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Special
Features:
Portraits of Palestinian Refugees
“Palestine at heart” for a Palestinian refugee writer
in Amman
Dr. Sanaa Shalan - Amman, Jordan
By Anne Paq*
Dr Sanaa
Shalan appears immediately as a strong, successful, articulate and proud
young woman. Sanaa is a highly respected professor of Arabic literature at
the University of Jordan. At only 27, she is a renowned writer who has won
32 awards, among them the Al-Shariqa Award for Arabic creativity for the
story The Nightmare
and the first Young Author Award of the Abd-Al-Muhsin
Qatan Association for her short story collection
Aina Khader.
But above
all Sanaa is a Palestinian refugee. She has a promising successful carreer
in Amman, but she does not forget where she comes from and she strongly
speaks about her identity as a Palestinian.
When asked
if she knows the story of her family, she promptly answers:
“of course, we know everything. Our
grandfather told us about the house, where the keys are, how many rooms and
how many chickens we had.
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Depopulated village of Beit Natiff, 2007. (©BADIL)
Beit Natiff. Standing on a high, flat topped ridge between
two broad valleys, this ancient village was sur rounded by olive
groves and fields of corn, planted by the over 2400 villag ers,
in the valleys below. The village was attacked by the Israeli
Har’el bri gade on 21 October 1948 as part of Operation ha-Har,
and its occupation enabled the army to block the Bethle hem-’Ajjur-Beit
Jibrin Road. All of its inhabitants were ethnically cleansed in
the operation, and most reside in the refugee camps of Bethlehem
(Dheisheh, ‘Azzah, ‘Aida). All of the buildings in the village
were com pletely destroyed, with only rubble remaining, on which
the Israeli colo nies of Neliv ha-Lamed-He, Avi’ezer, Roglit,
and Newe Mikha’el were built.
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We know it by heart because we consider these stories as sacred.”
One of her grandmothers recently passed away, but
over the years she had continued to tell the story of the family to the
younger generations.
Her family
comes from Beit Nattif, a village located around 20 kilometers southwest of
Hebron. Her grandfather was a carpenter, and now
“everybody in the family is fond of wood;
some learned how to work it and my father is in the wood business.” Her
mother’s side of the family is from the same village: “people used to
marry from the same village so that the lands once returned will stay in the
same families.”
During the Nabka, in 1948, the village was ethnically cleansed and
completely destroyed. There was some fighting and some of Sanaa’s family
members were killed. As many refugees, they did not have time to take many
of their belongings as they were convinced that they would go back after a
few days.
Subsequently, the family came to Jordan, rented a piece of land in Madaba
not far from Amman, and started to cultivate the land. “Imagine that they
were keeping some grains for their land in Palestine.” Then they moved
to Al-Karama camp, close to the Jordan Valley. But during the 1967 war, they
were forced to flee once again because the camp was being shelled by the
Israeli army so they went to Amman.
Sanaa was born in 1978 in Sweileh and grew up in Amman, among a family of 11
sisters and brothers, all of whom pursued higher education. At the early age
of seven Sanaa started to write, and one of her teachers predicted that she
would become a writer.
 At
nine years old she wrote her first novel called Unknown Steps. Being
already very well aware of her Palestinian identity, the subject of this
story was the return to Palestine. She had a strong personality. She
recalled how she spoke out when a high-ranking representative of UNRWA came
to the school to give out some gifts. She protested in front of everybody
and asked: “how can you give us some gifts when you [the UN] are the ones
responsible for our misery?” She was slapped. She continued her
education and developed her writing skills. At the age of 19 she published
her first book and at 20 she won her first award. She specialized in
criticism, novels, plays and children’s stories. She also has a regular
column in the Jordanian daily newspaper Al-Dustour. In 2005, she was
given the trophy of the Jordan University President for outstanding student
in academia and creativity. At 26 she obtained her PhD in modern criticism
and Arabic literature and began her work as a professor. Her career is a way
to pursue her passion for literature: “I am related to the language, it
is my identity.”
Sanaa has never been to
Palestine. Nobody in her family has been able to, especially since a member
of her family became a martyr in 1981 as he tried to enter Israel through
the Golan Heights. Since then, none of her family members has been able to
get an entry permit. As with most Palestinian refugees, they have all become
“persona non grata ” in their
own country.
Even if she
can not visit Palestine, Sanaa has Palestine at heart. She has become very
active and been involved with Palestinian organisations. She has just
finished writing a collection of stories for Al Qattan foundation, entitled
Aina Khader,
on the question of martyrdom. Next summer, she will visit the US to meet
some other refugees and write their stories.
Together
with another writer, she has built a website called “those who dance for
emptiness” gathering resources on writers of Palestinian origin, and whose
Palestinian origin is often unknown. Something similar happened to her. One
time, Sanaa was invited to receive an award and the speaker declared that
there was no Palestinian writer in the gathering, she immediately stood up
and said that even if she has a Jordanian passport, she is indeed
Palestinian.
As a refugee
she always feels like a second class citizen,
“when I travel I always have problems. They
always put me aside and ask me more questions just because I am Palestinian.
If I am treated that way, how is it for an ordinary person? It is really
shameful.” Even at the University of Jordan she cannot freely express
herself and introduce herself as a Palestinian refugee, although she always
finds indirect ways. She also strongly states, “I am fed up with telling
people that we have rights. Why do I have to waste my time defending myself
as if I am a criminal? Why do two or three generations have to be wasted?
Why should I get married and have kids if they have to end up killed by the
Israelis? Why can’t I live as other people?” The Palestinian history and
current situation affects her : “when I think of the Nakba, it is
painful. Before I used to feel sorry, but nowadays the situation is getting
worse with all the killings; the organized and systematic killings of my
people.”
She does not believe in the
current peace process, “we have been talking with them [the Israelis] for
many years, and we have nothing to show for it. The only peace will be when
we will be able to return. The Palestinians should be able to form a viable
Palestinian state and Israel should admit responsibility for all the crimes
committed against the Palestinians.” She thinks that despite the fact
that many people are supportive of the Palestinians, the governments are
not, “all the countries will come to
celebrate the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel and nobody will
stand with the Palestinian suffering.”
But she still feels hopeful for
the future. She hopes that she will be able to return. She refers to a
Palestinian saying “the soil of the land always craves its owner.”
Her hope also lies in the strength of the Palestinian people who all over
the world keep their strength and their distinctive identity and always make
a priority of developing and educating themselves,
“if they let us come back, we have everything in
the community. We have qualified people to build Palestine again. We are
ready.”
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* Anne Paq is a photographer
member of activestills (activestills.org) and human rights specialist. She
concentrates her work on refugees, human rights violations in the OPT and
the impact of the occupation on peoples’ lives. See her blog: http://chroniquespalestine.blogspot.com |
