OPINION | WORLD | PALESTINE
“The war came into our living room.”
Generations of Palestinian children were terrorized by Israeli soldiers, in their homes, in their schools, on the way, while playing …
Oct. 11, 2023
“The war came into our living room,” — an expression I read on an Israeli friend’s post. A terrifying thought. To fathom its depths, I’ll rewind:
“Mid-1970s. Three years old. … Outside, the streets were in turmoil, spilling the sound of gunfire and the smell of burning tires and tear gas into the house. …
“Then came the banging on the door. Loud, continuous banging with the butt of a rifle. I thought the door would break. Through the cracks in the blinds, I saw the soldiers strutting on our patio. What do they want from us? Will they search the house? Are they looking for children? Soldiers don’t like children. I see them shooting at the older kids every day. Now they are right outside our house, so they must be here to get me. With this incontrovertible logic of a three-year old, I quickly scampered and hid between my dad’s desk and the wall — a narrow crack into which I could barely squeeze myself. There, I would be safe from those big, monstrous soldiers. Breathless, I stayed, as long as I could hear the thuds of their boots and the jangles of their guns.”
This is from the first page of my autobiographical novel Fugitive Dreams. In 1976, there was NO Hamas, NO Hizballah, Iran was Israel’s ally, Egypt was suing for peace. But the Israeli occupation had already come into our living rooms!
And again, the occupation soldiers barged in, searching Palestinian homes. In a tax raid mid-1980s, during the Intifada, both the first and the second. Generations of Palestinian children were terrorized by Israeli soldiers, in their homes, in their schools, on the way to school, while playing on their bikes. For 55 years, the OCCUPATION was in our living rooms.
A week ago, I took a walk in Hebron. Five or six soldiers stood at every street corner in the old city, in full gear, with long rifles. In a 20-minute walk we must have seen a hundred of them. Doing nothing but threatening the children, in the name of protecting a handful of settlers who had stolen the homes of Palestinian families. And that’s just one stolenment out of hundreds around the West Bank. Each needed its retinue of Israeli soldiers and equipment to protect their unwanted presence on our land.
With half the Israeli army in the West Bank securing the stolenments and occupation roads, the Gaza border was left unattended. For the first time in 55 years, or more, the war was taken into Israeli living rooms. Which, by the way, for those who took over intact Palestinian homes in 1948, after expelling their inhabitants, the war came into our grandmothers’ living rooms.
With love from Palestine,
Ramsey Hanhan
