duygutekgul
06-Oct-2010, 22:18
Palestinian Walks tells about the seven walks the author took on the hills of Palestine from 1978 to 2007. Shehadeh is a Palestinian property lawyer and human rights campaigner, and has written other memoirs on his experiences in his country that?s literally slipping through his fingers. On each walk he takes on the hills, he is gradually more restricted and he risks life on several encounters with the Israeli soldiers.
The book explains a great deal about the development of the conflict itself. I learned how, for example, the Israeli settlers are taking advantage of the nomad lifestyle, by confiscating any land vacated by Bedouins that are headed for the hills or the plains for the summer and winter. Arabs don?t see land as something to be divided into plots and owned (privately), so that?s another thing Israeli settlers have picked up.
However, all of these aside, I saw this book as a piece of writing about one?s love for their country. The Palestinian hills are mostly dry and relatively barren, and Shehadeh loves them for what they are, because he knows how to look at them. He cherishes every hill, every plant, creek etc., and he hates to see them mistreated by Israeli settlers who erect concrete buildings and build tarmac roads, without taking into consideration the particular way nature behaves there. He addresses every hill with its proper name, translated in parentheses, and explains the individual properties of bushes and shrubs. As I read these descriptions, I imagined the dry earth to be olive-coloured and the air to be infused with the smells of herbs.
One passage I remember was the story of Ayoub, an old distant relative of the author, who built a qasr (a farmer?s house on the hills) with his new wife on their honeymoon. He is described as ?strong and as nimble as a goat, with short legs, a large muscular torso and a big chest, a hill man well adapted to this stony terrain? (p. 21). The building of a qasr is usually a communal business, but being an only child and having cousins that are useless, Ayoub decides to face the work all by himself. He goes to his newly bought property with his wife Zariefeh ? not really planning to start the work that day ? and starts carrying large blocks of stone, while she clears the bushes. In the evening, they realise it might be dangerous to walk back, so they light a fire to keep warm and keep the jackals off, and they spend the night in the open air. Ayoub doesn?t sleep much anyway, watching over his young wife. For a week, they ration their bread and Zariefeh makes herbal tea with what she finds on the hills. They only consummate their marriage once the walls are high enough. Ayoub builds a perfect qasr entirely out of stone, with no cement. He feels as if he?s in paradise, on his beloved hills, in his own place, and with his understanding and hardworking wife.
As a piece of memoir/travel writing, the book is not plot-driven, and I?ve seen reviews on the internet calling the book ?boring,? unfortunately. But you can?t expect this sort of book to be an action film, and it kept my interest alive throughout; it was like listening to someone talk sweetly about their homeland.
I must say I was impressed with the author?s writing skills though, since he is not a professional author, i.e. a lawyer, and presumably English is not his first language. At the time of reading, I thought, ?He?s either naturally gifted or has an excellent editor.? Well, both may be true.
Overall I like the book. But it leaves a sense of injustice, so I hope I can one day read a book that tells about the reversal of Shehadeh?s story.
The book explains a great deal about the development of the conflict itself. I learned how, for example, the Israeli settlers are taking advantage of the nomad lifestyle, by confiscating any land vacated by Bedouins that are headed for the hills or the plains for the summer and winter. Arabs don?t see land as something to be divided into plots and owned (privately), so that?s another thing Israeli settlers have picked up.
However, all of these aside, I saw this book as a piece of writing about one?s love for their country. The Palestinian hills are mostly dry and relatively barren, and Shehadeh loves them for what they are, because he knows how to look at them. He cherishes every hill, every plant, creek etc., and he hates to see them mistreated by Israeli settlers who erect concrete buildings and build tarmac roads, without taking into consideration the particular way nature behaves there. He addresses every hill with its proper name, translated in parentheses, and explains the individual properties of bushes and shrubs. As I read these descriptions, I imagined the dry earth to be olive-coloured and the air to be infused with the smells of herbs.
One passage I remember was the story of Ayoub, an old distant relative of the author, who built a qasr (a farmer?s house on the hills) with his new wife on their honeymoon. He is described as ?strong and as nimble as a goat, with short legs, a large muscular torso and a big chest, a hill man well adapted to this stony terrain? (p. 21). The building of a qasr is usually a communal business, but being an only child and having cousins that are useless, Ayoub decides to face the work all by himself. He goes to his newly bought property with his wife Zariefeh ? not really planning to start the work that day ? and starts carrying large blocks of stone, while she clears the bushes. In the evening, they realise it might be dangerous to walk back, so they light a fire to keep warm and keep the jackals off, and they spend the night in the open air. Ayoub doesn?t sleep much anyway, watching over his young wife. For a week, they ration their bread and Zariefeh makes herbal tea with what she finds on the hills. They only consummate their marriage once the walls are high enough. Ayoub builds a perfect qasr entirely out of stone, with no cement. He feels as if he?s in paradise, on his beloved hills, in his own place, and with his understanding and hardworking wife.
As a piece of memoir/travel writing, the book is not plot-driven, and I?ve seen reviews on the internet calling the book ?boring,? unfortunately. But you can?t expect this sort of book to be an action film, and it kept my interest alive throughout; it was like listening to someone talk sweetly about their homeland.
I must say I was impressed with the author?s writing skills though, since he is not a professional author, i.e. a lawyer, and presumably English is not his first language. At the time of reading, I thought, ?He?s either naturally gifted or has an excellent editor.? Well, both may be true.
Overall I like the book. But it leaves a sense of injustice, so I hope I can one day read a book that tells about the reversal of Shehadeh?s story.