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101 " ما إن تبسم القمر فى السماء، حتى توسلت إلي الليل لكي يفاجئنى بحلم خاص بي؛ إذ إني طوال حياتي، لم أكن قد حلمت بحلمي الخاص بعد. "
― Susan Abulhawa
102 " He was over one hundred years old, Mother. To have lived so long, only to becrushed to death by a bulldozer. Is this what it means to be Palestinian? "
― Susan Abulhawa , Mornings in Jenin
103 " For us, fear comes where terror comes to others because we are anesthetized to the guns constantly pointed at us. And the terror we have known is something few Westerners ever will. Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme. [...] Our sadness can make the stones weep. And the way we love is no exception. "
104 " True darkness such as this was unattainable, for it was not merely the absence of light, but the presence of something unseeable filling every crevice of life. Not even the moon nor the brightest stars could light more than their own periphery in this blackness. "
― Susan Abulhawa , The Blue Between Sky and Water
105 " Strange, again, I am unafraid of death. Perhaps because she knew, from the soldier’s blink, that she would live. "
106 " Thank you,” I answered, unsure of the proper American response to her gracious enthusiasm. In the Arab world, gratitude is a language unto itself. “May Allah bless the hands that give me this gift”; “Beauty is in your eyes that find me pretty”; “May God extend your life”; “May Allah never deny your prayer”; “May the next meal you cook for us be in celebration of your son’s wedding . . . of your daughter’s graduation . . . your mother’s recovery”; and so on, an infinite string of prayerful appreciation. Coming from such a culture, I have always found a mere “thank you” an insufficient expression that makes my voice sound miserly and ungrateful. I gazed at the cityscape. Ribbons of concrete and asphalt stretched and looped under more cars than I had ever seen. "
107 " How does one live in a world that turns away from such injustice for so long? Is this what it means to be Palestinian, Mother? "
108 " Though they lived with the indignities of dispossession and militaryoccupation, Huda sang with an unassailable freedom that comes onlyto those with unwavering faith. "
109 " For us, fear comeswhere terror comes to others because we are anesthetized to the gunsconstantly pointed at us. And the terror we have known is somethingfew Westerners ever will. Israeli occupation exposes us very young tothe extremes of our own emotions, until we cannot feel except in theextreme. "
110 " But I know now that going from place to place is just something exiles have to do. Whatever the reason, the earth is never steady beneath our feet. "
― Susan Abulhawa , Against the Loveless World
111 " No one spoke much, as if to speak was to affirm reality. To remain silent was to accommodate the possibility that it all was merely a nightmare. The silence reached up to the cathedral ceiling and cluttered there, echoing sadness an unseen mayhem, as if too many souls were rising at once. We were existing somewhere between life and death, with neithe accepting us fully. "
112 " No one spoke much, as if to speak was to affirm reality. To remain silent was to accommodate the possibility that it all was merely a nightmare. The silence reached up to the cathedral ceiling and cluttered there, echoing sadness an unseen mayhem, as if too many souls were rising at once. We were existing somewhere between life and death, with neither accepting us fully. "
113 " In the sorrow of a history buried alive, the year 1948 in Palestine fell from the calendar into exile, ceasing to reckon the marching count of days, months, and years, instead becoming an infinite mist of one moment in history. "
114 " I placed my niece at her sleeping mother's breast and watched my brother, turgid with affection, look back and forth from his wife and to his newborn daughter. In that refugee camp, which Israel would label a "breeding ground of terrorists" and "a festering den of terror," I bore witness to a love that dwarfed immensity itself. "
115 " في محنة تاريخ دفن حيا, سقط العام 1948 في فلسطين من الرزنامة الى المنفى, متوقفا عن حساب العد السائر للأيام والشهور والسنوات, ليصبح بدلا من ذلك ضبابيا لا نهاية له ! الشهور الاثنا عشر لتلك السنةأعادت ترتيب نفسها , والتفت كالدوامة بلا هدف في قلب فلسطين ! "
116 " How does a part of the world leave the world? How can wetness leave water? … What hurts you, blesses you … Darkness is your candle. Your boundaries are your quest. I can explain this, but it would break the glass cover on your heart, and there’s no fixing that. Are these enough words, or shall I squeeze more juice from this? "
117 " It's all about having a thread that links your years. To have another living person who just knows you. Someone who has seen you from childhood. "
118 " In the end, he had confessed to the murder of two Israeli soldiers, blowing up a military supply warehouse a month earlier, and plotting to carry out attacks on civilians. "
119 " What I knew for sure was that people in West Philly thought I was beautiful, not different, and my accent was not a call for mistrust. The very things that made me suspect to the white world were backstage passes in the black neighborhoods. "
120 " No one spoke much, as if to speak was to affirm reality. To remain silent was to accommodate the possibility that it all was merely a nightmare. "