Palestine—Memory of the Land
Words by Which to Continue Living
June 13, 2025
I never imagined, when I was dreaming of my own future and, in the mornings, making breakfast before going to work, that I would become one of the hungry masses. I used to wake up early to write hope in dreaming eyes and to teach school children to become whatever they wanted to be. Now, I have become one of the hungry masses, and I wake up early to make the arduous journey in search of a scrap of bread. I watch as the children who were once dreamers now also long for bread themselves, standing around and waiting in vain.
The only thing more difficult than leaving behind one’s home is living as a stranger in a strange land. In the past, we were not people who suffered from hunger or resorted to theft or robbery. We loved life and believed that people who loved life would reap peace and olives within it. Yet now we have become foreigners in a land that knows nothing about us. We weep for those who have lost their homes and their humanity.
Before this genocidal war, I used to repeat a phrase, attempting to spread it to as many people as possible, from authors and artists to people of influence, including both friends and people who were not immediate friends. This was my attempt to achieve a certain truth and to restore my homeland without demanding great sacrifice . . . . The phrase was, ”What we lose in our land must be reclaimed in our hearts and minds.” * But now it is too late. The end has come. We no longer have a homeland, a spirit, or a mind . . . .
—From Jabr Hatim, Diary of a Refugee: Living through Genocide (translated into English from a Japanese translation of the Arabic by Tanami Aoe)
What can a person do if their home and community are being destroyed, if the lives of their loved ones are taken, if they are deprived of daily sustenance, and even the hope to live is slipping away? At the start of this program, I want to reflect anew on Jabr’s words and record them here—as words by which we may continue living, as human beings.
*Japanese translator’s note: This phrase is taken from Nikolaj Grundtvig (1783–1872), a Danish writer and philosopher. Grundtvig is also known as the conceptual founder of the folk high school, an institution of social education mainly for working youth living in rural areas (the folk high school is also credited with making substantial contributions to the spread of democracy in Denmark).