Shereen Malherbe's Blog, page 7
June 24, 2024
Yassini Girls is now on Goodreads!
Dear all,
The release of Yassini Girls is scheduled for July 15 2024. It is now added on Goodreads so don’t forget to order your copy and add it to your list!
Yassini Girls on goodreadsBlurbIn an ancient house behind stone walls in the Old City of Jerusalem, an unexpected phone call reignites a past Fatima has long buried. Thousands of miles away in the British countryside, a family heirloom buried beneath an attic floor forces Layla to journey into the darkest parts of Palestinian history. Separated by distance and time, the lives of these two women are stitched together in a way neither of them could have imagined.
Yassini Girls is a multi-generational novel that explores trauma, belonging, and preserving tradition against all odds to secure our present. Based on the author’s own experience following a BBC documentary film, Yassini Girls reminds us how our past will always be part of our future.
Shereen Malherbe is a British Palestinian author and English Literature graduate. She is a writer and researcher featured in the Media Diversified experts directory, known for her work with various organizations and her TV appearances discussing Palestine, literature, and Muslim women’s representation.
Order your copySubscribe so you don’t miss out on any updates and new releases!Subscribe
June 19, 2024
Palestine House
Dear all, I am reposting this from Palestine House crowdfunding page.
View Lauren Booth’s new reel showcasing Palestine House with a sneak peak inside and DM her to get an the mailing list!
Palestine HousePalestine House is a five-storey building in London that – if finished – will be a beating heart of Palestinian culture and organising. It will host a wide range of cultural events, from film screenings to lectures, book readings to concerts and so much more besides. The building will also be a place to meet, a place to work from or simply reflect. Now more than ever we need a space like this. Every penny raised goes towards the construction and launch of the space, let’s come together to finish it!
Palestine House is the birth of a dream I had some 17 years ago as a young refugee when I was feeling lonely and sought refuge from the world.
Where I could be myself – physically, mentally and creatively – without questions. Palestine House is a place which I always felt was missing – an embassy to show that we are real and recognised, represented and rejoiced.
We have taken the ingredients of Palestine and cooked up a space from the different flavours of Palestinian towns and cities – to share the incredible beauty of our treasured land. In my journeys around the world, I met people from Cuba, Jamaica and Ireland who were nicknamed ‘Palestinos’. I was told that many communities that are persecuted, marginalised and discriminated against use Palestine as their symbol, as their flag of resilience and strength.
So, Palestine House is for everyone, a place not just for Palestinians, but for all those people from lands where they have been made into refugees and seek a sense of belonging. A place where we can accumulate all of this pain and sorrow and convert it into strength and beauty. A place where we celebrate diversity and encourage difference to be our strength rather than our weakness.
We are created as humans on this earth, I believe, to create love and prosperity and to make this world better. This is culturally engraved in our minds as Palestinian children.
Palestine House is a place to honour decades of struggle and endurance and a commitment to dignity no matter what the world throws at us.
Palestine House has been three years in the making but we need your help to finish it. Please be a part of this dream and help us establish this refuge and cultural embassy in the capital. If we hit our target we can launch later this summer.
Osama Qashoo
For more information visit their crowdfunding page here.
June 16, 2024
June 15, 2024
Podcast A Tribute to Palestine: A Journey through Writing and Advocacy
I had the opportunity to be part of a podcast for Make A Difference Upskills this week.
With the ongoing genocide in Gaza our brothers and sisters in Palestine are at the forefront of our mind so our podcast session is a tribute to Palestine.
We discuss my writing on Palestine, from my debut novel, to my upcoming releases, to why I also wrote my children’s series. We talk about the critiques, pitfalls and uplifting moments on writing about Occupation.
We also explore my journey from my appearance in the BBC documentary The Holy Land and Us, about my family’s links to the Nakba in 1948, Palestine and how that led to my latest novel about the journey, Yassini Girls. We also talk about why sharing and preserving Palestinian narratives is more important than ever.
As we continue to strive to use whatever means we have at our disposal to help, we discuss some ways and the importance of keeping this up.
You can listen here and also access other podcasts from Make a Difference Upskills Series.
If you want to get involved, either through sharing Palestinian narratives via your scoial network or book clubs, please get in touch.
You can check out my latest book list here.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
June 13, 2024
Palestine film screening of ‘Where Olive Trees Weep’
Repost from Palestine Museum US
In response to many requests, we are re-screening the film “Where the Olive Trees Weep,” on this Saturday at 12:00 Noon US EDT. see below for details.
No programming this Sunday as we mark Eid al-Adha and Father’s Day in he US.
Saturday June 15, 2024, 12;00 PM US EDT; 19:00 PALESTINE; 18:00 EUROPE; 17:00 UK
Screening the documentary film: “Where the Olive Trees Weep,” directed by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo, Running Time 103 minutes, 2024, English with English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by discussions with audience.
About the Film
The film offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Following Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi and others, the film explores the themes of loss, trauma, and quest for justice.
Please click here for more information and to register for seeing the film.
June 8, 2024
World Literature Today – Silken Rebellion Fish Fry: How to Make Your Unfresh Fish Rations Taste Rather Deliciousby by Chantha Nguon & Kim Green
A photograph of the dish described. Photo by Sergi Reboredo / Alamy Stock Photo
Escaping the Khmer Rouge, Chantha Nguon’s family moved to Saigon, where they lived as refugees. There, restoring flavor to the drab palate of their lives felt like a tiny act of rebellion. Lemongrass-fried fish lives on as a frequent dish, a simple and exquisite homage to Nguon’s mother.When I was nine years old, in 1970, I fled Cambodia with my older brother and sisters. A military coup had ousted the prince and installed a general who right away began inciting violence against ethnic Vietnamese. Because my mother (in Khmer, I called her Mae) was from a Vietnamese family, she felt her children would be safer in wartime Saigon than in Cambodia, where an even darker ideological unrest was rising.Mae escaped later, with the Khmer Rouge at her heels. In Saigon, we lived as refugees—during the war, and after South Vietnam fell. Even before the communists marched in, we had very little money and could not eat the sumptuous meals my mother had prepared for us in her Battambang kitchen, back when our world still felt safe.
But this new Saigon, brought to us by the North Vietnamese, was tasteless and colorless, devoid of the flavors I craved. Every month we received whatever combination of potatoes, cassava, rice, bug-infested bread, and substandard noodles the Party deemed fit. We sliced the cassava and dried it, then mixed everything together in one pot and choked down the gray, horrible mash. Eating it made us feel that we had devolved from human beings to pigs, content to devour slop from a trough. And the only fish we were able to buy was very small and very aged.We spent much of our time craving the ingredients we could not have and reminiscing about the delicious dishes from our old life. We cooked up schemes to make something tasty out of our dismal rations and the few decent items we managed to obtain by extralegal means. For us, restoring flavor to the drab palate of our lives felt like a tiny act of rebellion.
June 7, 2024
The Enduring and Racist Trope of Palestinian Rejectionism by Fathi Nimer-
By Al-Shabaka The Palestinian Policy Network
Since the beginning of the Zionist project in Palestine, large efforts have been exerted to paint all resistance to its colonial endeavors as irrational and at odds with progress and modernity. From the onset, Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, envisioned that local Palestinian Arabs would welcome the progress brought by Zionist colonizers and greet them with open arms. Those who did not, or the “penniless” ones who could not contribute to this new society, would be “spirited” across the border.
Contrary to Herzl’s predictions, the Zionist colonial project was largely met with resistance. Rather than understanding this for what it was—the natural response of indigenous people toward colonialism—the majority of Zionist leaders dismissed this opposition as regressive and rooted in a fear of ingenuity and prosperity. Later, Palestinian resistance would be characterized by charges of antisemitism and senseless bloodlust.
This deliberately manufactured dichotomy between the prosperous and civilized Settler and the regressive and rejectionist Arab standing in the way of progress set the tone for developments between Palestinians and Zionist settlers for decades to come. This commentary explores the nascence of this trope, unpacking its weaponization to deny Palestinians their fundamental rights and demonize their collective aspirations for sovereignty.
Rejectionism During the Mandate PeriodDuring the Mandate for Palestine, the British government followed an openly pro-Zionist policy that privileged the new Jewish settlers and bestowed on them perks and preferential treatment that guaranteed their dominance and prosperity over the Palestinian Arabs. Such benefits were not only economic, but also embedded Zionists and those sympathetic to them in positions of power, equipping them with the necessary tools to take control following the mandate’s conclusion.
In a notable feat of historical revisionism, Israeli leadership uses Palestinian opposition to the Balfour declaration as one of the first examples of Palestinian rejection of coexistence and rights for all SHARE ON X
That Palestinians had an inalienable right to sovereignty had no bearing on British plans for Palestine. This was articulated in the Balfour Declaration, which promised British government support in establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine. While the declaration also promised not to “prejudice” the rights of the existing “non-Jewish” population, the wording made clear that the indigenous community would simply be an afterthought, denying their very identity as Palestinians. Unsurprisingly, Palestinians wholeheartedly opposed this declaration, which saw an imperial power promise their land to another people. The declaration sparked protests that continue to this day on the anniversary of its issuance. In a notable feat of historical revisionism, Israeli leadership uses Palestinian opposition to the Balfour declaration as one of the first examples of Palestinian rejection of coexistence and rights for all.
Importantly, Palestinian grievances were reflected in British reports and investigations at the time. For example, the 1921 Haycraft Commission of Inquiry dismissed the idea that antisemitism was the driving force behind Arab resistance to the new settlers, instead pointing to the very real threat of Zionist takeover of Palestine as the basis for their reactions. Nonetheless, the legitimate grievances of Palestinians highlighted in this and other subsequent reports were largely ignored, with the prevailing narrative claiming that Palestinian rejectionism was the main obstacle in finding a solution between the Arabs and the Jews.
Meanwhile, as Zionist influence and power expanded in Palestine, the calls to ethnically cleanse the natives grew louder, and multiple proposals were laid out on how to achieve this. For example, the 1937 Peel Commission, which was instigated following the Great Palestinian Revolt, suggested the partitioning of Palestine and the forced transfer of 125,000 Palestinian Arabs to barren lands in order to make room for a Jewish state. This proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by Palestinians, who understood that their right to self-determination over a large part of their land was being stripped away and given to a European settler population. Notably, it was also rejected by large parts of the Zionist community, who felt the proposed Jewish state was too small. In fact, Jewish settlers also rejected offers for a unitary state for all peoples between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea in both 1928 and 1947.
Decades of propaganda and selective reporting regarding the nature of these various plans during the British Mandate period have distilled into the trope of the unreasonable and rejectionist Palestinians, contrasted with their Zionist counterparts, who are historically positioned as willing partners in peace and compromise. It is this history that gives weight to the racist saying, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” which has since become ingrained as a cornerstone of Western analysis on Palestine.
Continue reading via Al-Shabaka …June 6, 2024
Palestine film screening – Where the Olive Trees Weep
Reposted from Palestine Museum US
Saturday’s Film: “Where the Olive Trees Weep,” directed by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo
Saturday June 8, 2024, 12;00 PM US EDT; 19:00 PALESTINE; 18:00 EUROPE; 17:00 UK
Screening the documentary film: “Where the Olive Trees Weep,” directed by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo, Running Time 103 minutes, 2024, English with English subtitles.
The film screening will be followed by discussions with audience.About the FilmThe film offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Following Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi and others, the film explores the themes of loss, trauma, and quest for justice.
Please click here for more information and to register for seeing the film.
June 5, 2024
New book release from Haymarket Books and Palfest- Their Borders, Our World.
Reposted visit campaign hereTheir Borders, Our WorldBuilding New Solidarities with Palestine
Edited by Mahdi Sabbagh
208 pages | Available Now | ISBN: 9798888900994
Request a Review Copy
Purchase a Copy
“All around the world the cry from the street is ‘Free Palestine.’ This vital and varied collection reveals some of the global solidarities that lie beneath that united cry, and in doing so asks us to consider what connections we can make, and what histories we might re-shape—together.” —Kamila Shamsie, award-winning author of Home Fire and Best of Friends
“Edward Said once remarked Palestinians had been denied the permission to narrate their own histories and experiences. Much has changed since then. Their Borders, Our World brings together writers from PalFest, the international cultural solidarity initiative that defies the bans, borders, and bigotry aimed at snuffing out the vibrant Palestinian literary tradition.
In the shadow of a Western-backed annihilationist campaign against Gaza and Palestinians, this volume does more than grant the permission to narrate: It is, without permission or apology, a call to liberate.”—Nick Estes, Lakota activist, historian, and author of Our History is the Future“Their Borders, Our World arrives as a meteor, incandescent, a signal of determination and solidarity in a dark time, assuring that Palestine will be free.”—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian, activist, and writer of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States Learn More
Recommended Reading on Palestine…
Against Erasure
A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba
Edited by Teresa Aranguren and Sandra Barrilaro
Foreword by Mohammed El-Kurd
£35, hardcover, February 2024
ISBN: 9781642599800
Read what people have said in The Guardian and Los Angeles Review of Books “The book reveals many kinder moments in the lives of
many Palestinians. It is a treasure.”
—Jeremy CorbynInquire about trade termsHaymarket BooksHaymarket Books@haymarketbooksHaymarket Books
