Democratic Palestine : 14 (ص 36)
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- Democratic Palestine : 14 (ص 36)
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Book Review
«Wild Thorns»
In her novel Wild Thorns, Sahar
Khalifeh takes us on a journey into
occupied Palestine. At first we enter
Nablus (incidentally Sahar Khalifeh’s
home town) with Usama who is returning
after a number of years working outside
his homeland. We experience his shock
at the changes wrought by the occupa-
tion, from the rough treatment meted out
by Israeli soidiers at the border, to the
fact that some of those nearest him are
now working in ‘Israel’. As the story
unfolds, it is borne along by series of
characters of all ages and positions,
adding up to a vivid mosaic of life in the
occupied West Bank.
We are with the children taunting
the occupation troops in the streets dur-
ing a curfew, with cries of «PLO...
Fatah... Popular Front... Democratic
Front...Revolution Until Victory.» We are
in the jail with the student who has been
detained for shouting revolutionary slo-
gans, and with the worker arrested for
getting into a fist fight with his ‘fellow
worker’ - an Israeli. We walk the streets
of Nablus, smell the smells of its market,
visit its coffee houses and the homes of
its citizens.
Sahar Khalifeh skillfully chronicles
daily life under occupation, employing a
simple, direct style. She relies on
dialogue, actions and concise impres-
sions, rather than lengthy description.
Yet, from the first pages, it is obvious
that something more than a general pic-
ture is being conveyed. What the author
is really getting at is the Palestinian
response to occupation. She examines
how this varies according to the person's
age group, class, sex, educational level
and degree of religious feelings.
Among these factors, the one most
persistently addressed is class. Sahar
Khalifeh does not moralize or speak in
dogmas. Rather she lets the ‘little
people’ speak out. One example is when
Usama visits the farm of his well-to-do
uncle who is now an invalid. He finds that
it has fallen into disuse; the younger men
have gone to work in ‘Israel’. Only Abu
Shahada, the peasant who has always
worked on the uncle’s land, remains.
When Usama taunts him about the state
of the land, he finally blurts out: «Why
are you so angry with me? I'm just a
hired hand. I've been here all my life. |
don't own any land. | don't own anything.
, SAHAR ‘KHALIFEH
i Wild
Wy San
ot
My son Shahada was a hired hand too.
And he still is. The land isn't mine or
Shahada’s, so why should we care
about it? Why should we die for it? Don't
give me that! Nobody ever came and
asked about us when we were nearly
dying of starvation. But now you come!»
The younger generation's growing
consciousness of what is going on is
also recorded. As one teenager tells his
friends: «In high school they force an
obsolete curriculum on us and our
families begin pressuring us to get the
highest grades so we can become doc-
tors and engineers. Once we've actually
become doctors and engineers, they
demand that we pay them back for the
cost of our studies. And our parents
don't work their fingers to the bone pay-
ing for our education so that we'll return
and work for peanuts at home. So the
only solution is emigration...Educated
people leave the country, and only work-
ers and peasants remain. And that’s
exactly what Israel wants to happen. »
In another incident, Usama chal-
lenges a street vendor for selling Israeli
bread. He teils the man it is a disgrace,
and gets an ear-full in return: «A dis-
grace, is it? They called it a disgrace
when | took a job ‘inside’. So | stayed at
home like the women, and they called
that a disgrace! And here you are in your
fashionable trousers and smart shirt, tel-
ling me it's a disgrace. Look, friend,
we're not the first to work with them.
While we were still wandering the streets
_ of Nablus looking for bread to eat, your
kind were running around Tel Aviv look-
ing €y companies to award you franch-
ises so you could sell their products...»
The question of working in ‘Israel’ is
a dominant theme throughout the story.
Is it treachery as Usama thinks? Is it a
necessity as others are convinced? Is
there a chance for solidarity with Israeli
workers as a few philosophize over?
The book doesn't give direct answers
but shows the realities to provoke
thought, recording the factors that had
driven Palestinians into the Israeli fac-
tories and the effects this has on the soc-
iety under occupation at large. By raising
this question, along with the class ques-
tion, Sahar Khalifeh obviously intended
to do more than tell a story. She is first
and foremost writing for her own people,
raising issues which are highly relevant
for the future of the Palestinian national
movement, and of special interest to its
left-wing forces. The unstated question
permeating the novel is: Will the Palesti-
nian society rise to the challenge and
formulate the alternative for successfully
resisting occupation?
Because Wild Thorns is a novel, it
would be unfair to demand that the
author answer all the questions she
raises. However, we do take exception
to the book’s unrealistic handling of the
armed resistance. This stands in stark
contrast to the warm, human, down-to-
earth approach applied in all other
aspects of the book. Most disturbing is
that the characters who are somehow
connected to the armed resistance are
presented in avery stereotyped manner,
whereas the other characters are gener-
ally multidimensional.
Having stated this one reservation,
we highly recommend this book which
has already become famous and much
discussed in Palestinian and Arab cir-
cles, as well as having been translated
into French and Hebrew. We thank Al
Saqi Books for having made Wild Thorns
available to English readers.
Wild Thorns was first published in
Jerusalem as A/ Subar in 1976. The
English edition was published in 1985.
by Al Saqi Books, 26 Westbourne
Grove, London W2, England. @ - هو جزء من
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