Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Their mothers gave them a drop of oil so their hearts wouldn't dry up
I also recently read 'Too Many Enemies- The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon' by Rosemary Sayyigh. Without assigning my opinion too much grandeur, I'd say that this is a good book and also an important book.
As it seems to go in Lebanon, most of the (sur)names featured in the political struggles are the same as the ones going around today. And unsurprisingly, the lines of alliance were drawn and re-drawn on this issue and that, this way and that way- again, like today.
But the lines that I couldn't get over were from an interview with some Shatila children about the five month siege in 1986-7, during the Camp's War:
"At the end we ate burghul (bulgar wheat) until our stomachs swelled up. Small children cried for bread. Their mothers gave them a drop of oil so their hearts wouldn't dry up. We wanted to drink but there were no cups."
The book is written in a style that Rosemary Sayyigh calls 'oral based history'. It tells the story of the Shatila refugee camp, traces the history of Palestinians in Lebanon, and recounts the battle and sieges of the camp during the Lebanese civil war, with anecdotes and descriptions from the camp's inhabitants. A kind of sociologist's history I guess, the style made it a lot easier for me to (read! and) understand some of what happened, and how.
It closes at the cease fire, with a moving description by a great man named Abu Moujahed who runs the children's centre where I volunteered in Shatila:
"The first thing that the camp did was to come to the mosque. Everyone came spontaneously, without planning or invitation. There beside our martyrs we met. We weren't waiting for anyone from outside to come and congratulate us. People were embracing each other and weeping. Tears were falling, tears of happiness for victory, tears of sadness for the dead."
As it seems to go in Lebanon, most of the (sur)names featured in the political struggles are the same as the ones going around today. And unsurprisingly, the lines of alliance were drawn and re-drawn on this issue and that, this way and that way- again, like today.
But the lines that I couldn't get over were from an interview with some Shatila children about the five month siege in 1986-7, during the Camp's War:
"At the end we ate burghul (bulgar wheat) until our stomachs swelled up. Small children cried for bread. Their mothers gave them a drop of oil so their hearts wouldn't dry up. We wanted to drink but there were no cups."
The book is written in a style that Rosemary Sayyigh calls 'oral based history'. It tells the story of the Shatila refugee camp, traces the history of Palestinians in Lebanon, and recounts the battle and sieges of the camp during the Lebanese civil war, with anecdotes and descriptions from the camp's inhabitants. A kind of sociologist's history I guess, the style made it a lot easier for me to (read! and) understand some of what happened, and how.
It closes at the cease fire, with a moving description by a great man named Abu Moujahed who runs the children's centre where I volunteered in Shatila:
"The first thing that the camp did was to come to the mosque. Everyone came spontaneously, without planning or invitation. There beside our martyrs we met. We weren't waiting for anyone from outside to come and congratulate us. People were embracing each other and weeping. Tears were falling, tears of happiness for victory, tears of sadness for the dead."
