Akram Al Deek: “Palestine is a test we have all failed. Terribly.”
When we first decided to have a discussion regarding Akram Al Deek’s literary works, we thought why not touch on less discussed issues like his unique narrative styles and versatility across genres, manifested through his distinctive voice and narratives in his most prominent books “Writing Displacement” in English, and “The Eucalyptus Tree: episodes of dispersals” in Arabic.
Dr. Akram Al Deek is a literary critic, public intellectual, writer, professor and poet. He is a third-generation Palestinian exile who writes in both Arabic and English. In his own words, “I am the victim of 99 years of Israeli colonialism. I am the byproduct of wars over The Golan Heights. I pay the price of Lebanon’s Civil War and Jordan’s Black September. I am burdened by British colonialism and Western Imperialism and American capitalism.”
Al Deek’s origins go back to the village of Kafr Al Deek in The Colonised West Bank of Palestine. He is a third generation Palestinian exile to a first generation refugee/ Laje’ father, (born in Palestine in 1938, a few years subsequent to the Nacba, The Catastrophe in 1949), and a second generation Palestinian displaced/ Nazeh mother, (born in Palestine in 1964, right before, and left subsequent to the Naksah, The Six Days War of 1967). He holds a German nationality and lived most of his lie in England. His exile has added a cosmopolitan edge to his worldview and writings. “Inside Palestine there are way too many restrictions”, he says. “Palestinians measure roads by checkpoints. Academic resources are scarce. Israeli curfews are habitual. We can do more abroad where mobility facilitates our dissemination of information and support, while we advocate and applaud the determination of those inside.”
Dr. Akram Al Deek has stressed the importance of using the term “Colonized” territories rather than the “Occupied” territories of Palestine, since Israeli colonialism has started in 1922, where Palestine lives under the longest colonial occupation in modern history, so he affirms it is not only 73, but rather 99 years on the start of Israeli colonialism. He clearly explained in his book “The Eucalyptus Tree: episodes of dispersals” (Dec. 2020):
“The so-called occupation has gone beyond land and place and rapes language and psyche. Cultural imperialism goes hand in hand with military whoredom. You pay for Palestinian literature in Israeli currency. And you pay mental rent for solely being born on the Western side of the Jordan River.”
Al Deek accentuated that “Palestine is a test we have all failed. Terribly. And what remains is a bit of salt in the empty stomachs of our prisoners and the tears of the martyrs’ mothers. Palestine is a test of the humanity and deadly wisdom of the world. She provokes your courage, or cowardice. She reveals the compliance in your conscience. Palestine brings the best or the worst out of you. She brings the true you from underneath the diplomatic politeness of conformity. Palestine is the truest and most difficult challenge of humankind in the 21st century. Palestine is the conscience without which humanity will never progress forward. Racism is still as bad and hostile now as it was 200 years ago. We still see the world in black and white when we have 3rd Dimensional printers.”
Asking him about the current situations, he takes us back 99 years ago when in 1922 Zionist movements started to employ various means to displace Palestinians from their lands and houses. “As a Palestinian exile”, he says, “I shoulder the heaviness of this every day I wake up and every time I travel. I shoulder this with my family, some of whom are not allowed back to their birthplace. However, we find strength in the perseverance of children, youth, of elderly men and women inside as well as outside Palestine as we are all glued by hope: that one day we will be free.”
Even in his academic research, he insists that “The Palestinian is not a mere object for academic research, but rather a human subject, with memories and aspirations. My work only aspires, therefore, to act as an agent to generally speak to post-colonial displacees and diasporas of India, Pakistan, the Caribbean, Africa and China, and particularly the different displaced generations of the Palestinians.”
What a heavy memory to be born with for a child and be raised through, yet a diversity that few would gain throughout a lifetime, which makes his journey as a professor, writer, and a human being extremely unique and praiseworthy to spotlight upon. However, the escalating Israeli occupation violence in Palestine, has actually stirred us to take a move, and talk about a more imperative matter of (what the hell) is going on in Palestine the last couple of weeks, as Occupation forces’ bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip entered its seventh consecutive day.
“I consider myself privileged compared to other refugees in camps and children in Gaza”, says Al Deek. “They teach us courage. And we remain ashamed of our ironed shirts and helplessness and consistent electricity lights.”
The deadly conflict between Occupation Forces and the occupied Palestinian territories is provoking a global reaction – and much of it is online. #SavePalestine is a hashtag among many others that have burst up through social media a couple of weeks ago. Conversations in Europe, America and of course, the Middle East and India are talking about those hashtags: #Gaza under attack, #Free Palestine, #Israeli terrorism are all trending worldwide with tens of millions of tweets each.
This online virtual Global rebellion is one of the biggest after the 25 January Revolution in 2011 Egypt, mobilizing millions of people not only Palestinians or Arabs, but as well American and European celebrities, urging others to share their own social media accounts, to speak out and share those hashtags. Since people see the case as not political, not religious, and not anti-Semitic, but humanitarian, and is about standing up for the oppressed. Yet, the big question is it meant to remain a cybernetic revolution? And while people are discussing Facebook and Instagram biased politics censoring Palestinian content, after hundreds of social media users have indicated that those platforms have removed content and accounts reporting on the Sheikh Jarrah violence; noticeable steps are taking place in the real world to take over Palestinians homes in Jerusalem.
Concerning the real effect of social media in changing public opinion, Al Deek openly states that this online move is a temporary emotional charge that cannot have sustainable results on the ground without serious foreign intervention and change of domestic and international policies. The United Nations must come up with recommendations that reflect peoples on the streets and their demands as opposed to focusing on how to please America.
On the ground, large demonstrations were held in cities around the world demanding an end to deadly Occupation forces air raids on the Gaza Strip, as all those masses that were gathering in the streets of the world bear a resemblance to The Nakba Day events displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians amid Occupation Entity’s establishment in 1948. Moreover, the worldwide solidarity marches paradoxically coincided with Nakba Day. The protesters were angered by six days of violence that have left at least 145 Palestinians dead in Gaza, without any response from political forces or as voiced by Phyllis Bennis, a political analyst at the US-based Institute for Policy Studies, who expressed concern about Biden’s failure to “put any pressure on Israel to stop this slaughter in Gaza”.
Just few weeks ago, some were asking, does the Palestinian cause still matters? Particularly in the view of what is happening in the Arab nation for the last decade, to name some the ongoing war on Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. In 2008, Shibley Telhami, professor at University of Maryland conducted a study to test possible change and variation in Arab attitudes towards the Palestinian cause, asking the participants directly to rank the Palestine issue in their priorities. The remarkable thing to observe is that, consistently, two-thirds to three fourths of respondents say this issue remains among the three most important issues in their priorities.
The current massacre happening in Palestine and the public opinion global mobilization in this regard have clearly shown that just causes never die.
Lama Alhassanieh