Sunday, April 14, 2013

Her home in Palestine

The late mother of friends, Riad and Imad Baalbaki, is Palestinian.  She went back to her birthplace in Acre, Palestine back in the 1960s.  She found her home and tried the old key that she always kept with her.  The door opened. She found a Jewish family occupying the house.  She roamed around the house and yelled at them in tears: these are our dishes.  These are our saucers.  These are our chairs.  These are our closets that are now filled with your clothes.  This is our house on our land.  The occupying family could only tell her (in tears): we are sorry for what happened.  When Michele and I heard the story from Riad recently, Michele (my American girlfriend) kept telling me: Americans need to hear stories like that about Palestinians.  They never hear such stories.