Each Palestinian is True: On Solidarity

Francoise Kesteman's funeral march and burial at the Martyr's Cemetery in the Shatila refugee camp, Beiurt. Via: al-Safir 11 October, 1984.

Each Palestinian is true.

— Jean Genet, in an interview from 1983. “Jean Genet: Affirmation of Existence Through Rebellion,” Journal of Palestine Studies 16:2 (1987), 74. 

I am fully committed to the Palestinian revolution, I am happy, my life is in danger. 

— Francoise Kesteman, in a message to her former husband two months before she was killed by Israeli forces during a guerrilla operation in southern Lebanon. “French woman turned from nurse to guerrilla,” United Press International (25 September, 1984). Beirut’s al-Safir newspaper reported these words as “Francoise’s Will,” al-Safir (26 September, 1984), 12. 

After all these years I spent with the Palestinians, I became one of them. 

— Faiz Ahmad Faiz, in an interview with the Palestinian researcher Abd al-Qadir Yasin months before his death (1984). Faiz A. Faiz: The Living World (Tunis: Lotus Books, 1987), 79.

But lest my judgements and concerns be misunderstood, I should begin by affirming my solidarity with you is fraternal. In the marvelously universal terms in which Arab patriots defined Arabism, I should be counted as an Arab. Syed Haider Abdel Shafi shall surely recall the century-ol definition offered at the outset of the Arab national movement: Kullu munn kanu arabun fi lughatihim, va thaqafathihim, va valaihim fa hum al-arab (All those who are Arab in their language, culture, and feeling are Arabs). In this age of sectarian and exclusionary nationalism, this was an open invitation I could not resist. So, meant this way, I am an Arab and entitled to making harsh judgements on the man-made disasters that pile on us. 

— Eqbal Ahmad in his remarks at “Gaza’s first human rights conference” in 1994. “An Address in Gaza,” The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmed, Carollee Bengelsdorf, Margaret Cerullo, and Yogesh Chandrani, eds., (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 377. 

There’s first the issue of who is a Palestinian. Many people take a biological stand on this—nationality goes by paternal descent. If my father is Palestinian, I am Palestinian. I’m not with this idea—not because I want to make a claim to be Palestinian myself, but because I consider it a political choice, a political identity. People who are not born Palestinian, but who are active for the cause, shouldn’t they be considered Palestinian? For example, there is Jean Calder, an Australian woman who adopted three handicapped Palestinian children. I first got to know her during the invasion of 1982—I came across her in a shelter with these three handicapped kids, one of them clinging round her neck. At the same time, she was working with the Palestinian Red Crescent. I saw her again in Khan Yunis in 1998, still with the Red Crescent, and still with the three kids. If Jean isn’t considered a Palestinian mother, something is wrong.

— Rosemary Sayigh, in an interview with Mayssoun Sukarieh in 2008. “Speaking Palestinian: An Interview with Rosemary Sayigh,” Journal of Palestine Studies 38:4 (2009), 26.

I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine.

— Aaron Bushnell’s will (2024).