Blog Post #3

In the third section of the book, Ghada Karmi talks about how she went back to Palestine, or Israel, as it is called now. She is trying to see if anything is familiar, and how her homeland has changed over the years. When she returns to it, she discovers that the country has been changed into a modern, highly populated country with much commercialism and modernization. She is rather disgusted because there are still villages where Arabs live, but this is right next to a big bustling city with tidy straight lawns and modern apartment complexes. The Arab villages are very full of poverty; the Jews and Israelis do not care about the Arabs, who were there before. I am so shocked that after so many years, the Jews have thought about what they did and haven't tried to solve the problem. The government is now being run by the army general. This is so bad that now the head of the country is the army. I have one message for the Jews and Palestinians: Sit down in a room. Put away ALL your guns and weapons. Put them somewhere where you won't touch them for years. Now, talk. Talk about all your worries and why you hate each other. What are ways you can get to be on talking terms. Now, see if you can't try and SHARE your land. Make peace with one another, and just stop fighting. Honestly, how hard is this? I believe that removing violence from both sides of the equation will result in a positive sum. If the leaders of both countries meet without any forms of violence and talk about the problem, then they can easily solve it and have peace. The teachers at school are teaching this to their kids, when the ones who need it most are the ones who seem to think that child slavery, feminine abuse, and electing an army general as president are okay. Get the word out there that the world is a sad place. It used to be a wonderful place filled with love, peace, and beauty, but men are making the world ugly. The Earth is dying slowly, and it is our fault. So, if we sort out this little problem, then maybe we can take a look at the problem at hand. Saving the Earth and reducing our use of plastic!!!!!!

BLOG POST #2
The thing that really made me wonder is the "kinship ties", how Muslims have to know each other's history, where they came from, who their family was. It's really different from our culture, how we don't really care where someone comes from, and who their family is. On page 185, Ghada describes how meeting other Palestinian families in Golders Green was exciting for her mother, because it was a way for her to determine where they came from, and also to have relief that the country was still there and it hadn't disappeared mysteriously. She also explains that sometimes just the surname is all that is necessary to determine one's place of origin. "Kinship is the most basic principle of putting individuals into social groups, roles, and categories. The basic sort of kinship is to belong to the same family by birth. Kinship tells us how we are related to our family or each other, through our biology and history. Kinship can be a complex system of social groups. It is a universal system as everyone has a family. Some small and large scale societies use kinship not only for human reproduction but for “economic transactions, the political system and [their] religious beliefs” (J.Hendry, 1999)." "Kinship." - Simple English Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Through kinship, we can find someone's origins just by knowing the level of class, because for example if someone was of the peasant class, then they would use their father's first name as their surname. For example, I were of that class, my name would be Tristanio Alfredo, because that is my father's name.

Trying to oppose the oppressed is not a good idea.

(This is what my first post was on paper)
On page 59 through 61 the incident that Ghada was talking about was brought about by the Irgun organization. They were group of Jewish people who resorted to acts of terror and violence to try to get the Jewish state fully Jewish. Many of their acts were on Arabian people but from 1939 onwards they attacked many British officers and soldiers stationed in the area. They used bombs for many of their attacks, placing them in crowded areas such as movie theaters and marketplaces. When they attacked British military, many of the fights turned to shootouts. The most violent acts that the Irgun gang performed was the bombing of the King David Hotel and the Deir Yassin massacre. The "big brother" of the Irgun was the Haganah, who are more of a politically inclined group. One of the more atrocious acts of the Irgun was the hanging and booby trapping of two British officers. When another officer went to cut them down, a mine underneath them detonated in their faces. The Irgun also had many battles with British soldiers during the time when most Palestinian people were being pushed out of what is now Israel.

The Mosque

           The technical diary part of the book shows Ghada's slow descent into emotional depression. It is a sad part indeed when she is walking around and finding that everything she had grown up with was either gone or ruins. one of the saddest parts is when she see the mosque in the middle of the square(pg-435). When I was reading that part I thought the mosque was Palestine and all the high-rises were Israel. The mosque is empty and forgotten by most of the people who used to go there, and neglected by those who live near there, though the high-rises immediately catch your attention and make you go "wow!" The wall that separates Israel from Palestinian settlements is directly showing that the Israeli's do not even want to look at Palestine. They main part of the third section is about the feelings but it has other elements as well.

THIRD BLOG POST

In the last section of the book you really feel the underlying tone of frustration and hurt. She is now old enough to feel and see this true pain, and it hits her really hard. All hope Ghada has comes to an end; a final catastrophic ending. She could not look upon the world with the same light she had as a child. They had invested everything into The Palestinian way of life. Trying to keep it alive, but it fails. This is what underlies that last third. A feeling of defeat. "I was wrong. The hope I had in 1978 came to nothing, neither for Palestine nor for me" (p 410). The words she uses for the last moments underline the fact of her frustration and hurt. Shortcomings; suffering; lost hope; abandon and stranded. Nothing about her situation could be glorified. It was raw.

In the third section of In Search of Fatima the tone of somberness really stands out. After returning to the Arab world in search of companionship and understanding but not finding much, Ghada describes  her insecurities,"Two years in the Arab world had not helped me find my roots. Rather I began to fear that I had none to find, at least not in the places where I had sought them." (page 420). It is evident that Ghada has really lost her way, she does not know where to call home or what to identify herself as. Ghada is unable to pick up on many Arab social norms because of her vast exposure to the English culture and yet cannot fit in in England because of her loyalty to the Palestinian struggle. The truth is that Ghada doesn't have a home, she doesn't fit. Because of her homelessness Ghada is understandably displaced.


My favorite part of the whole book is the footnote that is on page 292 that describes her run in with Zoe Steiner years after their initial headbutting, "Zoe and I met again by chance in 1983. She was a dentist and I a practicing GP. We fell upon each other and embraced like long lost friends. She invited me to her home (also in Golden Green) where she introduced me to her Orthodox Jewish husband. Over a kosher meal, we reminisced over that incident in our childhood and shook our heads at the passions we had both felt." Despite how much I disliked Zoe Steiner's actions and rooted on Ghada, I recognize the incident as a painful memory for both girls. The fact that they met again and were able to come to terms with each other and the situation is so remarkable because rarely does such an opportunity come up. The anecdote of their future meeting allowed me to understand the initial situation more, because they ended at peace I didn't feel like I had to chose who was right/wrong, but rather I was able to recognize the causes for both of their actions.

The Final third of In Search of Fatima has no single emotional tone. It is a montage of very strong emotions, including defiance, hopelessness, and elation. However, the final third does include something that sets it greatly apart from the rest of the book: while the sections Palestine and England are mostly just the life experiences of Ghada Karmi, and her relationships with various countries and people- the final third is a deep reflection of what it means to be displaced, and representation of one woman’s search for the truth.  In this quote, Ghada speaks fervently to us about the emotional attachment that she forged by being an activist for Palestine, giving her something to fight for: “By the mid-1970s I had latched passionately onto the cause of Palestine as an inspiration, an identity, a reason for living” (399). This second quote takes place when Ghada  goes back to Palestine and tries to find her childhood home, finding instead, a new building on the site where it once stood, causing Ghada to fall into hopelessness: “Whatever is the point of struggling now… no one now remembers what we did or cares. It made no impact on events and things for the Palestinians have only gone downhill since then. Might as well accept we’re finished” (45-46). Upon hearing the call to prayer spreading through the old city, Ghada feels elation; “I closed my eyes in awe and relief. The story had not ended after all.” The final and most important piece of reflection in the entire book occurs in the last paragraph; “The story had not ended, after all. Not for them, at least, the people who still lived there, though they were now herded into reservations a fraction of what had been Palestine. They would remain and multiply and one day return, and maybe overtake. Their exile, undefined by space or time, and from where I was, there would be no return” (451). This final testament embodies the pain and hope of all displaced Palestinians. It would seem that Ghada wrote this book as a way of dealing with her own displacement, a gateway for the rest of the world to understand, and in so doing give Ghada herself legitimacy. Ghada’s last paragraph (the quote on page 451) mirrors my emotions when I am in my house in Jerusalem- every evening, the beautiful, wringing sound of the call to prayer reaches out over the land that has been so disputed for millennia, reminding the world that we are still there.

“The doors are gone, but the Keys remain”

My favorite part of the book is by far the third section. The first two sections are good, but the fact is that they only portray the life of one person, whose  journey, while interesting, is mostly one of a failed attempt at cultural integration, as well as of course some important, factual information about the takeover of Palestine. The last section of the book however paints a very real and touching picture of the plight of someone who has had the horrific epiphany of belonging nowhere.  The overwhelming confusion and emotional chaos brought about by displacement is truly life shattering- but despite that, Ghada Karmi has been able to record these thoughts  (mostly in the last third of the book) for all the world to see, and what’s more- she has not lost her hope, but reclaimed it.