My great-grandfather, uncle, and aunt in Palestine.
In 1938, my grandfather was born in a land called Palestine. Ten years later, unmarked soldiers would come into his village, break down doors, and steal his neighbors’ homes and lands. Suddenly, the radio wasn't calling the land Palestine anymore, marking the beginning of the Nakba (The Catastrophe), which is commemorated today. Some of his neighbors were killed, some of them were taken as prisoners to work in labor camps, and some had to move far away, confined to crumbling refugee camps in surrounding countries like Jordan and Lebanon.
My great-grandmother in Palestine.
30 years later, in 1968, my grandfather's dad was shot in the head by an Israeli settler. Not only were my grandfather and his siblings having to confront the fact that their land looked and felt different now, but also that this difference caused their father to be murdered. Imagine how aged a child could feel from enduring an active ethnic cleansing campaign that killed their livelihood and even their parent.
The key to fighting back against Zionist narratives is keeping Palestinian stories alive and sustaining the movement.
Meanwhile, my other set of grandparents had left Palestine temporarily for better education. A key tool of the occupation where the land is being carved away and settled by foreign invaders includes denying the indigenous population a good education. So, my grandma went to Germany and my grandfather to the Soviet Union.
When they returned in 1967, instead of sharing what they had learned about the world with their families, they were denied entry to their homeland. This was during the Naksa, or the Setback, when Israel began its internationally recognized occupation of the Palestinian people and their land. My grandparents were barred from entering Palestine indefinitely and had to move to Jordan, starting a life without their parents and siblings in a country that wasn't theirs.
My grandmother has only been to Palestine once since then, and my grandfather twice. They are only a 2-hour car ride away from their childhood homes.
Grapes in my grandparents' garden.
My grandparents' stories are just four of thousands and thousands of stories, and many are much worse. This is the reality of the Palestinian existence during the ongoing Nakba. Either you know someone who has experienced the first-hand trauma of the first-ever genocidal campaign by Israel in 1948, or you know someone who has experienced it today, 78 years later, as it is still happening in besieged Gaza and the settled West Bank.
Israel not only stripped Palestinians of their homes, land, and wealth, but also of their dignity. For years, we have been seen as subhumans meant to be subjugated and humiliated in mass bombing campaigns and restrictive apartheid. On the surface, it may seem that the Nakba is going in a way that Palestine will be destroyed. However, I see it in an opposite light: the fact that the Palestinian identity and struggle are still raging on today is a true testament that the goals of political Zionism are failing.
Thousands of people are reading this e-mail because they care about the Palestinian cause, although they may not even be Palestinian. That wasn't the case only a few years ago, and it is truly awe-inspiring to see the waves the Palestine solidarity movement has made in such a short amount of time—with the help of peacemakers like you. I know that we will all be in a struggle together until Palestine is free, and although the grief is heavy, the feeling of revolutionary optimism that the time of liberation is coming soon prevails.
Share these stories as we push back against the lies and violence against humanity.
Graffiti on a wall in Jordan, captured in July 2023.
"The homeland is the heart, the pulse, the artery, and the eyes. We are its sacrifice. Palestine."
Until Liberation,
Story by Jenin and the entire CODEPINK team.
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