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A review by yourbookishbff
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This had a slow start for me, and while it took me a bit to sink into the narrative, I'm glad I stuck with it, because it's an incredibly relevant examination of diverging opinions and methods among Palestinian rights activists over the last several decades. Raja Shehadeh is primarily writing of his father's work and advocacy as he finally reads through his professional papers years after his murder. Both practicing attorneys interested in both domestic and international law, father and son held seemingly contradictory - but likely very complementary - views on Palestinian statehood. Shehadeh reflects on his own dismissal of his father's work while he was alive, and the emotional gap that kept them at odds despite such similar passions.
Through his father, Aziz, we see how a generation displaced at the start of the Nakba navigated newfound refugee status. We experience, through his legal battles on behalf of his fellow refugees, the maze of international law that sought to silence and dispossess them, and we witness how colonial powers like the UK and the US sustained an ancient game of international monopoly to ensure Palestinians lost their land, their homes, their assets and their hope of self-determination.
Most fascinating to me were the examinations of Aziz Shehadeh's work on the frozen bank accounts of Palestinian refugees and his later political advocacy for a two-state solution. These accounts of his work are timely reminders that Western powers have worked against peace for decades and have used proxies to divide and silence those who dared to use pen and paper to fight for it. Shehadeh's belief that a military solution would never serve Palestinians long-term, and his unflagging determination to work within a system built to ensure his loss is, ultimately, heartbreaking to witness, with the knowledge of all that would come after his death.
Highly recommend this concise memoir for those interested in learning more about the Nakba generations and fights for Palestinian statehood through the last several decades.
Through his father, Aziz, we see how a generation displaced at the start of the Nakba navigated newfound refugee status. We experience, through his legal battles on behalf of his fellow refugees, the maze of international law that sought to silence and dispossess them, and we witness how colonial powers like the UK and the US sustained an ancient game of international monopoly to ensure Palestinians lost their land, their homes, their assets and their hope of self-determination.
Most fascinating to me were the examinations of Aziz Shehadeh's work on the frozen bank accounts of Palestinian refugees and his later political advocacy for a two-state solution. These accounts of his work are timely reminders that Western powers have worked against peace for decades and have used proxies to divide and silence those who dared to use pen and paper to fight for it. Shehadeh's belief that a military solution would never serve Palestinians long-term, and his unflagging determination to work within a system built to ensure his loss is, ultimately, heartbreaking to witness, with the knowledge of all that would come after his death.
Highly recommend this concise memoir for those interested in learning more about the Nakba generations and fights for Palestinian statehood through the last several decades.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder