the people of Palestine has been with me for over fifty years,ever since nobody would answer my questions about Leila Khaled when I was a teenager.
I went to my local library and started reading, I spoke to people much older than me who were called “hippies” and they told me the story of the Nakba. There is so much more that I could say but I will close off now.
I am without words. Your writing moved me so much.I i feel your grief and outrage at this horror. It is no small thing to share this with us. Thank you.
Beautifully written. I broke my arm and after it was reset in ER I expressed gratitude to a young nurse, and added that Gaza they don’t have such care. The nurse snapped back, “how do you know? Have you been there?” I said American doctors have been to Gaza and talk about what they saw. The nurse had earlier offered a sling but “forgot” so I had to ask someone else for the sling.
It is no wonder the toll it takes on you and others in the diaspora. Besides the direct and indirect trauma, the constant gaslighting and denialism about your (and Palestinians’) reality has to be exhausting beyond measure. Sending love to you, friend ❤️
Can I suggest a close reading of 'Sun Tzu', the Art of War, from the 5th BC China. You can find it for free on the internet, google 'Sun Tzu art of war Thomas Cleary'. It is on the Internet Archive too. This is the best edition. It provides a carefully written choreography of what to do when faced with an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. And that applies both to overpowering might *and* ideology. It provides very counter-intuitive suggestions on what to do and therefore is full of wisdom, recognized fully since the 20thC. This is not an intellectual luxury, it is a survival guide that works. Many communities that have survived against adversity across thousands of years of prosecution have done so because they (unknowingly) did things that match this playbook. Part of that is learning to be invisible when you cannot match the power of the other side, another part is on how to build strength in distributed network of agents that have the same agency and hence cannot be defeated by decapitating someone at the top of a hierarchy, another part is on how one can build closely-knit communities to regather strength in privacy and keep the flame burning for a better day. Part of the Adversary's strategy is to exhaust you when they cannot kill you. So it is not just ok but very important to get some well-deserved respite. Know that you are not alone. Bless!
This was a haunting piece. Glad to be a follower and subscriber of yours. You're an excellent writer. Free Palestine 🇵🇸
I'm sorry you had to go through that experience on top of everything else. One needn't be shy about recognising cowardice and stupidity when one sees it - what sort of person can say to a Palestinian that the US's actions are about defending its own land? 'Insensitive' doesn't even come close. Propaganda might be everywhere, but believing it is still a choice. I hope you can find some peace in these terrible times, hard as it must be
provocation on her part.
Yes, but she probably didn't even see it that way. "My husband's Jewish, we believe in harmony and feel for both sides" is just the kind of thing these MSNBC libs say because they have no idea what the Israeli side is doing, and wouldn't believe it if they saw it
This was painful to read. True pain.
This is so beautiful. These images will never escape us, we will never forget. But we must keep fighting for a free Palestine!
You are a beautiful person and a beautiful writer. I will never stop fighting for Palestine.🇵🇸
The response from people that “it’s complicated” infuriates me more than any other. Really?! In fact it’s one of the clearest examples of inhumanity and genocide ever to exist. What exactly is complicated about that? Israel needs to get the fuck out of Palestine and let people live!
There will come a day when people will look back onto this genocide with horror: "how could anyone have supported this?" and they'll swear up and down that they supported Palestine - but they didn't. We must say it till our last breath: Free Free Palestine.
Your writing is so powerful. 🥺
One day at work I sat in horror listening to my boss tell the Mexican employees what it was like to live in Mexico. She’s never been there.
Americans are not bred for intellect.
Wonderful piece of writing, this.
I guess the thing that grips me when I read Ibsais’s pieces on Israel’s ethnic cleansing of non-Jewish people in Palestine is the tension between the depth of his despair and limits of his patience—of any principled person’s patience.
There was a scene in my first novel where an NYU English professor asks his students, four weeks after 9/11, whether words are enough. Whether the pen really is mightier than the sword. Whether people like Jesus, Mohammad, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Gandhi—or the fictional protagonist they were studying, Captain Nemo—truly had a choice between trying to change things from within the system, or if at some point a person of conscience without political power is compelled to resort to “even more desperate measures.”
As I sit here now, twenty-odd years on, I can’t help but think of the fictional students’ stunned and enraged responses to their professor’s query. I can’t help but think of Secretary Hegseth’s remarks about a 21st century “crusade” in the Middle East. About an American politician autographing bombs donated to Israel and purchased by American tax dollars, writing “finish them!"
I can’t help but wonder how much more of this we are expected to take.
My God,Ahmad. Your words are a hymn of grief that are staggering in their grim beauty.
Were I to be fortunate enough to meet you I would embrace you and sit with you and weep.
I am finding these times the most difficult that I’ve faced in my long life. My love for the people of Palestine has been with me for over fifty years,ever since nobody would answer my questions about Leila Khaled when I was a teenager.
I went to my local library and started reading, I spoke to people much older than me who were called “hippies” and they told me the story of the Nakba. There is so much more that I could say but I will close off now.
Peace be with you my brother.
I am without words. Your writing moved me so much.I i feel your grief and outrage at this horror. It is no small thing to share this with us. Thank you.
Ugh😢 People can truly suck sometimes.
ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ 💕
Beautifully written. I broke my arm and after it was reset in ER I expressed gratitude to a young nurse, and added that Gaza they don’t have such care. The nurse snapped back, “how do you know? Have you been there?” I said American doctors have been to Gaza and talk about what they saw. The nurse had earlier offered a sling but “forgot” so I had to ask someone else for the sling.
It is no wonder the toll it takes on you and others in the diaspora. Besides the direct and indirect trauma, the constant gaslighting and denialism about your (and Palestinians’) reality has to be exhausting beyond measure. Sending love to you, friend ❤️
Can I suggest a close reading of 'Sun Tzu', the Art of War, from the 5th BC China. You can find it for free on the internet, google 'Sun Tzu art of war Thomas Cleary'. It is on the Internet Archive too. This is the best edition. It provides a carefully written choreography of what to do when faced with an overwhelmingly powerful enemy. And that applies both to overpowering might *and* ideology. It provides very counter-intuitive suggestions on what to do and therefore is full of wisdom, recognized fully since the 20thC. This is not an intellectual luxury, it is a survival guide that works. Many communities that have survived against adversity across thousands of years of prosecution have done so because they (unknowingly) did things that match this playbook. Part of that is learning to be invisible when you cannot match the power of the other side, another part is on how to build strength in distributed network of agents that have the same agency and hence cannot be defeated by decapitating someone at the top of a hierarchy, another part is on how one can build closely-knit communities to regather strength in privacy and keep the flame burning for a better day. Part of the Adversary's strategy is to exhaust you when they cannot kill you. So it is not just ok but very important to get some well-deserved respite. Know that you are not alone. Bless!