Suad Amiry: “Every day in Palestine is hell”

Suad Amiry: “Every day in Palestine is hell”

The peaceful resistance to the occupation is invisible, says Suad Amiry, who lives in Ramallah. Rakel Chukri talks to the author whose books are a thermometer of how the hopes of the Palestinians have diminished. . /uploads/2021/05/181f6ab2d4bcfddd478abe8124d519ee.jpg “/>”If the world does not help us get a Palestinian state, you will call me in four years and ask why Hamas is sending rockets,” said Suad Amiry. Photo: Donatella Giagnori Can we laugh at the situation in Palestine? Yes, the architect Suad Amiry, who lives in Ramallah, would probably have answered almost two decades ago. .The episode that probably stuck with most readers was how Suad Amiry miraculously got an Israeli passport for her dog Nura and managed to cross the border barrier because she introduced herself as the driver of a Jerusalem dog. Amiry's later works the proportion of jokes has fallen steadily – it can be seen as a thermometer of how hope among Palestinians has fallen sharply in recent years. Amiry's latest book in Swedish, “Golda slept here” from 2016, is a mourning song about the many Palestinians who lost their houses in Jerusalem in 1948. She writes about Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, the residential area that caught the eye of the world press in early May then Palestinian families there were threatened with eviction.When I call her in Ramallah and ask for a status report, she offers a historical and contemporary lecture in almost an hour. She explains that the families in Sheikh Jarrah are refugees from 1948 who were once thrown out of their houses in, among other places, West Jerusalem. – If you want to kick them out, you have to send them back to their homes. You can not evict people twice. Suad Amiry is not alone about interpreting the evictions as an attempt to radically reduce the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem, an & quot; ethnic cleansing & quot; in Amiry's words. But the demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah are, according to her, just one of several explanations for the violence that erupted on May 10 when Hamas fired rockets at Israel and Israel responded by launching violent airstrikes against Gaza. al-Aqsa Mosque, that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in April postponed the election for fear that Hamas would win votes from Fatah and so the 2020 Abrahamic agreements between Israel and several Arab countries, which were perceived by Palestinians as a huge betrayal. factor: The recent war is increasing Hamas' popularity among young people and radicalizing people. Which is used by the Israeli government as an argument for not ending the occupation. Now Suad Amiry is not a friend of Hamas. On the contrary. Her secular stance and position on the left has long been pronounced. She opposes all religious political groups, whether Christian, Jewish or Hamas. But she counters with a question: Why should all Palestinians be punished because of Hamas? Graffiti on a house in the Sheikh Jarrah residential area of ​​East Jerusalem, where Palestinian families were threatened with eviction.Photo: AP Photoo Maya Aller id = “strong-fd3deba46e9933fc87a7f7f2dacb1b9d”> ​​We hear on Friday May 21, the day after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire. This is the first time Suad Amiry sounds genuinely happy during the conversation: “Everyone is relieved here. It became too much. “But ceasefire does not mean that the problems disappear. – Every day in Palestine is hell, says Amiry frankly. – If the world does not help us get a Palestinian state, you will call me again in four years and ask why Hamas sends rockets. The problem, she says, “is that the world does not hear about how we suffer every day.”from the author who sixteen years ago portrayed the curfew in the West Bank through the farcical quarrels with his mother-in-law. She mentions countless demonstrations and unprofitable legal battles over housing, but notes that the peaceful resistance is invisible and that it is only when the bombs fall that the world rises. – So what should we do? Tell us how to fight the occupation, she says. At the same time, Suad Amiry sees that the political battle is changing geographically. Recently, more Arabs with Israeli citizenship – who make up 20 percent of the population – have joined the protests on a larger scale, tired of being treated as second-class citizens. They pay taxes like everyone else but are exposed to legal apartheid, she says. – We see something extremely important in Israel, that they are more concerned about the uprising among Palestinians in the country than among Palestinians in Gaza. Amiry mentions a column in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz , by a right-wing writer, who advocated that a new government must include Arab ministers and a policy that promises better care and education for Arab citizens. Otherwise, there is a risk of a civil war within its own borders. Towards the end, however, assume our conversation more the form of a debate. It is triggered by my question whether Jewish and Palestinian Israelis should not talk more about their common experiences of expulsion, speaking of the battles over Sheikh Jarrah. In her book “Golda slept here”, she herself mentions the longing of a Jewish acquaintance with Iraqi roots. Suad Amiry finally points out that they have the right to get their houses back, in the same way that Palestinians have the right to get theirs back. And then suddenly her humor flashes to: – Who are we Palestinians? Are we from Mars? Did you find us there? Facts

Suad Amiry

Born 1951 in Damascus. The mother is Syrian and the father is Palestinian who fled Jaffa in 1948.

Author and architect who in 1991 founded the organization Riwaq which works to protect and restore historically important buildings in Palestine. Has also been involved in several peace projects.

Books in Swedish: “Sharon and my mother-in-law” (2005), “Golda slept here” (2016). Published by Tranan and translated by Anita Theorell.