Branded - The Poetry of a So-Called "Terrorist"
by Rana El-Khatib

Foreward, by Simona Sharon:
In the deteriorating political climate that characterizes the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the fact that I, an Israeli Jew, was asked to write a foreword to a poetry book written by a Palestinian should not go unnoticed. I have known Rana for almost a decade now and in recent years, as the tensions in the geographical space we both associate with "home" escalated, I have found comfort and hope in her poetic reflections.

This book is a unique example of the inseparability of "the personal" and "the political" for people struggling against injustice and for their allies.

Rana's poems originate from her own experience as a second-generation uprooted Palestinian refugee, whose father survived the 1948 catastrophe. Yet, the story of her dad's displacement and the loss of their home in Haifa, which she captures in several poems including "Native Son" and "Real Estate Broker," is not merely a personal tragedy. It echoes countless stories of Palestinian refugees, 600,000 to 720,000 of them, who lost their homes in 1948. They kept the keys, some artifacts they were able to salvage, and vivid memories, which they shared with their children. For Palestinian refugees, "home" exists in the past and, in moments of hope, in the future.

When I first met Rana and told her that I lived in Haifa for a decade, she told me about her father's home there, her eyes sparkling with a mixture of sadness and excitement. Then came the plans of us traveling to Haifa together to try and find her family's home. While I was not able to stand next to Rana in front of her dad's house, I traveled there in my mind on numerous occasions, sometimes with my father.

I, too, am a second generation refugee, a daughter of a Holocaust survivor who never fully recovered from the personal and collective trauma of that horrific moment in history. My father shared with us, almost on a daily basis, stories about the trials and tribulations of life in the concentration camp, of his survival strategies and especially of the terrible moment in which he witnessed his dad being beaten to death by a Ukrainian farmer. Like other Jews who survived the Holocaust, my father subscribed to a narrow interpretation of the phrase "Never Again." For him, the establishment of the state of Israel and displacement and suppression of Palestinians were unavoidable in the quest of securing the existence of the Jewish people.

Despite the fact that Israel has become one of the strongest military powers in the world, my father still sees himself as a victim. He fails to understand how someone can compare the tragedy of the Holocaust to any other tragedy, let alone that of the Palestinians. What would he do if he visited Rana's family home in Haifa?

With a rare mixture of empathy, compassion and frustration, Rana's poetry grapples with the sad fact of the victims becoming victimizers. Her powerful poems put a human face on the history and contemporary struggles of Palestinians. Rana’s subversive use of the term "terrorist" in the title of the book invites readers to rethink their stereotypes about Palestinians, which have been cultivated over time by the American political system as well as by the mainstream popular culture in this country.

Poetry has been used throughout history by many subjugated people to resist dehumanization and to reach out to people and educate them about struggles for justice, equality, and liberation. This book is a great contribution to this rich tradition.

Simona Sharoni*
Olympia, Washington

* Dr. Simona Sharoni is Executive Director of COPRED-PSA, the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development and the Peace Studies Association based at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and is the author of Gender and the Israeli Palestinian Conflict: The Politics of Women's Resistance.