The literature from other cultures in an immensely valuable tool when attempting to understand war and conflict and allows the often very different perspectives of the involved parties to be heard. The situation currently occurring in Israel and Palestine is an ancient and yet ongoing conflict about land, culture, ethnicity and religion, some of the most basic human elements manifested into very complex causes and motivations. However, studying the native literature of these differing cultures, especially that of the civilians involved, can give extraordinary insight into these complex elements of the conflict, from the most grassroots level possible. Mourid Barghouti’s poem Exception, Samih al-Qasim’s poem, Suitcase, and The Deluge and the Tree by Fadwa Tuqan all give strong and direct perspectives about the Palestinian position regarding Jewish migration, Palestinian homes and displacement, and the Arab spirit respectively. These three pieces of poetry are primary Palestinian documents that allow people from outside cultures to begin to realise the Arab perspective of their plight against the Jewish Israelis.
The conflict currently occurring in the Middle East between the Arab Palestinians and the Jewish Israelis has its roots planted long ago since Biblical times. However, it can be said that the real cause of the current conflict stems from post Second World War decisions and actions. In the aftermath of the Jewish persecution in Europe during the War, the Jews, the Zionists who represented a movement to create a national Jewish homeland, and the British who also promised a Jewish homeland, sought to return the Jews to their ancient land of Israel to establish this national home (Abunimah, 2006). The Arab Palestinians however, had been living in the area since the 7th century (Greenup, 1988). In 1947, the United Nations passed a resolution to partition the land which would create the two separate, democratic states of Israel and Palestine for the Jews and for the Arabs respectively, meaning the displacement and relocation of many indigenous Palestinians (United Nations, 2003 & Bennis, 2003). Israel declared its independence in May 1948 and the following day, five Arab armies invaded but were defeated by the Israeli army who then took control over much of Palestine’s land, refusing to accept the United Nation’s request to return to the partition borders of 1947 (United Nations, 2003 & Pyne, 1996). Since that time, other wars and massacres have broken out such as the Suez Conflict of 1956 and the Six Day Way of 1967, resulting in more land grabs by the Israelis and more Palestinian refugees fleeing to neighbouring Arab countries to be sheltered in Refugee Camps, unable to return (McPhee, 2007). The conflict has continued to this day, seeing the continual dispossession of Palestinian land to Israel’s illegal settlements and Israel’s refusal to allow refugees the right of return (Lapidoth, 2001). Starting with the Jewish migration into Palestine that peaked in the post Second World War decades, the perspective of the Arab Palestinians about their current situation can be seen through original Palestinian literature.
The Zionist movement is not a recent establishment and the immigration of Jews into Palestine has had continual momentum throughout the late Nineteenth Century to early Twenty-First Century. The Second World War however, saw the persecution and death of millions of Jews in Europe and subsequently, the mass migration into Palestine with the aim to create a national homeland (Greenup, 1988). The poem Exception by Mourid Barghouti explores the images of this Jewish influx into Palestine. He expressed the belief that the Israelis viewed their own population very highly, as though they were superior to the Arabs on whose land they would occupy and settle. The poem evokes a certain feeling of hostility, as the Arabs interpret the Jewish feeling of entitlement to the land, marked by their apparent unwavering attitude to continue on with their civil business upon arriving in Israel and settling in its occupied territories. It comments on this attitude in the way that it implies that while the Arabs would be exiled, the Jews would establish a rich and sophisticated life in Palestine.
“the invitations to dinner
the diplomatic pouch” (Barghouti, lines 6-7)
The last line of the poem also adds another dimension to the meaning of the piece.
“they all arrive/all but my step toward my own country..” (Barghouti, line 9)
Barghouti, the author, was studying in Egypt during the time of the Six Day War and was subsequently denied entry back into Palestine afterward (Barghouti, 2000). The poem displays these same resentful and despondent emotions felt by the wider Palestinian population as while they were in exile, the Jewish were occupying their land and illegally settling their people. This occurrence of the creation of Palestinian refugees is reflected in the literature of other Palestinian poets also as they express the Arab perspectives on the situation.
The continuing settlement of the Jewish people into Palestine meant the displacement of many hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people from their homes and cities (Karmi, 2007). Essentially, there came a great Diaspora (Barghouti, 2000) of the Palestinian people as they fled from their land which was becoming Israel’s occupied territories. The poem Suitcase, by Samih al-Qasim, reflects the fear and uncertainty about this displacement and exile of the Palestinian people. It states quite simply that the land of Palestine is the home to the Palestinian people and they have no other home. This sentiment is also reflected in the title of the poem, Suitcase, as it alludes to the fact that many Palestinians who find themselves as refugees have only the smallest amount of belongings to live from; only a suitcase and no longer a home to going to. The poet has written the piece almost as a plea to the Israeli people, asking for sympathy, repeating that they have nowhere else go.
“I have no other home.
I have no other.” (al-Qasim, lines 6-7)
Mourid Barghouti also speaks of displacement in his autobiographical book titled I saw Ramallah.
“In exile, the lump in the throat never ends: it is always resumed. In exile, we do not get rid of terror: it transforms into fear of terror. And because those who are thrown out of their countries are frustrated, and those who have escaped from their countries are frustrated...” (Barghouti, 2000, pages 151-152)
Barghouti discusses through his writing how the Arab people feel they cannot escape the anger and judgement of being displaced. That is, the continual judgement of each other as the frustration and tension of displacement cripples the most sensitive of people to appear cruel (Barghouti, 2000). They feel that their situation in exile is not right in any way and the occupation of their homes is also not right and nowhere are they treated to their own wishes. They eventually become strangers to their own homes and towns as their homes and towns are taken over by the enemy. Despite this, the Arab perspective delineated through this literature, tells that while they may no longer be familiar to their homes, the connection that they have with the land is too long engrained to be uprooted so quickly.
While the establishment of an independent state of Israel and the Jewish occupation within Palestine has forced some great atrocities onto the Palestinians, the Arab people still have a close and personal relationship with the land at stake, maintaining that self-determination is inevitable. This attitude is reflected in poem by the Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, titled The Deluge and the Tree. The poem is specifically in response to the Six-Day-War of 1967, the result of which saw much of the little remaining Palestinian land ceded to Israeli settlements and a new wave of Palestinian refugees (Bal, Crewe & Spitzer, 1999). The poem begins by discussing the Western israeli perspective of the outcome of the War. That is, the joy and happiness of the Israeli victory that the great force of the military assault had completely destroyed Palestine altogether.
“‘they’ gloated. The western skies
reverberated with joyous accounts:
“The Tree has fallen!
The great trunk is smashed! The hurricane
leaves no life in the Tree!” (Tuqan, lines 4-7)
Tuqan, however, goes on to rebut this perspective with that of the Palestinian side. She states that the land of Palestine, the Tree, and its people have not been destroyed and belief by the Israelis that the history and spirit of the Palestinian people could be crushed by war and violence is superficial and naive. The poem affirms that while they may move to exile as displaced refugees, their history with Palestine is too deeply rooted in the ground to be disturbed.
“Arab roots alive
tunnelling deep, deep, into the land!” (Tuqan, lines 12-13)
The poem is one of hope for the Palestinian people and one of confirmation that the Israeli occupation of Palestine should not last forever but that the land will eventually be restored to the Palestinians for their right to self-determination.
The three poems by the Arab Palestinian poets Mourid Barghouti, Samih al-Qasim and Fadwa Tuqan, all give perspective into the current conflict taking place in the Middle East. The poems, discussing topics of migration, homelessness and refugees, and the inability of the Israelis or westerners alike to crush the Arab connection to the land, are valuable pieces of literature that give an indispensable viewpoint to the issues at hand. They are the available means by which outsiders can attempt to gain insight into the intricacies of the situation. Being written in and by another culture, in the very midst of what it is that is being written about, the poems validate the primacy they give to their own perspectives. It is in this way the literature of other cultures can be used to study the events of other societies and in the case of the conflict in the Middle East, it is the literature from Palestine that gives the Arab perspective voice.