Response to In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story

2009-12-10T21:55:00.000-05:00

Having spent months under Israeli occupation in South Lebanon, having visited the Israeli/Southern Lebanese Army (SLA) operated notorious Khiam Prison, and bombed Israeli outposts just days after the nearly overnight Israeli withdrawal from much of Lebanon, I whole heartedly empathize with the Ghada Karmi and the Palestinians. In her beautifully written and captivating memoir, In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Karmi vividly details her struggle of being expelled from her home in the Spring of 1948 in the town of Qatamon, West Jerusalem, to adapting to a new life in England, while trying to determine an identity for herself via her struggle of assimilation. Karmi’s well written memoir allows readers to understand the process and end-result that Palestinians (and others under colonial rule) continue to endure as a result of Zionism breeding and expanding within their homeland. This response demonstrates the nature of Zionism and its impact on Karmi and me, as well as Palestinians and Lebanese as a whole.

The traditional way of life within the Levant remains fragile within the lives of those living in and out of the region. Drawing upon vivid childhood memories, Karmi found her relationship with Fatima, the household maid, to leave an irreversible impression within her heart. To Karmi, Fatima replaced the absence of her mother’s role in her life; her mother was busy with daily visits with her circle of friends, as well as committing to some motherly chores when necessary. Fatima would clean the house, help Karmi’s mother cook and complete other house hold chores such as taking care of the children. Her deep reverence of Fatima stemmed from her formation with an attachment with the fellahin, or peasants, whom were at the bottom of the social ladder; the fellahin constituted a majority of Palestinians who formed the traditional customs which distinct Palestinians from other Arabs.1 Given Karmi’s search for identity in foreign England after leaving her home in West Jerusalem, she ultimately found Fatima’s representation in her lost childhood, her real home of Palestine, and in the millions of displaced Palestinian refugees. With decades of being imprisoned in fetid refugee camps and under the psychological trauma of constant threats and war, the Palestinians are somehow able to remain united together in refugee camps and within the small areas of land confinement in Palestine. To Karmi, Fatima and the fellahin were “seen as symbols of tenacity, simplicity, and steadfastness. They represented continuity and tradition and the essence of what it was to be Palestinian.”2 Fatima’s representation within Karmi’s memoir signifies her desire for a return to normalcy to a past life. Even though there are dozens of traditional women in Palestine who resemble Fatima, as she saw via her returning visit to Jerusalem, none are able to fulfill the psychological emptiness that she faced and the only fulfillment would be returning to her home and childhood memories in Qatamon.

In a similar vein, I, too, obtain the indescribable bond that Karmi obtains in relation to the fellahin. Originally from South Lebanon and being familiar with the deep ancestral roots from this agricultural region of the world, I highly and constantly revere the peasant way of life. My great-great grandfather and great-grandfather both toiled the lands in South Lebanon during the Ottoman rule, French colonial rule, and also, throughout the decades after Lebanon’s “independence” in 1943. This tradition was passed on to my family and the same tradition continues today largely within the Lebanese culture. Like Palestine, Lebanon, too, is a rich, agricultural country and their fellahin also represent virtues of “tenacity, simplicity, and steadfastness.”3 The peasant farmers’ way of life in South Lebanon are what distinguishes the Lebanese from other Arabs; the peasants controlling the merchant routes that cut through their lands in the valleys and toiling the precious land eventually led to the intimacy between the two. Eventually with the presence of the Israeli occupation in the late 1970’s-present, these peasant farmers turned to their knowledge of topography, transformed and utilized it into a weapon that would protect Lebanon. These peasant farmers and descendants of these peasant farmers, as well as others from of a wealthier status, in my view, compose of Lebanon’s pride known as Hezbollah. These peasants symbolize the light and hope for the Lebanese, the dispossessed Palestinians, like Karmi, and they are a people to emulate for others who suffer under occupation given justifiable means. The peasantry way of life in Palestine and Lebanon are intertwined via their similar battle for survival against Zionism. My family was internally displaced for years in the wars before 2000 and recently in Syria in 2006 from their lands in which they were unable to continue the traditional Lebanese work. When Israel occupied a majority of Lebanon, my family and the Lebanese were forced to deal with imposed curfews, shortages of food and water, internal and external displacements, and the assassination and killing campaigns committed against both the Palestinians and Lebanese; Karmi and her family had to deal with similar problems before Israel’s inception in 1948. This way of life is subject to various degrees of change depending on developments between the Palestinian and Lebanese people and Israel. Due to this degree of change, Karmi and family, especially her mother, were completely isolated from traditional culture when living in England which left them feeling many times hopeless. My family was lucky enough for Hezbollah to remove the occupation, so they may continue living their accepted way of life. The displacement due to occupational rule leaves Palestinians, as well as Lebanese hanging in the midst of hope and hopelessness, not knowing if tomorrow they can enjoy the fruits of their labor within their native homeland.

PHOTO: Israeli bombed strong point outpost in South Lebanon

The brutality of Zionist rule is demonstrated through Karmi’s memoir, as well as through my personal exploration. Within the late 1930’s and 1940’s, underground militia groups such as the Haganah, Stern Gang, and Irgun began using organized and highly-effective terror tactics as their method in forcing Palestinians out of their homes. Despite the British-Zionist collaborations that occurred over the decades of Jewish immigration, the Zionists took extreme measures to paint a picture towards the Palestinians, but also at the British military forces of who were in control of Palestine under the British Mandate. After the bombing of the Semiramis Hotel and King David Hotel bombings perpetrated by influentials like David Ben-Gurion, The Sergeants Affair demonstrated the Zionist’s desire for control, which resulted in Zionist implementation of atrocious tactics against the British. According to Karmi, in July 1947, Irgun militiamen kidnapped, killed, and then hung British sergeants because the British executed Irgun members for breaking into one of the British jails in Acre.4 This murder was also reported by Gene Currivan, a reporter for The New York Times. “Irgun Zvai Leumi announced today in a clandestine broadcast that it had executed two British army sergeants, Marvyn Paice and Clifford Martin, held as hostages.” Further in the article, Currivan states:

The two men had been held by the terrorists since July 12, when Lieut. Gen. G. H. A. MacMillan, general officer commanding the Palestine forces, confirmed the death sentences on three Irgun Zvai Leumi members who had participated in the Acre prison break on May 4. Those three were hanged on Tuesday morning at Acre.5

As revenge, the Irgun militiamen executed the British sergeants and left their booby-trapped dead bodies hanging from a tree. When the British military forces came to retrieve the bodies from the tree, they exploded. This inconceivable action brought memories of what heinous crimes members supposedly organized within Al-Qaeda committed in the Iraqi city of Tel-Afar in 2005. Armed men kidnapped Iraqi civilians, executed them, and then left their dead bodies in alleyways for the relative(s) to come pick-up. Once the relative(s) retrieved the body, the perpetrators would click the detonation button and the body would explode, killing the relative(s). Too, the Palestinians bared the forefront of brutality and mass killings as seen via the Deir Yassin Massacre in April that led to Karmi and her family leaving from their home to Damascus, then England. “But because of Deir Yassin’s proximity to Jerusalem, the news reached us first and led to an accelerated exodus from our city.”6 As seen in Palestine and Iraq, the morality of colonialism and war is unlimited.

As Ariel Sharon had his network of mobile “defense in-depth” fully functioning, like Karmi, I experienced hiding under the cover of war only once in my life and it was in the summer of 1996. This experience did not faze me; for I was too young and my family spent time in the underground bunker where we were temporary sheltered from viewing the battles that raged above the surface. It was a visit to Khiam Prison that opened my mind to the brutality of occupation. Khiam prison was an Israeli-SLA run prison for those who opposed occupation. Once Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah took control of the prison and turned it into a museum. My first impression of the prison was one of tremendous intimidation. The foul, cold, and dense atmosphere of the prison could not be any more obvious as items were left fresh, untouched after prisoners were freed. Cell blocks which held numerous prisoners were disgustingly flooded with feces due to (what I assume) failed plumbing. Living conditions for prisoners were intolerable for any human to withstand. I remember distinctly how the museum tour guide explained the structure of the isolation cells. The area of the isolation cells were so small, adult prisoners were forced to sit scrunched up against the cement walls for days and even weeks on end. If prisoners had to use the bathroom, they were forced to defecate and urinate upon themselves. The only source of food either the Israeli or SLA guards would provide for the isolated prisoners would be two pieces of bread and one boiled egg which would be slipped through a small sliding metal door into the cell. The tour guide then began explaining the purpose of the small ceiling hole on the cement roof of the cell. In order to block the full available sunlight from entering the cell as the sun rises to its zenith and then descends, pipes where fitted and attached around the opening of the hole on the ceiling. The significance of the hole in the ceiling within the cell was to provide the prisoners with limited sight; a measure of slowly psychologically breaking them down. Once finished with the isolated prison cells, the tour guide explained how this and other forms of torture were common. The torturing of prisoners encouraged them to escape for freedom; those who attempted to escape where either shot, successfully escaped, or left dead or alive with missing limbs. Around the prison Israel burned the trees and planted a sea of mines to ensure that prisoners would not escape their dark world. What I saw at Khiam Prison forever left me with fresh images of the brutality of occupation and most importantly, left me with a sense of the reality unknown to me, but familiar to my family, the Lebanese, and Palestinians. The atrocities the Lebanese and Palestinians continue to endure due to Zionism leaves them suffering with psychological scars which, like Karmi, can never be healed unless there is justice, as true peace will follow.

Holding cell at Khiam Prison; in the 2006 war, Israel bombed Khiam Prison as a tactic to erase its history in Lebanon

This tactic of destroying natural landscape was a strategic one for Zionists in Lebanon and in Palestine. Down the road from my grandfather’s house is an enormous valley, between numerous mountains, once composed of hundreds of dunams of lemon, olive, berry, plum, and Lebanon’s most famous, cedar trees. Atop the mountains on outposts and mobile by land and air, Israel bombed and burned all agricultural life in the valley. From standing upon the outpost on a trip after Israeli withdrawal, I could see, like a hawk, village beyond village while rummaging through the remains of Israeli ammunition, combat gear, all while avoiding mines. I fully realized how the livelihoods of the peasants and land owners were severed and destroyed. Over fifty years ago, Zionists applied similar tactics in order to transform and erase the lands and homes Karmi and her family, as well as over 600,000 refugees, toiled and lived upon. Trees were planted over the remains of villages which created a façade, as if the lands were uninhabited, much like the mountainous terrain that has been untouched within the region. The Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization created in 1901 to buy and develop land for immigrating Jews of Europe, over time continued to exercise its power to assist in erasing Palestinian history. An Israeli-born fairly new revisionist historian by the name of Ilan Pappe explains the type of power the JNF obtained. “It was the Settlement Department in the JNF that decided the fate of the destroyed villages once they had been flattened: whether a Jewish settlement or a Zionist forest would take its place.”7 With the JNF strategy in erasing Palestinian livelihood, finding those precious, dormant childhood and adult memories, which have been held on for so long, are just simply memories and so far, nothing more. The planting of greenery ultimately symbolizes the statehood of permanence. This is accomplished once the settlements, institutions, and roads are built for foreign families to utilize on Palestinian lands. Karmi realized this notion of permanence when she visited her homeland after forty-two years. She visited numerous cities and sites such as Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias, Haram al-Sharif, Tulkarm, and Qatamon. While on her journey, she made the contrast between Palestinian and Israeli villages and towns which present a high inequality within the so-called democratic state. Karmi describes Arab villages (referred to as shacks) as having “no running water, no electricity, no public services of any kind.”8 She continues: “A glance through the gaps between shacks and we could see the well-built homes of the Israeli village across the hill, its neat playgrounds and shady trees, its large range rovers driving in and out.”9 Karmi further brings to light this exercise in behavior while she visited the Knesset and Holocaust museum on her search for her identity. “The next day, I visited the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, built on the flattened and now unrecognizable land of the Palestinian village of Lifta. . . . The Holocaust museum nearby was also built on the confiscated Arab land.”10 Karmi finally was able to see the total transformation of her native lands, which further fuels her and the Palestinian isolation and connection with what was once their familiar homeland. For the Israeli consulate to decline her emigration request despite her being allowed back on a tourist visa simply demonstrates Israel’s stance towards Palestinians; they were never meant return, after all, it’s been that way for 61 years and recently, hopefully there will be Israelis to transform the political power structure within Israel and commit themselves to what is just. The Israeli stance is due to the outrageous lengths that Israel goes through to deny Palestinians their right of return, but allows all Jews from anywhere around the world to permanently immigrate to Israel under the Israeli Law of Return.

Olive trees in South Lebanon

After the life changing experience with class peers with the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis, which drew Karmi in closer to her Palestinian identity, as well as hearing Israeli PM Golda Meir’s statement concerning the Palestinians on how ‘”They did not exist,”’ Karmi eventually embarked on her journey through political activism as leader of an organization called Palestine Action; she also utilized her medical skills to assist and aid Palestinian refugees.11 She decided to travel to Beirut to meet Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yassir Arafat, and later to refugee camps, and also to Libya to meet members of the Palestinian mujahideen. Her travels encouraged her to rediscover herself with reality on the ground.

I decided that the only honourable course open to me was to leave my comfortable, dishonest English lifestyle, and make a genuine contribution. I would take my medical skills to the refugee camps where I could truly serve my people. It was a defining moment and I felt healed, cleansed and at peace with myself.12

Upon her visit, she found the refugee camps to be foul in nature. Given the decades since Karmi’s visit, they have continued to remain diluted with Lebanese society. As Middle East researcher Franklin Lamb states:

Of course the camps fundamental feature is the injustice of the refugees having been expelled from their homes in occupied Palestine and forced into Lebanon six decades ago where increasingly, here under siege, or there under brutal occupation, there is little tolerance for Palestinians or even much concern for their survival.13

Lebanon has successfully refused over 400,000 Palestinian refugees the proper temporary residency, work permits, voting allowances, and naturalization. Many Palestinians continue to rely on United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) services for survival. In this aspect, Palestinians become a severe problem that touches the major social, political, and economical spheres in Lebanon. If they are assimilated into Lebanese society, then two major consequences will follow. First, the demographic balance within Lebanon would alter and this would result in a balance shift in political power. Second, this would further provide injustices to the Palestinians because it would close the door to addressing their right of return. A clear example can be seen through the Palestinians who have been forced against their will to accept Jordanian citizenship, thanks to the long history of collaboration between two corrupt parties. The newly formed Lebanese government needs to allow Palestinians social and civil rights in order for them to obtain adequate housing, work, and healthcare status until the issue of Palestinian return is successfully addressed and Palestinians can return to their homeland. The Palestinians certainly cannot continue to remain idle, suffering physically and psychologically within their fragile lives. Aside from the efforts of the UNRWA, institutional scholars and advocacy groups such as Karmi’s Palestinian Action would perish or remain unable to drastically improve the plight of refugees in Israel, Gaza, West Bank, and in the Arab states. Many advocacy groups like Karmi’s hit a dead-end, due to the strong influence the media obtains, which suppresses the truth concerning these problems. And with this, all Palestinians continue to remain neglected in their current state of affairs. With the millions of dollars and crucial time spent on trying to produce a solution to the Palestinian refugees and a two state solution, everything has failed; justice has to be served in order for the families of Palestinian refugees, including the descendants of those in massacres such as the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982, may live at peace.

United Nations patrolling South Lebanon

Karmi’s written experiences prove that the Western view (refusing to clearly accept the reality on the ground when it comes to the process of the establishment of Israel) is a facade. The West accepts the myth that numerous Israeli historians such as Benny Morris advocate and that is the land in Palestine was founded on the basis of emptiness; She was barren without any inhabitants. Karmi’s heart-breaking and tearful memoir, In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, leaves me wondering, how and when justice will be served, so both the Palestinians like Karmi and her family, as well as Lebanese may be reunited with their ancestral roots and both may live at peace. It leaves me wondering when those in Congo, Mexico, Chechnya, Albania, Iraq, the Americas etc. (the list can go on and on) will receive true justice and true autonomy from illegitimate wars and imperialistic conquests that have reigned over their lives all for the selfish satisfaction of a lavish lifestyle or a mystic vision to large number of criminals and thugs. It leaves me wondering when the military industrial complexes will crumble within the midst of failure of exceeding their limits. The severe scars of war have forever left its victims in internal turmoil forever burdened without a proper home and burial resting place; at least those whom Fatima represents will one day find this peace when rights are served honorably to those Palestinians and Lebanese who have been displaced and are suffering from mischief caused by Israel and now declining foreign powers.

Notes

1.Ghada Karmi, In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story (Verso, 2002), 18.
2.Ibid; 20-21.
3.Ibid.
4.Ibid; 71.
5.“Hostages Hanged, Irgun Announces,” New York Times, July 31, 1947, 1.
6.Karmi, 125.
7.Ilan Pappe. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications Limited, 2006), 220-221.
8.Karmi, 433.
9.Ibid.
10.Ibid; 440.
11.Karmi, 383.
12.Karmi, 404.
13.Franklin Lamb. “Palestinian Camps Are Ready to Erupt.” http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb09172009.html.

Bibliography

1.Currivan, Gene. “Hostages Hanged, Irgun Announces,” New York Times, July 31, 1947.
2.Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. England: Oneworld Publications Limited, 2006.
3.Karmi, Ghada. In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. London: Verso, 2002.
4.Lamb, Franklin. “Palestinian Camps Are Ready to Erupt,” Counter Punch, http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb09172009.html (accessed Nov. 12, 2009).

* Khiam Prison Photo retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3746199.stm

Writings on the Middle East and Various Topics of Interest

Response to In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story