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University of California Press

In Your Eyes a Sandstorm

Ways of Being Palestinian
by Arthur Neslen (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $36.95 / £31.00
Publication Date: Oct 2011
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9780520949850

Read an Excerpt

Bisan, 12, and Abud Abdul Khadr Fihad, 15

Students, Jenin Camp, West Bank

A bird flying over Palestine

In a small house crunched into the maze of Jenin's refugee camp, Bisan and Abud lived with their parents and one younger brother. Sitting in the family's salon with their mother and a translator, Bisan said that she rarely saw Abud these days. He changed after the Israeli army's invasion of the camp in 2002 and was now always on the streets. During that invasion, at least fifty-two Palestinians were killed and the old refugee camp was demolished.

Bisan was named after the family's hometown, which now lies within Israel. In 1948, the Palmach, a standing army of Jewish troops, captured it and expelled its Arab residents, renaming the town Beth She'an as they went. The Fihad family were among those displaced.

Abud said he visited the town of Bisan once for a wedding and found it "a beautiful village, more beautiful than the Jenin camp." He would have liked to live there, he said, but could not "because of the occupation." Beth She'an is now a Jewish town in Israel, and no Arabs remain. Bisan has visited Jericho, Jerusalem, and Haifa only once, on a school excursion. "I prefer Jerusalem because of the holy places," she said. "It keeps me in contact with our Islamic origins. I love my religion, and insha'allah I will go to Mecca." Both children prayed regularly in order to satisfy God and so that they might reach heaven one day. "It's a way of feeling okay," Bisan explained. Her smile was often bright and precocious, but in a moment it could turn pale and expressionless. Abud was more fixedly hunched and sullen.

When I asked the children what their favorite lessons were at school, Bisan piped up, "I love English!" with a grin. Abud said nothing. Bisan told me that they played Intifada games in the Jenin camp by dividing themselves into two groups-Jews who shot, and Palestinians who threw stones. The Palestinians always won.

What do you want to be when you grow up, I asked Abud. "It's difficult to say," he replied. "I can't say." My translator suggested that Abud felt inhibited by his mother's presence in the room, and we asked her to leave. Finally Abud muttered that he was afraid. "I want to be a fighter," he said quietly. 'I don't want to be with any political parties, just to be a fighter. I saw many people dying in the camp, and because of that I

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About the Book

Who are the Palestinians? In this compelling book of interviews, Arthur Neslen reaches beyond journalistic clichés to let a wide variety of Palestinians answer the question for themselves. Beginning in the present with Bisan and Abud, two traumatized children from Jenin’s refugee camp, the book’s narrative arcs backwards through the generations to come full circle with two elderly refugees from villages that the children were named after. Along the way, Neslen recounts a history of land, resistance, exile, and trauma that begins to explain Abud’s wish to become a martyr and Bisan’s dream of a Palestine empty of Jews. Senior Fatah and Hamas figures relate key events of the Palestinian experience—the Second Intifada, Oslo Process, First Intifada, Thawra, 1967 War, the Naqba, and the Great Arab Revolt of 1936—in their own words. The extraordinary voices of women, children, farmers, fighters, drug dealers, policeman, doctors, and others, spanning the political divide from Salafi Jihadists to Israeli soldiers, bring the Palestinian story to life even as their words sow seeds of hope in the scorched Palestinian earth.

About the Author

Arthur Neslen has written about the Middle East for the Guardian, Observer, Haaretz, the Jane’s information group and, as a correspondent, for the websites of the Economist and al-Jazeera. He is also the author of Occupied Minds: A Journey through the Israeli Psyche.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

The Disengaged Generation
Bisan and Abud Abdul Khadr Fihad

Students, Jenin Camp, West Bank
Sharif al-Basyuni

Unemployed, Beit Hanun, Gaza
Amira al-Hayb

Soldier, Wadi al-Hammam, Israel
Niral Karantaji

Model, Haifa, Israel
Doha Jabr

Dancer, Ramallah, West Bank
Abdul Rahman Katanani

Artist, Shatila Camp, Beirut, Lebanon
“Nabil”

Student, Ramallah, West Bank

The Second Intifada Generation
Firaz Turkmen and Alla Subharin

Islamic Jihad, Jenin, West Bank
Ayman Nahas and Hanna Shamas

Comedians, Haifa, Israel
Asmaa al-Goule

Journalist, Gaza Citys
Neriman al-Jabari

Widow, Jenin Camp, West Bank
Tamer Nafar

Rapper, Lyd, Israel
Abu Abed

Tunnel Engineer, Rafah, Gaza
“Omar”

Drug Dealer, East Jerusalem, West Bank

The Oslo Generation
Diana Buttu

Lawyer, Ramallah, West Bank
Haifa Dwaikat

Student, Nablus, West Bank
Hala Salem

NGO Director, Amman, Jordan
Sayed Kashua

Journalist, Author, Screenwriter, West Jerusalem, Israel
Tawfiq Jabharin

Lawyer, Umm al-Fahem, Israel
Fuad al-Hofesh

Psychologist, Mardah, West Bank
Samer Azmi al-Zugayyar

Policeman, Ramallah, West Bank

The First Intifada Generation
“Abu Ahmed”

Hamas Activist and Teacher, West Bank
Rania Dabak, Naima Abdul Razek, and Shaykha Mahmud

Villagers, al-Aqaba, West Bank
Taghred Joma

NGO Manager, Gaza City
Huda Naim

Hamas MP, al-Bureij Camp, Gaza
Amal Masri

Businesswoman, Ramallah, West Bank
Fawsi Barhoum

Hamas Spokesman, Gaza City
“Haidar”

Taxi Driver, Gaza

The Thawra Generation
Dr. Nafez Rakfat Abu Shabhan

Plastic Surgeon, Gaza City
Fawaz Dawoud

Chief of Police, Nablus, West Bank
Mohammed Dahlan

Fatah Leader, Ramallah, West Bank
Nabila Espanyoli

NGO Director, Nazareth, Israel
Muna Wakid

DFLP Worker, Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon
Nawal, Eshan, and Iman Fareiji

Shatila Camp Residents, Beirut, Lebanon
Marwan Shehadeh

Web Manager, Amman, Jordan
Sami Mahmoud Khader

Zoo Curator, Qalqilya, West Bank

The 1967 (Naksa) Generation
Leila Khaled

PFLP Fighter, Amman, Jordan
Abu Adel

Sulha Committee Judge, East Jerusalem, West Bank
Mustafa al-Kurd

Musician, East Jerusalem, West Bank
Hanan Ashrawi

Civil Society Leader, Ramallah, West Bank
Raleb Majadele

Former Minister of Science and Technology, Jerusalem
Ahmad Yousef

Deputy Foreign Minister, Rafah Camp, Gaza

The Nakba Generation
Gabi Baramki

Former University President, Ramallah, West Bank
Nuri al-Ukbi

Bedouin Activist, al-Araquib, Israel
Jamal Freij

Former Well Maintenance Worker, Kfar Kassem, Israel
Aisha Odeh

Women’s Center Founder, Deir Jarir, West Bank
Eyad al-Sarraj

Psychiatrist, Gaza City
Hassan al-Kashif

Journalist, Gaza City
Rajab al-Hise

Fisherman, Beach Camp, Gaza

The 1936 Generation
Jalil Sharqawi Fawadli

Retired Teacher, Abud, West Bank
Abdullah Rashid

Retired Farmer, al-Hussein Camp, Irbid, Jordan

Postscript: In Your Eyes a Sandstorm
Glossary
Selected Bibliography and Further Reading
Photo Captions

Reviews

“In Your Eyes a Sandstorm will captivate its readers and is sure to shock and surprise even the most knowledgeable and/or radical (at either end of the spectrum) followers of these issues. Anyone willing to accept the layers, intricacies, and vastness of Palestinian identities will appreciate hearing these voices; voices as rooted in the land of Palestine as its ancient olive trees.”
— Foreword
“Neslen has forged a collection of voices that forces us to rethink simplistic notions about the nature of Palestinian identity.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“The interview format allows Neslen’s subjects to speak for themselves. . . . Neslen’s queries are significant and probing, and the answers he gets are nuanced and, at times, heart-wrenching. The end result is a highly structured series of conversations between Palestinian Arabs and a European-Jewish journalist. . . . Neslen understands that details matter. The more they can be discussed, the more difficult it is to fall back on charged stereotypes that equate, for example, Palestinians with Arabs, or Jews and kafirs, unbelievers.”
— Forward
“A gripping look at a society and people who are misrepresented by the mainstream media and misunderstood by much of the Western world. "The Palestinian question"—never the "Jewish question" anymore—is generally posed in a way that omits Palestinian's own experiences from consideration. Through these carefully-crafted portraits, Neslen gives Palestinians the space to begin to answer it for themselves.”
— Huffington Post
“Exploring the full spectrum of the Palestinian experience, he [Neslen] talks to a Ramallah policeman, a tunnel worker in Gaza, an artist, a drug dealer in Jerusalem and a model in Haifa, among many others, producing a narrative that depicts a living and collective identity, one that emerges though multiple voices and contradictions.”
— The National
“An elegantly written compendium of Palestinian life. . . . No other book is as patient and detailed, and as broad in geographic and historic scope, as this; it is bound to be of permanent value to both scholars and general readers for years to come.”
— Race & Class
“In Your Eyes a Sandstorm is a well written and thoughtful perspective that Americans need to see.”
— Internet Review Of Books
“Neslen accesses some unique voices . . . offers important insight into the multifaceted Palestinian experience.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The book is riveting; in engaging with each person the author has drawn out details of how being Palestinian, with its inevitable weight of suffering and resistance, has shaped their lives. It brings home, as Ilan Pappé says, ‘vividly and authentically what it means to be Palestinian today.’”
— Socialist Review: Monthly Mag Of The Socialist Workers Party
"In this impossible task of representation, Arthur Neslen writes a book that is impossible to put down. In Your Eyes a Sandstorm is where Joyce's The Dubliners meets Howard Zinn's A People’s History. Thrilling, compassionate, and unflinching narratives and dialogues converge the critical events of contemporary Palestinian being into the present. Palestinians are field negroes, house negroes, ghettoized schlemiels and pariahs, ethnically cleansed, colonized, occupied, militant, pacifist, doctors, zookeepers, rappers, journalists, teachers, etc. They are also an original people who will continue to write a new story in the book of survival and hope, of overcoming suffering and, hopefully, of going beyond power." —Fady Joudah, author of The Earth in the Attic and translator of Mahmoud Darwish’s If I Were Another

“In this wonderful collection, one can hear the Palestinians speaking for themselves and not through others who may distort or dim their messages. Very few collections have brought home to us so vividly and authentically what it means to be a Palestinian today.” —Ilan Pappe, author of The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty

"This highly original work is an important contribution to Palestine literature, especially in the way that personal narrative interacts with and enriches collective-national and public memory." —Nur Masalha, author of Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought

"Neslen powerfully gives voice to Palestinians, humanizes them, and reveals the complexities of Palestinian society." —Sara Roy, author of Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza

“A remarkable achievement at the junction of Middle East politics and anthropology, this collection of interviews with Palestinians from eight successive generations—defined according to historical watersheds—is a necessary complement to treatise-like readings on the Palestinians and the Israel-Palestine conflict. It offers the means for a reasoned empathy with the Palestinian people, and provides a perfect counterpoint to the ‘journey through the Israeli psyche’ which Arthur Neslen took his readers on in his previous book.”

—Gilbert Achcar, author of The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives