As`ad AbuKhalil: I am NOT a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon

by As`ad AbuKhalil

I am not a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon. UNRWA can go to hell. A refugee becomes one by choice. The Zionist gangs could not intimidate us in Palestine, despite their terrorism. We did not – like you claim- seek refuge in Lebanon, but we were expelled from Palestine. We prefer the thyme of Palestine to the cedars of Lebanon. We were uprooted from our land with rifle butts. We came grudgingly, and some of us died of heartache and thirst on the way. Refugee is a word invented by Zionist propaganda and the propaganda of the gruesome Arab regimes. The goal is to blame the Palestinian victim. I am a rebel, not a refugee, do you hear me?

I will tell you my story. I lived each and every one of its bloodstained seconds. I wrote it on my wounded back, and I painted it on my tearful tombstone; a story that summarizes the history of the Palestinian plight. It contains no braveries of Arab regimes and no plans for the Liberation of Palestine. Series of disappointments, defeats and lies are added to an enormous amount of bad poetry for Palestine and stupid speeches that were a great assistance to the Zionist propaganda. I was uprooted from my land by force, and they stomped on my forehead after I tied my neck to the door of my house in the Galilee. They dyed grey all of my green and red clothes, and they claimed that I wasn’t born yet. They said I was hallucinating about my homeland and that the sky above my head was a fantasy. No vegetables or fruits in my land, they went on repeating. They claimed that my olive evaporated, that my soil melted and that my trees are booby-trapped. They advised me to read Hebrew literature to understand their suffering. I advised them to leave my land so they understand my suffering. They stole a picture of my grandfather and grandmother and hung it in a museum of “Israeli” history. They accused me of anti-Semitism, and I only accused them of Zionism.

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