Publisher: Haus Publishing
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My Palestine, An Impossible Exile written by Mohammad Tarbush is a raw, evocative, and intimate piece of writing not just about the cataclysms of human suffering, but the debilitating conditions of humanity. And, in the midst of personal and national tragedies; it is also a story – a lived experience – of resilience, struggle and that of interminable hope.
In the foreword, the author’s daughter Nada Tarbush explains the importance and relevance of this book in a world rife with conflict, siege, oppression and media warfare. A singular point that gives one and all numerous reasons to chin up, move forward and never to give up, she writes: ‘If my father’s story has taught me one lesson, it would be do not despair. He lived by and embodied that motto. Nothing was unattainable, no situation desperate enough to throw up hands and give up. There was always a solution, always ease to be found after hardship. Despite the tragic story of his family and his people, he maintained a relentless and stubborn hope.’
From the very outset, Tarbush’s life story delves deep into the political and humanitarian crises that are a result of a concocted narrative about the warped correlation of Israel’s so-called safety with that of the freedom, human and inalienable rights to self-determination of the natives of Palestine. In the introduction, the author comments: ‘What was perhaps unique about the Palestinian tragedy was that we were not only expelled from our homeland under all sorts of pretexts – that went as far as divine postulations – but that the onus was on us to explain and prove our victimhood. More often than not, I was faced with the harsh reality in which we were viewed as villains out to undermine Israel’s security.’
The rawness and simplicity of Tarbush’s writings evokes not just empathy, it rouses and inspires in the readers a sense of belonging… the reader becomes part of the journey, becomes a part of the human tragedy that has taken place not just from the point of the Nakba or the terrible aftermath year on year; but also before due to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate. What makes the Palestinian story more heartbreaking is that people – Muslims, Jews, Christians – lived in harmony. ‘What has not been assimilated enough into Western public psyche is the fundamental fact that, before the advent of Zionism, peaceful coexistence between the Jews, Muslims and Christians had been the hallmark of the life in historic Palestine, and, more generally harmony prevailed between Jews and Muslims…’ the author mourns.
The book opens up dialogue about the rationale behind the indefatigable support, sponsorship and encouragement of an inherently genocidal, inhuman onslaught of oppression. Seeking redemption for the crimes they themselves inflicted especially on European Jews and a subterfuge to sweep these grave wrongdoings under the carpet; the West strategically propelled a discourse that trigged the expelling, exile and annihilation of one set of humans for the illusory safety of the ‘other’: both sets of people othered, becoming more and more unsafe, vulnerable.
Walking down memory lane, Tarbush writings grieve about the life prior to the Nakba. The author beautifully paints a picture of harmonious cohesion in all its diversity which epitomized Jerusalem. ‘Jerusalem was a place of endless excitement. There, in the old city enclosed by the magnificent pale golden walls, life was concentrated, bursting through the narrow streets, a ceaseless throbbing as people yelled, sang, moaned, laughed… All humanity was represented in Jerusalem…’ There is a melancholy between the lines that resonates with the readers especially when Tarbush sets in place the discord, chaos and devastation besetting hapless families and leaving a nation in turmoil. The juxtaposition is stark as the shift tumultuous.
Sectioned into three part and an epilogue, Tarbush generously shares pearls of wisdom, anecdotes and perspectives through his personal and familial struggles. He reveals the despair and desperation of his people – the forced migrations, the squalid conditions under which Palestinians began to live after the Nakba; yet living in the hopes of perhaps one day – not far away – they will go back.
Tarbush also unwraps the complicity of the powers that be and the political gameplay for their own vested interests under the guise of diplomacy. ‘By blocking peaceful efforts, Israel and its allies sent the dangerous message to Palestinians that peaceful means do not work. They sent the message to desperate people on the ground that there was no horizon for them, no hope, and that international law, negotiations and the UN system were not effective when it came to violations against them. Warnings that this irresponsible behavior would only breed animosity and violence were ignored. For decades pleas for the international community to take action to put an end to the status quo of Israeli structural violence, institutionalized racism, land theft and brutality against the Palestinian people fell on deaf ears. This colossal political and moral failure led to where we were now – a situation that was in the interests of no one, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis, and that made any prospect for peace and stability in the region more distant.’
Juxtaposed with national tragedy, the book explores the stark contrast of life outside the hegemonic politics of suppression as well as the dilemma and negotiations of identity, in other words the predicament of a life of a refugee in exile.
Indeed, it is an astonishing story of a young man – who dares to dream even with the oppressors against it, one who aspires, hopes and subsequently constructs his own destiny. From building creations in his hometown, forced migration… crushing journeys to Jerusalem, Jericho and beyond in the hopes to find safety, solace and fulfilment, living as a refugee to sweeping floors and cleaning bathrooms at the Goetheanum to working as an interpreter, catching the eye of a Saudi King and getting a part of his education funded by an Emirati ruler to sharing rooms and views with fellow Palestinian Edward Said, it is indeed an extraordinary life – a story that categorically disavows hopelessness, a quality so intrinsically Palestinian!
Indeed, it vociferously refutes and challenges the very lines, the reader initially encounters in the book, a classical poem about a blind boy, recited by Tarbush’s grandfather during the idyllic days of Palestine that sent shivers to his listeners:
‘O, My Mother!
What is the shape of the sky?
And, what is light?
And, what is the moon?
You people talk about its beauty
Yet I see no trace of it
In this world filled with never-ending darkness?’
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Haus Publishing: https://www.hauspublishing.com/product/my-palestine/
Blackwell’s: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/search/isbn/9781913368999
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-palestine/mohammad-tarbush/nada-tarbush/9781913368999
The University of Chicago Press: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo239335969.html
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