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Dear Editor
Reading Martin Kemp's article forced me to reflect as to what degree, I, as a Palestinian living in Europe, had normalized and learned to accept the West's long-standing double standards with regards to Zionism, Israel, and the ongoing dispossession and oppression of the Palestinians. I am grateful to Dr Kemp for his article and to the BJP for publishing it.
The article did not, however, draw attention to the transgenerational impact of the ‘Nakba’ or ‘Catastrophe’ on the Palestinians. I am a child of parents who were amongst the 700,000 Palestinians who had to flee their towns and villages, mostly as a result of - what is now generally accepted as - ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces, in 1948. My father was born in Jerusalem and my mother in Haifa. They lived in Jerusalem until both had to leave, taking with them documents of ownership of their land in the belief that they would at some point be able to return home.
Although my parents did not have to endure living in refugee camps, they struggled to build a new life from scratch in another country that was hostile to them (as some Arab countries were). My father had to support 13 members of his family, which included his sister and her six children, whose father was murdered in Jerusalem by a Zionist while tending his shop.
Along with their ancestral homeland my parents' generation had lost a significant part of themselves leading to a confused and tortured sense of identity. Although I was born post-1948, I was deeply affected by their trauma and suffering. My children, third generation exiles, have not escaped that loss or confusion either, notwithstanding the privileges they may have enjoyed living and growing up in the West.
The trauma suffered by the Jews has been acknowledged by the world. Their experiences inform film, literature, journalism and the wider media. In contrast, Palestinian suffering has, until quite recently, been largely ignored. The dehumanization of the Palestinians, in Israel, the W