We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I Quotes

“There was not enough time for the rebellion and the dream. The rebellion had consumed all the available time.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“It was the old colonial policy of divide and rule. This was his conclusion. He believed that it all began with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and that since then the British had been encouraging hatred and enmity between the two sides. He wrote that ever since the Jews were granted the Balfour Declaration the colonizer has been active in fostering the spirit of enmity and hatred between Jews and Arabs and in creating obstacles in the way of any resolution whether by war or peace. Woe unto whoever is inspired to work on any of the complicated issues. If he should dare to exhibit any initiative he is considered a dangerous suspect and his name is added to the list of enemies. The colonizer then presses the button which signals his barking dogs to attack the man and destroy him.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“They believed it had become theirs, and only theirs. The Zionists were ruthless in their drive to advance their victory and establish their state. To do so they had to suppress the Palestinians who stayed, whose numbers I had unwittingly joined. We were all placed under military government. I’d really had no idea it was going to be like that. It was as though I had come to a new country, not at all like the one I knew and had fought for.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“It was much later that I came to understand that in 1948 Israel had not only expelled the Palestinians from their country but also frozen all their bank assets. Not content with depriving the Palestinians of their homes and taking over their country, Israel was also pursuing them across the border and depriving them of the means to live in the countries where they were exiled.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“From reading his papers, it is clear to me that my father and his generation did not initially expect the Arab states’ treacheries and their betrayal of the Palestinian cause. This only gradually dawned on them. Nor did they expect that the Jews in Palestine would win so comprehensively. It came as a shock and led to decades of despair. They could not have imagined before the Nakba that the small Jewish community in Palestine would succeed in driving out most Palestinians from their homes and replacing them with Jews, or that the Nakba would be final and they would be unable to return home. In part, this was a failure of imagination due to the experiential gap that existed between the zealous Jewish fighters and the unsuspecting Palestinians. How similar all this is to what happened to us after 1967. And yet how can I be surprised by this failure on the previous generation’s part when I, who lived through the settlement-building project, never imagined that Israel would get away with this systematic illegal scheme and end up taking most of the land in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank?”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“What he couldn’t have realized then was that he was also losing his country.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“By God, how can there be honorable living when the right to think and speak is denied?”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“My father’s hopes were high for his return to Jaffa when the Swedish nobleman Count Folke Bernadotte was appointed on May 20, 1948 as the UN mediator in Palestine, the first official mediation in the UN’s history. He seemed the best choice for the mission. During the Second World War Bernadotte had helped save many Jews from the Nazis and was committed to bringing justice to the Palestinians. His first proposal of June 28 was unsuccessful, but on September 16 he submitted his second proposal. This included the right of Palestinians to return home and compensation for those who chose not to do so. Any hope was short-lived. Just one day after his submission he was assassinated by the Israeli Stern Gang. Bernadotte’s death was a terrible blow to my father and other Palestinians, who had placed their hopes in the success of his mission. Three months later, on December 11, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, which states that: refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“On top of all of this, now we have orders issued from abroad denying those under occupation the right to speak and give their opinions. By God, how can there be honorable living when the right to think and speak is denied?”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“What has been aptly described by the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi as “the shabbiest regime in British colonial history” was ending without attending to the most basic needs of the majority of the inhabitants of the land. These measures caused a panicked run on the banks, as ordinary people rushed to withdraw their Palestinian pounds and convert them into gold or any other security they could manage. By March 1948 the Palestinian pound was rendered unconvertible into any other currency. For the thousands of Arab Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee to other countries, this meant that they were unable either to exchange their Palestinian pounds into pounds sterling, or any other local Arab currency, before they left, or to withdraw sums from their accounts in other currencies once they arrived. Arab clients of the Jaffa branch of the Ottoman Bank, now refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, were asking the bank to pay them their balances in Amman and elsewhere, but these requests were refused.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“When will we be able to get our money back?” He didn’t have an answer. Not only did the refugees lose their homes and property after the Nakba, but Israel also prevented the repatriation of money that they had deposited in local branches of foreign banks in Israel. This left many of them totally destitute.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“The mission of Jordan is the safeguarding of what is left of Palestine until the appropriate time for its recapture arrives.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“A short time later, with the establishment of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Palestinians started to be treated as humanitarian cases in need of relief rather than as refugees. The refusal to recognize the Palestinians as a nation with the basic right of self-determination was at the heart of the matter and my father knew it. It was also becoming clear to the Palestinians that there was another favored partner, King Abdullah, who was willing to recognize Israel’s takeover of Palestine in return for Israel’s recognition of the expansion of his borders by incorporating part of Mandate Palestine. The king was not ideologically against the recognition of Israel, he was only waiting for the right moment to do it. For that reason, Palestinian leaders believed that it was imperative for the Palestinians to be represented in these negotiations, otherwise their rights would be overlooked.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Unbeknown to them, secret negotiations had already been taking place, as early as 1947, before the British Mandate in Palestine ended. These were between King Abdullah and the Zionist leaders, who were united in their goal of preventing the birth of a Palestinian state under their common enemy, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian head of the Arab Higher Committee, which was established on April 25, 1936, and outlawed by the British Mandatory administration in September 1937 after the assassination of a British official. The British government was continuing with its determined efforts to deprive the Palestinians of their country, exploring the possibility that the Arab parts of Palestine, which it believed would be unviable as an Arab Palestine on their own, could be fused with the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, established in 1946. At a secret meeting in London in February 1948, Ernest Bevin, the UK foreign secretary, gave King Abdullah the green light to snatch part of Palestine provided that the king’s forces stayed out of those areas allotted by the UN partition plan to the Jews.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“The Palestine Government is serving five masters. It tries to please all at the same time: the Arabs, the Jews, the Colonial Office, the Permanent Mandate’s Commission and the questioning members of the British House of Parliament. It is thus one of the most perplexed governments in the world. It has no heart or will of its own…Normally it is supposed to follow the dictates of the Colonial Office, but it easily becomes swayed by questions which are asked in the House of Commons by Jewish members or sympathizers, finally coming up against what the Permanent Mandate’s Commission may approve or disapprove. As I read this I thought of the striking similarities with the present situation in Palestine as regards Britain.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Although Jaffa was almost entirely evacuated, leaving only some 2,000 of its 75,000 residents in the city, the more resilient inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle – the two cities that were also within the boundaries of the Arab state according to the partition plan – had held on. They had armed themselves and were ready to defend their cities against the Jewish fighters. But as the Israeli army rearmed itself that summer and gained in strength, Lydda and Ramle soon realized that they could not stand their ground without help from an Arab army. From May 18 to 28 the 4,500-strong Arab Legion fought a fierce battle for Jerusalem which ended with them in control of the Old City. This gave my father hope. It was a unique instance of an Arab army winning a victory over the new Israeli forces. Disappointment, though, was soon to follow. During the four-week truce from June 11 to July 9 that was arranged by Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN envoy, Israel rearmed with weapons from the USA and the Eastern bloc. Meanwhile, under strong US pressure, Britain stopped supplying arms to Jordan. Then, in the next round of fighting, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Glubb decided to withdraw his forces from the area that had been designated part of the Palestinian state under the partition plan. This left the cities of Lydda and Ramle undefended and allowed the Israelis to force the inhabitants to leave at gunpoint.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Although Jaffa was almost entirely evacuated, leaving only some 2,000 of its 75,000 residents in the city, the more resilient inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle – the two cities that were also within the boundaries of the Arab state according to the partition plan – had held on. They had armed themselves and were ready to defend their cities against the Jewish fighters. But as the Israeli army rearmed itself that summer and gained in strength, Lydda and Ramle soon realized that they could not stand their ground without help from an Arab army. From”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Although Jaffa was almost entirely evacuated, leaving only some 2,000 of its 75,000 residents in the city, the more resilient inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle – the two cities that were also within the boundaries of the Arab state according to the partition plan – had held on. They had armed themselves and were ready to defend their cities against the Jewish fighters. But as the Israeli army rearmed itself that summer and gained in strength, Lydda and Ramle soon realized that they could not stand their ground without help from an Arab army.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“My father left Jaffa that April certain that in the worst case, even if other parts of Palestine were lost to the Jewish state, Jaffa would return to Arab hands. According to the UN partition plan, the city was in the Arab section, where the proposed Arab state was to be established alongside the Jewish state.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“There was the relentless, ongoing devastation of the landscape brought about by the changes Israel was making through the building of settlements and the infrastructure of roads, water and electricity that accompanied”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Remember he is seventy years old.” Yet this meant nothing to me. I didn’t want to make any allowances for his age, because I did not understand what age does to a man and was too full of myself to even try.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“You’ve missed the most important point. International law does not allow an occupier to make long-term investments in an occupied territory. Clearly, with this plan, that’s precisely what Israel is doing.” He looked up at me with his winning smile.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“At around the same time, while in Cairo, Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, declared that the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank was “a joke”; later, in Algeria, he declared, “This project aims at liquidating Palestinian organizations.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“The prime minister, Wasfi Tal, held a press conference in Amman on November 7, 1970 in which he declared that the establishment of a Palestinian state was considered “a mad project.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“It always came down to the Ingleez, he thought, didn’t it?”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Not only did the refugees lose their homes and property after the Nakba, but Israel also prevented the repatriation of money that they had deposited in local branches of foreign banks in Israel. This left many of them totally destitute.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“As time passed, my father and other Palestinian leaders realized that King Abdullah was not working towards the return of the refugees but planned to keep them as citizens of Jordan, relieving Israel of the problem of refugees returning to their former homes. Israel could then take these homes and lands without paying compensation.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“That night my father, along with all the other leaders of the plan to return to Jaffa, was arrested under the British regulations by Glubb’s men and put behind bars. The mass return was foiled. This was one of the first betrayals by King Abdullah of Transjordan, but it would not be the last.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

“Towards the end of his long life, Fuad lost hope entirely in the future of Palestine. One woman never forgot what he once told her: “You and your children might be able to get buried in Palestine but for sure your grandchildren will not have a place in Palestine even to be buried. No Palestinian will be left here. All the land will have been taken away.”
― Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir