The erasure of the Palestinian collective creativity and memory.
The deliberate targeting of the Palestinian genius minds, artists, and prodigies in a direct and concentrated effort to detach the next Palestinian generation from their collective memory.
Go back to writing stories? I write well because I believe in a cause, in principles. The day I leave these principles, my stories will become empty. If I were to leave behind my principles, you yourself would not respect me.”
― Ghassan Kanafani
Peace and mercy of Allah Almighty be upon the pure souls of the Palestinian martyrs who have recently lost their lives and been transferred to the afterlife. They are now eyewitnesses who will inevitably testify to the horrors they once witnessed and reluctantly bore. They feel for their mourners and wish they could reassure them that they are now in a safe sanctuary where no evil monster or human devil can inflict harm on them. These martyrs haven't written their will before departing for the next life; death caught them off guard. Death happens in the blink of an eye, so much so that no one can immediately make sense of how unpredictable it can be.
But if death comes faster than an eye's blink and proves to be unpredictable and the Palestinian martyrs left no will behind, how can we know what they want us to do for their sake and the Palestinians’? Well, we don't need to be clairvoyant to learn what the martyrs would ask for before suddenly and unexpectedly leaving this miserable world. You need to be a true human exuding humanity and mercy to understand that our Palestinian martyrs’ collective will is to follow in their footsteps and complete what they have been prevented from finishing because of their unexpected demise.
A Palestinian journalist's will is to continue to cling to the truth and report the Palestinian suffering with impartiality and sincerity. Had he had a few minutes before the Israeli bullet penetrated the left side of his forehead and settled in the brain, the Palestinian journalist might have passed his blood-covered press vest and press kits down to a courageous Palestinian child who fervently dreamed of being a speaker of the truth and conveying the Palestinian cry to the deaf, blind world. He had already done the job on his part before the Israeli killing machine harvested his soul. Now it is our turn to build upon what he once began to construct but couldn't put the last touch on.
A Palestinian painter whose extraordinary hands and brilliant mind are irreversible losses to the Palestinian creative camps is expected to visit us in one collective dream to confirm her willingness to give her painting tools to a Palestinian fledgling painter. She wants the Palestinian talented child to depict the Palestinians’ deliberate deprivation of safety, freedom, and self-determination. Sometimes paintings can capture the essential meaning of agony and melancholy that words cannot fully translate. The overlapping of different colours and shades, along with the main object in the painting whose silhouette gives a three-dimensional impression to the painting, and the zero point at which the painter’s brush converges with the dry surface of the canvas are all elements of the strenuous journey of depicting the Palestinian excruciating pain in a great painting. Before she took her last breath, she wistfully stared at her painting that soaked up her streaming blood. The painting reeked of blood and looked distorted as her blood covered it partly. But what if the blood staining her painting is more expressive than mere colours and patterns? What if this blood-covered painting becomes evidence of the deliberate targeting of the Palestinian artists and of the Palestinian insistence on telling the world the Palestinian story through art? It isn't shocking to try to get rid of someone to erase their impact on their honourable cause, only to realize that by killing them and letting their art live as a public's inheritance, you unintentionally make their voice louder?
The divine decree is dominant, so spare your attempts to silence the truth. A Palestinian novelist had not written the final chapter of his novel that narrated the story of the unending Palestinian catastrophe, for the Israeli bomb was faster than the movement of his hands on the keyboard. The last page he wrote was filled with blood. Isn't it a telling end? Does anyone have to write a conclusion to the novel? You may be too pessimistic to say yes and endorse this incomplete project. But what if I inform you that the deceased novelist's last wish is to pass his unfinished novel down to a Palestinian aspiring writer to write the final chapter?
“Sometimes a homeland becomes a tale. We love the story because it is about our homeland and we love our homeland even more because of the story.”
― Refaat Alareer, Gaza Writes Back
Decimating the Palestinian creative and innovative minds is not a new strategy to kill the Palestinian spirit, as the Israelis never cease to kill the Palestinian attempt to save and enshrine the Palestinian historical elements. The very notion that there is a Palestinian artist or writer or journalist who is likely to be representative of the Palestinians and convey their voices to the world raises the enemy's ire. Our collective enemy does not want any Palestinian with a talent or prowess to be a Palestinian icon whose popularity is expected to grow beyond the wall of the occupation entity. The Palestinians are not allowed to talk for themselves, to express their decades-long, man-made agony, to demand freedom and self-determination, to ask for their rights to a life with dignity, and to awaken the world's sleeping conscience. The malicious plan is crystal clear: in order to shred the Palestinian cultural fabric, you need to tear the parts that connect a certain people into pieces.
You have to make holes in the fabric itself if you can't tear it up. Thus, the Palestinian collective soul has no place to go after the rupturing of the Palestinian cultural fabric. This fabric is designed to protect the Palestinian cultural and historical heritage from intentional Western and Israeli falsification and distortion. If you look carefully at how the Western colonialist power deals with the oppressed and the colonized and their cultural elements, it is undeniable that cultural erasure is amongst the first used strategies to bury even the mention of the cultural commonalities of a certain people. After waging a deadly war on the culture of the occupied, the occupiers rush to take up the role of representing the occupied and speaking on their behalf without using their cultural knowledge as a reference or asking for their collective permission.
This toxic colonialist and Imperialist mindset that leads the occupiers to arrogate to themselves the illegal right to represent the occupied is traced back to the European colonialists who didn't allow the colonized to express themselves and their culture. This is simply because the occupiers believe that their culture is superior to that of the occupied. At the end of the day, the cultural elements of a certain people are the roots that are well grounded and impossible to be completely removed, so if you desire to erase a people and cut their bonds with the land, you need to dig out the roots of their collective cultural background.
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But this is impossible; no one can wholly uproot the cultural elements of a certain people without leaving a trace behind. The fact that some of us are familiar with how the native Americans would dress and work despite being decimated by the bloodthirsty European colonialists bears out my argument. Culture is by nature inclusive and infectious, meaning you can't contain its wild growth or eliminate its impact. Moreover, the idea of excluding the original people of the occupied land from speaking for themselves is at the heart of Orientalism, which looks at the Orient through the lens of exoticism to justify the Western cultural superiority at the expense of alienating the other's culture. Thus, the occupiers guarantee that there is no cultural resistance that gradually morphs into grassroots resistance movements designed and executed by the oppressed. Cultural collective memories are evidence of a certain people's right to their land, and this is exactly what concerns the occupiers the most.
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When it comes to the Palestinian genius minds who initiate a cultural revival through their work, the Israelis target the Palestinian talented people to a) prevent them from growing into Palestinian icons whose honourable acts can be emulated and b) create and maintain “the other’s cultural dominance”. Thus, the Palestinians have no role models to follow in their footsteps, nor do they have a cultural tapestry to connect them all. Another reason for slaughtering creative minds in Palestine is to spread fear and make it clear that whoever tries to resist culturally will be under threat. This explains why Israel kills Palestinian iconic figures in literature, medicine, journalism, and science. The ingenuity of these people refutes the Israeli claim that the Palestinians are barbaric, violent, and benighted. Creative work like novels orchestrated by Palestinian writers or scientific breakthroughs done by Palestinian scientists defy the common Israeli allegation that the Palestinians are passive and reactive. In actuality, my people are active and productive.
Another misconception enforced by the Israeli occupation is that the Palestinians are sellouts and are ready to sell their lands for wealth or power. But the Palestinians’ loyalty to their culture and their land and their people, which is manifested in their creative, moving literary work and mesmerizing art, calls this attackable claim into question. From the Israeli standpoint, it is of paramount importance to support their lies by deleting the prominent Palestinian names from the history of Palestine and stripping them of their indispensability in the Palestinian cultural fabric. You cannot wipe out the land’s owner without making sure that their cultural traces and impressions no longer exist. People will inevitably find out the cultural elements of these people, even if they are no longer alive, and this is what motivates the Israelis to dismantle the Palestinian structure of culture in the first place. The Israeli mantra goes as follows: “ death to the Palestinians and their culture”.
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Furthermore, common cultural elements like traditional customs and cuisines are what give compatriots a sense of belonging. Without the cultural tapestry to which all members of the Palestinian society belong, people may not feel that they are well connected with each other. For our enemy, it is easy to lose connection and a sense of belonging to the Palestinian society because most of the Palestinians are in diaspora. Although the horrible implications of war and displacement impact a unified society adversely, the Palestinians find themselves united under the umbrella of their culture, so to speak. It is not a random culture, it is the one that takes Islam into consideration and therefore respects all religions and tolerates religious differences. Those who once represented the Palestinian resilience in their own domains are held in high regard despite their religious background, for they all belong to Palestine and Palestine is the country of religious tolerance. Palestine has been one of the rare historical examples that show the possibility of the coexistence of different religions without experiencing religious persecution or intolerance. Before the time when the demographic reality began to change in Palestine due to the continuing influx of European Jews sailing to the coastal shore of Palestine, the Palestinians from different religious groups lived in harmony with one another.
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All this to say that killing iconic names in art and literature, journalism, science, and other fields is fruitless and dangerous at the same time. Once we lose a precious soul that once contributed to the revival and survival of our Palestinian culture, a small hole in the Palestinian cultural fabric becomes visible. But this does mean that while we mourn our losses, we hasten to fix the hole by introducing a new creative mind to our cultural fabric as he continues to carry out the mission of saving the collective memories of Palestine. You can't kill the spirits of people whose roots are grounded in their land are as strong as the roots of the olive tree. Remember, O enemy, that when we press the olives, we produce pure olive oil that has endless health benefits and a unique national symbol. Similarly, when you put the Palestinians under pressure, their creativity leads to producing something whose beauty and impression transcend your imagination.
A few eminent Palestinian icons killed in recent years.
I'd love to create a long list of the Palestinian names that we lost to the enemy's targeting. These names hold within their stories the spirit of faith and resilience. We, as Palestinians, learn from them, get inspired by their work, and commemorate their art. ( As I am editing, I can't find a list of the Palestinian martyrs’ names).
Shireen Abo Akle was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin camp in 2022. She was a devoted journalist and reporter who worked hard to provide the world with an accurate account of any event she would cover. She worked in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Palestine. We still remember Shireen and many look at her as their role models.
In the 70s of the past century, the prominent Palestinian writer and novelist Ghassan Kanafani was assassinated, along with his niece, in a car bomb. A majestic funeral was held for the assassinated Palestinian writer in the streets of Beirut. To this day, Beirut and his lovers around the globe commemorate Ghassan Kanafani and pay tribute to the literary legacy he has left before leaving unexpectedly. We still read his stories. His words still make a difference, leave an impression, and lead to change.
Refaat Alareer was a leading writer, poet, activist, and professor in Gaza. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 6 December 2023. He left this life, but his influence and impression still grow. His students have probably inherited the synthesizing of beautiful words from his poetic creativity.
Also, Naji Al-Ali was a renowned Palestinian cartoonist known for the most famous Palestinian symbol: Handala. Naji was assassinated on 29 August 1986 in London. His distinguishable Palestinian Handala lives as an inseparable part of the Palestinian cultural foundation. His blood might fill the streets of London, but his cultural legacy is still alive.
These names came to my mind, but the list can go on endlessly. There are Palestinian names that may not gain popularity but manage to leave a legacy, an unforgettable contribution to the Palestinian cause. Hundreds of journalists, writers, healthcare workers, scientists, and teachers have been killed in an attempt to make holes in the Palestinian cultural tapestry. Some of these names have been documented and therefore gained popularity, while others were too mutilated to be recognized or too hidden to be seen and therefore their names sank into oblivion. But if we don't know them, Allah Almighty definitely does. We tend to count the creative minds that we lose because they prove to be creative. What about the Palestinian names that sincerely wanted to become iconic figures in their fields and were killed before achieving their dreams? In this case, our losses are beyond redemption, beyond irreversibility, and beyond contemplation.
Let me collect different Palestinian threads from a wide variety of Palestinian creative minds. Let me take a thread of eloquence from a Palestinian writer, a thread of impartiality from a Palestinian journalist, a thread of creativity from a Palestinian novelist, a thread of resistance from a Palestinian playwright, a thread of resilience from a Palestinian poet, and a thread of pristine beauty from a Palestinian painter. Let me get them all together and embark on weaving a Palestinian thob that looks and feels Palestinian. Let me adore its edges with the delicate embroidery of olive branches. Let me tighten the yarns together lest the fabric lose its durability. I don't want the fabric to betray me or my people. Enough is it to be betrayed by the whole world. Let me spray the heavenly fragrance of Jaffa oranges on the sleeves of my thob. Let me embroider some tiny figs and olives around the neck of my thob. Let me add the magical touches of symbols of sage and zat’tar on the back of my thob. And then let me be reunited with my people. Perhaps the thob protects us from leaving history forever. Perhaps the thob warms up our shivering souls.
With love, Marwa 🌹✨
I truly loved it thank you for writing such powerful and moving words to honor our martyrs 💔💔
Thank you for sharing… it was a heartbreaking and beautiful piece that touched the soul
Thank you so much for this necessary piece! 🕊