Schrödinger’s cat is previous hat. Let me introduce a brand new thought experiment: Schrödinger’s Palestinian. As a Palestinian, you're informed continually that you could be assume you exist, however, actually, you don’t. I'm Palestinian (I used to say half-Palestinian, via my father, however now I refuse to slice myself in half) and have been informed this a number of instances.
My favorite instance was when a colleague heard about my heritage and knowledgeable me that, “semantically talking”, there was no such factor as a Palestinian and no such factor as Palestine. Nicely, there isn't any arguing with semantics, is there? I disappeared right into a puff of air proper then and there.
Palestinians don’t exist – besides, after all, after we are militants or gunmen or terrorists or Hamas. There isn't a disputing our existence then – no disputing our terrorising nature or our savagery.There isn't a disputing our existence after we are targets for condemnation. We exist after we are being criticised; we stop to exist with regards to human rights. There isn't a peace in Israel/Palestine as a result of Palestinians are terrorists who don’t need peace, one pervasive narrative goes. However there may be additionally no peace as a result of Palestinians are imaginary and Palestine is made up. We exist, however we don’t. It’s sophisticated!
Why am saying all this? As a result of it's obscure simply how devastating the killing of the journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was – the way in which it shook Palestinians to the core – with out understanding what it's prefer to be Palestinian.
Being Palestinian means having the validity of your existence litigated each single day. It means continually being gaslit, erased, talked over, smeared. For diaspora Palestinians like me, it means getting used to being checked out with suspicion merely for answering the query: ‘The place are you from?’ When my household moved to New York after I was a child, for instance, an individual on our constructing’s board heard my dad was Palestinian and “jokingly” informed him to not maintain any terrorist conferences within the condo. (As if! You all the time maintain month-to-month militant conferences on the roof.) Once I went to legislation college in London, I used to be subjected to “joke” after “joke” about suicide bombers. Anti-Palestinian bigotry is so normalised and widespread that, when strangers ask me the place I'm from, I'm usually cautious (and scared) of mentioning Palestine.
Shireen Abu Aqleh had no such qualms; she was braveness personified. The much-loved Al Jazeera correspondent was a fixture on TV screens for greater than three many years, signing off her broadcasts with the chorus: “I'm Shireen Abu Aqleh, Jerusalem, occupied Palestine.” No mincing of phrases, no apologies for current; simply the reality.
Abu Aqleh was way over a journalist, way over a family identify. Even “icon” doesn’t seize her. She was a documentarian of displacement, a voice for Palestinians, an emblem of Palestine. She was a relentless reminder that Palestinians aren't an summary philosophical idea whose existence is up for debate, however human beings deserving of dignity. For diaspora Palestinians, she was a lifeline. And now she is gone.
Abu Aqleh isn’t simply useless; she has been desecrated. Her reminiscence was dishonoured by fellow journalists who reported her dying with the passive voice, diluted her dying with references to “clashes” and gave extra credence to continually shifting narratives from the Israeli authorities than eyewitness accounts. Her killing final week, throughout an Israeli navy raid within the occupied West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin, was diminished by western politicians providing meaningless platitudes somewhat than demanding actual accountability. Her funeral was disturbed by Israeli police who beat mourners and tried to grab the flag from her hearse. It wasn’t sufficient for the voice of Palestine to be useless; the imagery of Palestine needed to disappear, too.
And this, by the way in which, is much from uncommon. I bear in mind Israeli troopers coming to my dad’s village after I was a baby and violently confiscating the Palestinian flag flying there. Have been they allowed to do that? Schrodinger’s Palestinian! They have been and so they weren’t. One of many funniest corrections I've ever seen is from the Washington Put up in 2021: “An earlier model of this text stated that Israel bans the Palestinian flag. It has banned the flag in sure conditions prior to now, however right now the flag will be confiscated and the flying of it penalised underneath Israeli public security ordinances.”
One of the simplest ways I can honour Abu Aqleh’s reminiscence is to ask you to contemplate this: if the violence that occurred at a beloved Palestinian’s funeral befell when the Israeli authorities knew the world was watching, what do you assume occurs to unusual Palestinians the remainder of the time? The violence documented at Abu Aqleh’s funeral wasn’t an aberration; it was simply one other day underneath occupation.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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