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A review by encyclopediabritanika
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This is a National Book Award finalist for nonfiction and at a very concise 160 pages a read I think we should all try to add to our list.
One of the things I appreciated was the perspective of a Palestinian Christian, which is not one I think we get often. Not that this book is about being a Palestinian Christian, I just appreciated having that voice.
This book is about Aziz Shehadeh, a lawyer, activist, man displaced in the Nakbeh, told by his son Raja through papers he found after Aziz’s murder. Aziz was detained, exiled, a political prisoner, and ultimately murdered. Raja, as a child, noted that absence as absence and not for the why of the absence. In this memoir, Raja comes to know his father again as an adult and the courage he showed and lament how they could have been friends.
What I really found new and illuminating, to me, was the story of a lawyer in Palestine through displacement. Aziz for decades fought for human rights with the British, then Jordan, then Israel through a lawyer’s lens and legal avenues. I for one didn’t know when Israel took the land from Palestinians, they also seized all their bank accounts, so Palestinians lost their entire savings and had absolutely nothing to start with in the lands they were displaced to. But Aziz took that legal fight as far as he could, ultimately to Britain (because colonialism) and successfully got money back for some families. He was often times, however, unsuccessful in his legal fights because the ruling parties weren’t playing fair and went back on promises regularly. Which surprises no one but was a heartbreak for Aziz who so staunchly believed in the law. I also appreciated more of an explanation of Britain’s role in this horror (they love to wash their hands of their imperialism caused problems) as well as Jordan’s.
While a short catalogue of oppression and dispossession, this is also very much a story of a father son relationship and how we see our parents differently over time. It was really moving. And worth your time.
One of the things I appreciated was the perspective of a Palestinian Christian, which is not one I think we get often. Not that this book is about being a Palestinian Christian, I just appreciated having that voice.
This book is about Aziz Shehadeh, a lawyer, activist, man displaced in the Nakbeh, told by his son Raja through papers he found after Aziz’s murder. Aziz was detained, exiled, a political prisoner, and ultimately murdered. Raja, as a child, noted that absence as absence and not for the why of the absence. In this memoir, Raja comes to know his father again as an adult and the courage he showed and lament how they could have been friends.
What I really found new and illuminating, to me, was the story of a lawyer in Palestine through displacement. Aziz for decades fought for human rights with the British, then Jordan, then Israel through a lawyer’s lens and legal avenues. I for one didn’t know when Israel took the land from Palestinians, they also seized all their bank accounts, so Palestinians lost their entire savings and had absolutely nothing to start with in the lands they were displaced to. But Aziz took that legal fight as far as he could, ultimately to Britain (because colonialism) and successfully got money back for some families. He was often times, however, unsuccessful in his legal fights because the ruling parties weren’t playing fair and went back on promises regularly. Which surprises no one but was a heartbreak for Aziz who so staunchly believed in the law. I also appreciated more of an explanation of Britain’s role in this horror (they love to wash their hands of their imperialism caused problems) as well as Jordan’s.
While a short catalogue of oppression and dispossession, this is also very much a story of a father son relationship and how we see our parents differently over time. It was really moving. And worth your time.