The Land Across the Valley
Quotes from Rashid
Hussein
You always told me to remember stories
about our village, and to remember
the songs that carry the legends of our land;
and to remember the faces of old women,
for in them is our history.
Isn't that so?
My father heard my words and turned away
to look across the valley where our land is.
"Teach the night to forget to bring
dreams showing me my village,"
he said and then was quiet again.
His silence fell on us as the sun burned
the stones we sat on. I tried to taste
the breeze coming up from the valley.
"And teach the wind to forget to carry to me
the aroma of apricots in my fields."
We looked to the other side of the valley,
at the olive trees and red poppies
scattering the hillsides.
"There is no God but Allah,"
sang a distant muezzin.
"And teach the sky, too, to forget to rain."
My father closed his eyes.
"Only then, may I forget my country."
Laila Halaby
On July 8th, 1972
Ghassan Kanafani, one of the most prominent Palestinian
writers, woke up earlier than usual to accompany his
niece Lamees to the American University of Beirut for
registration, after she passed her high school
examinations with excellence and was
accepted as a "freshman " at AUB.
He went down stairs to his very old BMW, which was parked
in its usual place. Lamees
jumped into the front seat next to Ghassan, who was
smiling cheerfully, happy for Lamees for whom he had
written 18 short stories with drawings, one for every
birthday since she was
one year old.
The stories grew up with Lamees in meaning and content.
The cheerful smile did not last long. As soon as Ghassan
Kanafani switched on his car, it
blew up into pieces along with his body and Lamees's.
That was the first of a series of
Israeli organized terrorist attacks against Palestinians
of great value - writers, journalists, researchers and
leaders.
The wave of Israeli terror lasted more than two years.
The Israelis assassinated in
April 1973 Kamal Nassar (the poet), Kamal Edwan (Fateh
leader) and Abu Youssif
al-Najar (Fateh leader).
After assassinating Ghassan Kanafani (36 years old), who
was the most excellent and
famous Palestinian novelist, journalist and writer, they
tried to assassinate Dr. Anis
Sayegh, the head of the Palestinian Research Center in
Beirut, and Bassam Abu-Sharif who
was the editor in chief of al-Hadaf weekly magazine in
Beirut. Both were seriously wounded
but survived the attacks.
What the Israeli government is committing today is an
elaboration of the terrorist mentality
that killed Ghassan Kanafani 30 years ago. It is now a
state organized terrorist campaign
against the whole Palestinian people.
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