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Seeking Palestine:
New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home Gassan Kanafani, the young Palestinian poet, writes: "The only thing that we know is that tomorrow will be no better than today, and that we are waiting on the banks, yearning for a boat that will not come. We’re sentenced to be separated from everything except for our own destruction." Barriers remain rigid and decisive, social distance between the Palestinians and the Israelis continues unabated. It is often asked: Which was more painful, to be a refugee in someone else’s country or a refugee in your own? And the great poet Mahmoud Darwish would answer: "A place is not a geographical area; it’s also a state of mind; and trees are not just trees; they are the ribs of childhood."
According to Fady Joudah, the Palestinian-American poet, there could be four ways of coming to grips with his countrymen and their sense of displacement: "1) a Palestine that was, and then was lost; 2) a Palestine that was and was not lost; 3) a Palestine that never was, and yet was lost; 4) a Palestine that never was, and yet was not lost." The sense of loss, of return, of "where we are" coalesces into that ultimate dream of facing the condition of exile without despair, of being free wanderers on the face of the earth hoping to return. This is the historical tragedy, a nightmare of bitterness and suffering, written into the reflections and memories, into feelings of nostalgic grieving and longing, making the book a testimony of the perseverance of the Palestinian people, be it the revolutionary leaders planning and plotting within the school campus in Karma Nabulsi’s "Exiled from Revolution", or the women quarrelling with officers who insist on deporting them in Rana Barakat’s "The Night to Wait". Is it not unfortunate and painful to see Palestinians in Saud Amiry’s story impatiently trying to convince a customs official who "continues to search for a code for a country that isn’t recognised?" The greatest provocation lies in witnessing the death of Palestinians while their oppressors seem to be inexorably scaling the economic ladder. In the absence of any workable strategy, it seems that the only alternative before the Palestinians is to "accommodate an Israel bent on (their) destruction." Though deeply disappointed by the daily suffering and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and the Hamas government in Gaza that has consistently failed, the feelings for fairness and warm human contact still endure in the hearts of the Palestinians. While the war goes on, it is surprising that the love of art and poetry has not vanished. As Hammami jokes: "We had humour, but not fun". The joke about the Hebronites sets all the passengers in the taxi laughing, a symbolic gesture of resistance witnessed also when the passengers join together with the women in pushing the taxi when it breaks down. The book sets out to ask central questions in the introduction: "How do Palestinians live, imagine and think about home and exile six decades after the dismemberment of historic Palestine? What happens when the "idea of Palestine" that animated so many around the globe becomes an "Authority" and Palestine a patchwork of divided territory?" Rana Barakat, one of the contributors, puts it quite succinctly: "All Palestinians experience exile for Palestine itself was exiled." Seeking Palestine is one way to come to some resolution through the written word that would take them to the very roots that define their identity and their being. The ongoing crisis has indeed become a stimulus for this powerful act of resistance.
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Seeking Palestine
is a collection of poetry, fiction and political prose that takes
politics and history as the underpinning forces of national literature
thereby becoming an effective and moving depiction of the Middle-East
crisis. For Palestinian creative writers, literature becomes a weapon
of resistance to the long-drawn Israeli imperialism. The sense of
displacement experienced within and outside Palestine leaves the
overpowering desire to return home. "What is a homeland?"
Darwish asks. "To hold on to your memory – that is
homeland". Interestingly, Darwish’s poetry and his spirit
permeate the entire collection of brilliant pieces "seeking"
the evasive Palestine.