Self Determinationation Quotes

“They think we’re bad people, Habibti, my father said, and always continued, but if they get to know us, they’ll see thats not true.

His eagerness to resist our poor reputation made sense to me. It hurt to imagine my gentle family so accused. But I internalized his words as an instruction to make my life an advertisement for our humanity.

It was an objective that seemed at odds with Palestinian resistance. In the pursuit of liberal empathy, merit was afforded to those who proved themselves civilized. Any act of Arab unruliness — and especially any act or armed struggle — instantly disqualified us from the esteem of our European and American arbiters. Thus excluded, we were declared unworthy — or at least incapable of handling — the privileges awarded the more enlightened nations: self-determination, freedom, and never, ironically, military force.”
― Sarah Aziza, The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders