THIS IS OUR STRUGGLE. IT IS FOR LIBERATION

Susan Abulhawa's first novel, Mornings in Jenin, was translated into 30 languages and remains one the best-selling books on Palestine.

- MANDIRA NAYAR

Susan Abulhawa Palestinian-American human rights activist

The human rights activist is a passionate critic of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and its campaign to influence international opinion. "Israel is literally spending hundreds of millions of dollars to put out fake content," she says. "On social media, we are all either being suspended or being shadow-banned." She lives in 'Pennsylvania and spoke to THE WEEK over Zoom. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Q/ You have talked about being destined to go home. When Gaza is being razed and Palestinians are being forced to flee, how difficult is it to keep that idea alive?

A/When Indians were massacred in Jallianwala Bagh, did you say, 'We are just going to leave this area, we will never mourn it, will never have hope'? Was that the reaction you had? Human reaction to things like that is not just to give up and go away. It is honouring those people and remembering them. We are not going to forget this. Everything that we are comes from this land. The idea that we will just go live somewhere else and just forget is impossible. This is our struggle. It is for liberation. This is the point of writing. This is the point of celebrating our culture. We refuse erasure.

Q/ Mornings in Jenin was written after you witnessed a massacre.

A/I was there in the immediate aftermath. We dug bodies out of the rubble. It was horrific. It was completely unlike the sanitised version that was carried by the western media.

Q/You have always talked about being part of your land. Your stories come from the land.