Dear Adib,

I clearly remember the meeting of both the mother and daughter, it was devastating realizing that it is not only Rihab's case, there are hundreds and thousands of these cases that tells about the crulty of the occupation.
I wrote this op-ad after I watched the interview.
Between Hope and Despair

Between hope and despair the Palestinian tale is tottering, starting from the 1948 when they flee their homes, under the Israeli barbarian acts, and the news of the awful massacres from other villages, the Palestinian with their simple nature left every thing behind and fled to open areas in the hope that the war against them will end, and they will return soon to their homes, and continue their normal life again.

I heard stories from my grandparents about women, who left their children promising them to come back again for them, but they never did; stories about a woman who left the lantern still on hoping that she will come back again and turn it off, stories about people who refuses to lock the doors or to take their id, birth certificates, because they will return. Many stories, and with each story you discover the simple nature of these people, and the pain behind each one.

Families scattered, people died on their lost, aimless trip, brother and sisters are not anymore in the same place, between fleeing to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza or the West Bank families have lost its unity, contacts, and the Palestinians lost their identity.

I remember three years a go when Abu Dhabi TV broadcasting a show about the life of the Palestinians in Diaspora, the mother lives in Gaza, and the daughter lives in Lebanon, it was their first time when they talked to each other, then the TV arranges to bring the daughter to their studios in Abu Dhabi where she met her mother face to face for the first time. I still remember how I and my husband can not stooped our selves from crying, we can not stop the pain we felt, the desperation, and the loss we live, my tears were not only on this case, because there are million of cases in our life, my tears were for the continuous pain, and sufferings that we as Palestinians have to experience in our life, for me it was like we are cursed, this curse is inherited from one generation to another. Each generation have to live this pain and state of loss no matter when and how. However, I can not deny that I realized away from the deep dark and despair we live, there is always a spark of hope that gives us the strength, determination to continue.

Hope and despair are two contradictions that can not be separated in the life of the Palestinians, with every child delivery; with the first word he pronounces, the first step he makes, there is hope for the best. While despair lies beneath every adversity, and hard living but unable to break the soul that fights inside our bodies.

With the look in the eyes of my grandparents, with the curved age lines into their faces, and the hoarse voices, their life varied between two states of hope and despair.


Najwa Sheikh
21.03.2007