Guest contribution by Fidaa Elaydi
Like every cause, the Palestinian cause is one with a number of icons. Unlike a number of causes, the Palestinian cause has its fair share of female icons.
Because of my fascination with politics and love for rhetoric, the Palestinian icon I generally have gravitated toward is Hanan Ashrawi. Although, like most Palestinians, I am critical of the PLO, I defend Ashrawi by first explaining that she was against the Oslo Accords. I have always been impressed by her, first, because she was always outspoken in expressing to the world the true nature of the Palestinian cause, even when it meant she was speaking against the faction she represented. Additionally, she emphasized the importance of education in empowering our people not merely by paying this institution lip service, but by making huge sacrifices and taking great risks to ensure that one of most fundamental pillars of the Palestinian education system, Bir Zeit University, continued to offer classes even when the campus was shut down during the first intifada. She taught classes in her home, in abandoned buildings, and every other location she could secure and gather students to keep from depriving them of their right to education. But, most importantly, I credit Ashrawi with the beautiful gift of showing me where the power behind our cause lies: in our women.
In her account of her personal struggles during the “peace process” of the 1990s, “This Side of Peace,” Ashrawi stated that “the recognition of world political figures or prominent members of the media, although gratifying, did not have the impact of the words of women from the refugee camps or men from the villages who often made a point of telling me, ‘You make us proud.’” I remember reading this sentence only days after having this exact conversation with my mother. My mother, a woman from a refugee camp, told me how Ashrawi “raised the heads of the Palestinian people,” giving them pride, when she spoke on television. She portrayed us as an oppressed people with legitimate grievances when the world only saw us as “terrorists” and “stone throwers.” She was educated and articulate and spoke better English than any Palestinian leader before her, but even with these distinguishing qualities, she did not lose site of where the struggle truly was being fought: in the classrooms, streets, and homes of Palestine. That excerpt was on page 94 of her book, I stopped reading at page 100. I didn’t stop reading because her story did not fascinate me or because the period in history she described was not important; I stopped because I knew I could learn more about the Palestinian cause by learning more about Palestinians and how the Palestinian cause has taken shape through them. [Read more...]
‘Dear women of the world’: A letter about gender inequity, Palestine, and general empowerment
Guest contribution by Bayan Founas
Dear women of the world,
I write to you today as a plea for help. You see I have a friend that needs our help as fellow sisters. Her name is Palestine. An oppressor has occupied her for 64 years now. His name is Israel. Now let me tell you about the awfully familiar relationship between these two.
Palestine calls me everyday to recount the abuses she is suffering. She’s too scared to live in her own home in fear of the constant domestic violence she faces from Israel everyday. Someone told me she always wears long sleeves to cover the bruises on her arms, but we all know Israel is the perpetrator in tearing out her olive trees.
She tried explaining to me that she couldn’t simply sit and talk to him about it, so instead she tried defending herself. This hasn’t proved successful considering he’s been cheating by working out everyday at the gym, automatically making him stronger. His gym is called the United States. It has great reviews, providing the best workout guaranteed for life. Although his gym trainer knows he’s been using his muscles inhumanely, the trainer doesn’t seem to mind. The gym continued to train him even when they heard about the incident in the winter of 2008 when Israel punched Palestine so hard in the stomach she spit out over 1,400 pints of blood! You’d think any gym in its right mind would cancel its client’s membership but this one had no choice since it was being cut at the throat by Israel’s best friend, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). I asked Palestine her advice on how to cut ties between them; she said two words: Occupy AIPAC. [Read more...]