How is the experience of exile dealth with in Palestinian memoirs

“After the War”, a book written by Carol Matas, is a captivating story about a group of Jewish people who illegally immigrate to Palestine. Throughout this story, we learn about the many struggles that the Jewish people had after WW2 ended. They had to find many ways to fight for their right to live. Some of these survival techniques include lying, stealing, and hiding.

Elias Chocour’s novel, Blood Brothers, represents his point of view on the contemporary Palestinian position regarding the holy land of Israel. The book traces the transformation of Chocour’s life, from a Melkite Christian Palestinian boy into a powerful spiritual leader and innovative agent in facilitating better race relations in the region. He shows how Palestinian’ needs were left out during the formation of the State of Israel, and how their plight is highly misunderstood, and often grossly distorted because of ignorance. Chocour’s depiction of the problem facing non-Jews is highly illuminating, and Blood Brothers will dispel many illusions and fallacies that cloud the facts surrounding the

“States,” by Edward Said is an essay written by a Palestinian man with first-hand accounts of daily life in that region of the Middle-East. Said was renowned in the literary community as one of the most “distinguished literary critics and scholars...” Born in Jerusalem in 1935, Said, at the age of twelve, fled with his family to Cairo during the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state. In his essay, Said begins to discuss the state of the Palestinian people. The content of his essay is an explanation and an informative look on the Palestinian people, as well their situation and their identity. In our English Composition class, we have been challenged to look past the aesthetics of “States” and look not at just

Palestinian identity has lasted the test of time through exile, diaspora, and attempts at cultural white-washing. It is through these situations that Palestine has created a unique sense of identity, unlike many nation-states. The Palestinian identity has come to transcend borders, nationality, and mediums. It is not only represented in politics and protest, but in personal expression and the arts. This paper argues that both national identity and cultural productions of Palestine represent the diaspora through noticeable adaptation based on location and support the idea that Palestinian identity isn't singularly definable.

‘Wild Thorns’ by Sahar Khalifeh is an insightful commentary that brings to life the Palestinian struggle under the Israeli Occupation and embodies this conflict through the different perspectives brought forth by the contrasting characters. We are primarily shown this strife through the eyes of the principal character, the expatriate Usama, as well as the foil character of his cousin, Adil. Khalifeh skillfully uses literary devices such as emotive language, allusions and positive and negative connotations to highlight life under the Occupation. As the audience, these techniques help encourage us to consider the struggle more in depth, and due to the wide variety of characters, invite us to relate to them.

“Doesn’t the world see the suffering of the millions of refugees of Palestinians who have been living in exile around the world or in refugee camps for the past 60 years? No state, no home, no identity, no right to work. Doesn’t the world see this injustice?” (Ismail Haniyeh). This is how many of the universal refugees feel. There are millions of refugees all over the world in similar situations. This is also similar to how Ha feels in the book “Inside Out and Back Again.” Ha’s life mirrors the universal refugee experience because many lives are turned inside out, they have to get used to their new living arrangements, and they have to adapt to a new world.

My sister is ripped from me, shouting and kicking with fear. Anger and confusion build up in young Rina’s wide, grey eyes. The German devils roll their eyes when they see our pain. They scuff, “Toughen up, Jews,” making us feel worse about this tragic life we’ve been forced to live. Rina yelps when a Nazi soldier slaps her and shoves her away from me. I think to myself, “This is the end. If Rina is gone and my parents are separated from us, how are we all supposed to live in this unfamiliar place alone?”

In addition, I will examine the current state of political and human rights in Israeli occupied West Bank and analyze how they are approaching a level of apartheid. Finally, I will summarize the effects of these social tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the terms of how potential open conflict could reignite.

Jewish Holocaust survivors enduring horrendous treatment of the Holocaust, and it impacted the aftermath of the event as well. Because of the emotional and physical trauma after liberation, Jewish Holocaust survivors struggled with rebuilding their lives and adapting to live a “normal life”.

Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.

survivor who initially worked as a smuggler to get food to help her family survive in the Ghettos, got separated from them after the liquidation of the ghettos in October 4 1992. Dr.Krystyna Sanderson who narrates Wasser’s story writes, “After that day, October 4, 1942, Sima never saw her family again. But she had no time for tears or other emotions; she went into survival mode. She was exhausted, starving, and infested with scabies. She had to find a place to stay, but people refused to take her in” (Sanderson 1).Like many other survivors, for Sima the importance of family abated because the Holocaust progressed to a point where many had either been separated or were many had made the choice of taking care of themselves. She didn’t know

In the chapter titled “Reflections on Exile,” Edward Said discusses the different aspects of being an exile. His discussion of exile includes what it means to be an exile, the feelings that being an exile produces in individuals, exile in relation to nationalism, and the role of exile in the modern world.  Said first defines being an exile as a state of terminal loss. He states, “the achievements of exile are permanently undermined by the loss of something left behind forever” (173).  He then contrasts this terminal loss with the cultural impact that exile has had on the modern West.  He states that, “modern Western culture is in large part the work of exiles,” (173) and, “our age[...] is indeed the age of the refugee, the displaced

Joe Sacco’s graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.

In the poem “I am Yusuf oh father” Mahmoud Darwish tries to give the readers a vivid insight into the relationship between Israel and Palestine by comparing Jews practice of oppression to what Yusuf's brothers did to him. Through the guise of the story of yusuf and his brothers, Darwish subtly hits at the core of the problem that Palestinian have with Israel Jews: The Zionists dispossession of the native population. For several decades Jews have been trying to change the Jewish majority in Israel and make Palestinians as outsiders in their own homeland.Most Zionist leaders had negative perceptions of Arabs, based mainly on European colonialist ideology and treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty and deprive them of their rights.In this poem, the poet addresses Israelis as crule brothers that lay no mercy upon their poor little weak brother.in this way The poet uncover the horrible acts and actions of Israelis who supposed to be Palestinians' brothers in humanity want to kill Palestinians to put their hands on Palestinians land, but they refuse to share their own home with them.

The graphic novel Palestine, published by Maltan journalist Joe Sacco in the early ‘90s, is a journalistic piece that represents his recollections of two months spent talking to and living with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The casual narrative style, which some might say is too shallow for such heavy subject matter, in fact allows Sacco to avoid many of the pit falls that have made Western reporting on non-Western conflicts unhelpful at the very least and more often incredibly damaging.