Celebrating Our Heritage and Beautiful Land
At the Palestinian Workshop [see previous article], we came together from Palestine/Israel, Sweden, and the USA.
It was a great contradiction [to distress] to come together and celebrate our wonderful heritage and beautiful land. I felt at ease knowing that I didn’t have to say much to be fully understood.
Azi focused on
- reclaiming our Palestinian identity and knowing that being Palestinian has nothing to do with the Palestine/Israel conflict; and
- healing the “occupation” of our minds.
She reminded us that we are good, good, good! We come from a beautiful land! We have a rich culture and heritage. We are not defined by the conflict or the occupation. This resonated with me. Simply stating, “I’m Palestinian,” feels like a political statement. I’m very conscious about whom I announce it to. I often keep it hidden to “protect” myself from a person’s reaction.
Azi described how occupation and colonization have affected both our lands and our minds. We Palestinians have distress recordings from attempted genocide that can seem to erase our heritage, culture, writing, thinking, language, and so on. Feelings of despair, hopelessness, fear, and terror can take over.
The good news is that we can discharge and heal from the hurts. Azi reminded us that Arabs—and Palestinians, in particular—are good, smart, kind, and fully human. We have always stood up against occupation. We have never given up. We need to get to where Palestine is not an occupied land and our people have access to food, water, our own language, and education.
As hard as that sounds, I can’t wait to continue working on Palestinian liberation, including finding great allies to help along the way.
Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of South, Central, and West Asian-heritage people
(Present Time 201, October 2020)