My father’s stories were priceless, but if I was to think of the person in my life who’s as close to Palestine as I can get, it would be my grandmother.

The story begins sometime before 1948. We were told she was one of the most beautiful girls in Silwan, a small town in Jerusalem, and she was engaged to her cousin from her mother’s side. When her other cousin, the one from her father’s side, learned of that engagement, he got furious and thought he should marry her instead of her maternal cousin, he even threatened to kill them both if they proceeded with the marriage. Well, we can never know if he would’ve carried out his threat because her fiancé took the safe route and left her. And that was how my grandmother and grandfather got married.

But that marriage wasn’t meant to last for long, for few years down the road my grandfather who was a construction worker would fall off a scaffold and bid the world farewell, leaving her with 4 children to whom she would dedicate her life. And even though she was probably in her mid-twenties when her husband passed away, she would decline any marriage proposal for the sake of her children.

Despite all the hardships she faced, my grandmother talks about her life in Palestine with great passion and obvious longing. She would laugh to the point of tearing up when she tells stories about “Aisha”, the elderly woman who was known for her cunning and hilarious anecdotes, and she would sigh as she remembers how the neighbors once knocked her door at 3 am telling her that they came too early to the bakery and found it closed so they thought they’d hang around at her home until it opens. It was perfectly normal, “Everything was simple just like that back then” She would say.

In 1967, it was time to leave. My grandmother along with her children had to leave Palestine. Passing over the bridge, she would hand over their ID’s, and they would be burned, but she thought it was temporary and that they would come back soon. Who would’ve thought that she’ll pass 80 and still be away from her original home?

As I think of my grandmother now I realize how preposterous it is that some people would deny the existence of Palestine and the Palestinian people. I may  never have been to Palestine and I may never go there in my lifetime, but I know for sure that this woman who perhaps spent most of her life waiting to go back to her original home and be among the people she loved, that woman was Palestinian and had Palestine as a land. That woman and all her stories stand as evidence to what we had and what was taken from us, that woman is a proof that I’m a Palestinian and my brothers are Palestinians no matter what anyone says, because that woman is our grandmother, and for all I know, that woman is Palestine.

The story begins a long time ago. Before 1948, there was a country called Palestine, and the living there, the majority of which were Arabs, were called Palestinians. On several levels, Palestine was a land of geographical, historical and ideological importance, hence an idea was born and nourished in the West that the people currently living in Palestine are a bunch of brutal uncivilized savages who couldn’t possibly run that land by on their own, and that they should be ruled over by a superior and more civilized people, i.e:  the Jews.

Thus, the Jewish immigrants poured in, and the state of Israel came to existence, and the next thing you know: There was no such thing as Palestine, and the Palestinian people never existed. Or did they?

It goes without saying that in order to garner global support and gain some legitimacy, Israel had to wipe Palestine not only off the map, but also from history, and with that goes the existence of a Palestinian people. Otherwise the Zionist Jews will have to face the inevitable question: If what is now known as Israel was established on the same land of what was previously known as Palestine, and the population known as the Palestinians was replaced by what is now known as the Israeli people, then what happen to Palestine and where did the Palestinians go? In other words, they will have to answer for the fact that for each Jewish immigrant, one Palestinian, at least, was displaced.

Ever since 1948 and before, the Zionist propaganda has been at work to deny the existence of Palestine and the Palestinians, which was best expressed in the Zionist slogan describing Palestine as: “A land without people for a people without a land”. Thus, the Palestinians found themselves in a situation where their land was taken away from them and the world didn’t even acknowledge their existence, and hereby the only way to prove that existence was to resist, to struggle to fight to be recognized as a people.

The reasoning by which Palestine was occupied and turned into a Jewish state, and by which the Palestinians are facing discrimination and atrocities on daily basis, is the same reasoning by which the Red Indians were slaughtered and Black Africans were coerced into slavery. It’s because they are simply not regarded as “a people” , meaning they don’t have the ability to have a country or rule over a land, and that they should be run by a superior and more civilized power, regardless of what their wishes or desires could be for themselves.

Given all that and more, the issue of Palestine heralds itself as an issue of existence. That’s why the Israelis have been so firm in their stance against granting Palestinians the Right of Return, because to give them such a right is to admit that they were there, that they existed and that they still exist.

That’s what Isabelle probably didn’t fully understand. That’s why every Palestinian should cling to their legacy and their roots, because they don’t want the time to come when what the Zionist wished for becomes reality: “The old die and the young forget”.

The old might die, but the young, in sha'a Allah, will never forget.

إن هذه المشاعر الوطنية التي أثارتها الحرب على غزة في نفوس الكبار والصغار، وما أظهروه من رغبة حقيقية  في فعل شيء لدعم غزة وأهل غزة يبعث الأمل من جديد في النفوس، فإن كان ذلك يعني شيئاً على الإطلاق، فهو أنه أياً كنت ومهما كانت مبادؤك، لكل شخص قضية أكبر يؤمن بها.

لكن ما أن تم إعلان وقف إطلاق النار حتى بدأت المشاعر بالفتور وأخذنا شيئاً فشيئاً نعود لحياتنا اليومية. لا أعني أن هذا خطأ، لكن ما أعنيه هو أن ما شعرنا به وفعلناه خلال الحرب على غزة يجب أن يكون جزءاً من حياتنا اليومية. لا يجب أن ننتظر وقوع كارثة كي نحاول فعل شيء لدعم القضية الفلسطينية وتذكر من يعيشون تحت نار الاحتلال. قد لا تكون هناك مظاهرات أو حملات جمع تبرعات كل يوم، لكن توجد بالتأكيد وسائل عدة يمكننا بها دعم قضيتنا والتمسك بها والبقاء على وعي واتصال بها، وفيما يلي بعض هذه الوسائل:

- ابق على اطلاع، تابع الأخبار والتطورات في فلسطين المحتلة من خلال أي وسيلة متوفرة لديك

- اعمل على نشر الحقيقة وإعلام الناس بما يحدث فعلاً في الأراضي المحتلة، خاصة إن كنت تعيش في الخارج حيث يعيش الناس في ظل الإعلام الموجه ولا يعرفون سوى ما تخبرهم به قنوات مثل فوكس وسي إن إن، ليعرف الناس من هم الإرهابيون الحقيقيون

- اقرا التاريخ، تعلم أكثر عن تاريخ فلسطين والنزاع الفلسطيني الإسرائيلي، فالتاريخ قوة وشرعية، ولهذا نجد الصهاينة يهتمون به ويزجون به في كل كبيرة وصغيرة

- واصل التبرع بكل ما تستطيع من خلال الهيئات والجمعيات الموثوقة، ولا تنس مخيمات اللاجئين الموجودة في كل مكان والتي يحتاج أهلها إلى الدعم المستمر

- ذكر من حولك بالقضية وتحدث إليهم عنها، وحاولوا توحيد جهودكم لفعل شيء من اجل القضية

- إن كنت كاتباً أو فناناً أو تمتلك أية موهبة، وظف تلك الموهبة في عمل شيء لدعم القضية، سواءً بكتابة المقالات أو إقامة المعارض او حفلات جمع التبرعات

- خذ موقفاً وقاطع المنتجات الداعمة لإسرائيل، لا تقل إنك وحدك لن تفعل شيئاً، فالقطرات القليلة تصنع جدولاً، فكن صاحب موقف ولا تكن جزءاً في دعم من يقتلون الأبرياء ويهدمون منازلهم.

- أخيراً وهو الأهم، ابق موصولاً بالله تعالى، فمن يقرا التاريخ يجد أنه متى ما كان الناس موصولين بالله كانت القدس حرة ومتى ما كانوا بعيدين عن الله كانت القدس تحت الاحتلال. هكذاحر ر صلاح الدين الأقصى، بالإيمان، ولهذا ابتسم وهو يحتضر وقال: الآن أقول لرسول الله، صلى الله عليه وسلم، أنا من حررت لك المسرى... متى ما كان الإيمان عالياً في الأرض وعامراً في القلوب، كانت الإيمان بالقضية أقوى وأرسخ في النفوس، وكان الحلم بدولة فلسطينية حرة أقرب إلى الحقيقة.