Reflections of a Palestinian

By Mohammed Tarbush. Washington, DC: American Arab Affairs Council, 1986. 97 pp., $5.95.

Reviewed by Bishara A. Bahbah

Reflections of a Palestinian is a compelling selection of articles and editorials written over a 15-year period (1970-1985) and published in distinguished periodicals such as The Times (of London), The Guardian, The Observer, Le Monde, The International Herald Tribune, and The New York Times. The author's main concern is the continually deteriorating conditions of Palestinian life and the world's apparent lack of interest in resolving equitably the Palestine question. Tarbush's writings are eloquent testimony to the pain and frustration of being forced to live in exile.

Life in Palestine

Tarbush starts his book with an article describing Beit Natif, the village in Palestine where he was born. This article is, in my opinion, the best among the 31 articles that comprise the book. Describing the house where he lived with his parents and grandparents, the author writes:

"Grandfather had built the house in the early years of the century and it looked onto the farmyard where the chickens strutted and pecked ceaselessly, and around which were the stables for the sheep and the goats. The neighboring houses were occupied by other members of the family, and I was surrounded by affection and spoilt by my many aunts."

In 1948, and along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, Tarbush and his entire family were forced to leave all their property behind and flee their homes for Jericho. The Tarbush family was uprooted again in 1967, fleeing across the Allenby Bridge into Jordan in the wake of Israel's conquest of the West Bank.

Pain of Statelessness

The author touches on a number of issues that affect Palestinians on a daily basis. At one point, he tried to arrange for his parents to return and "spend the last days of their lives at their home in Jericho," only to be denied that request by the Israeli occupation authorities. "My parent's case is, of course, not an isolated one," Tarbush writes. "There are thousands of Palestinians who are enduring acute hardships in refugee camps surrounding the Jordan Valley, often within sight of their homes, and who are longing to return."

In another part of the book, the author, in a tone of mixed frustration and defiance, writes, "Our story is too obvious to have been misunderstood. Very simply, we are a people, we have been robbed of our homeland, and all the sophistry in the world will not make us accept this as our identity."

Nature of Zionism

Tarbush contends that Zionism is to blame for this deplorable state of affairs, holding that it is "a colonialist ideology which feeds on the tension it created between Jews and Palestinians. It is oppressive if only in the simple fact that it called for the creation of a Jewish state in an already populated land." The author then warns that Israel, although created and nourished by the West, "has grown into a Frankenstein which is turning against its master. Does the West have to wait for the rise of an Arab Khomeini before grasping this basic point?"

Tarbush also addresses political and economic conditions in the Arab world, noting that although there are isolated "pockets of progress," here and there, these pockets are not matched by any widespread intellectual renaissance. The Arab world has hardly ever been more divided and many Arabs have come to "behave as if they had a divine right to rule."

Tarbush believes that the Palestine Liberation Organization will become stronger with time: "If the powerful armies of Israel and Syria have not succeeded in liquidating the PLO, it would be futile for others to try." Nevertheless, the author correctly recognizes that, in the course of its growth, the PLO has become difficult to control, and that "there have been excesses, even abuses; even its leaders have committed indiscretions and errors."

First-Person Narrative

Reflections of a Palestinian is an important addition to the small body of work on the Palestine tragedy written by Palestinians. To understand the variety of the Palestinian experience, we need more first-hand narratives in which Palestinians describe their lives, their families, friends, and compatriots either under occupation or in the diaspora (al-ghourba). This book admirably complements Raja Shehadeh's book Samed, which describes Palestinian life under occupation, and Fawaz Turki's The Disinherited, which details life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Summing up the Palestinians' determination never to give up and to keep on with the struggle for what is rightfully theirs, Tarbush writes, "Once again I take the road, though with a heavy heart, a measure of hope, and a determination never to forget."

Bishara A Bahbah was born in East Jerusalem, Palestine, and is Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University and author of Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection.