This is probably one of my more controversial interviews, but I’ve heard a lot about the Israeli side of the Israel/Palestine conflict and I wanted to get the perspective of someone from Palestine. It’s insightful to be able to get both sides of the issue.
So Your Character is … series is where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet.
Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally or politically shocking to some. Each of these posts is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.
(None of the Images are Mine)
Hi! My name is Nafisa, I’m 22 years old and I’m from Palestine, Jerusalem. I’m a newly graduated Physiotherapist so I’m still trying to find my place in the world. I love to read and watch movies and TV shows, especially Fantasy, and I love to go to new places and try new things (and food) whenever the opportunity comes.
What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?
Palestine is old, very old that it’s the home of many religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and so many civilizations and cultures had found their way on its lands throughout the history of peace and harmony, wars and chaos, and so what’s most interesting about Palestine is that each of these cultures and religions left their marks on its land, some that were destroyed or changed, and some still stand till now, like Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the walls of Jerusalem.
Being an old land also means that every city has its own story to tell, in each village there are different stories, different heroes, maybe alike in concept but each unique on its own way, that also applies for simpler things like the clothes, the accents and the cooking, and though these cities and villages didn’t escape the globalization and became more alike with the whole world with how they dress for example, they still cherish their old habits and traditions.
Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?
The environment in Palestine can be different from one place to another depending on whether it’s a city or a village, and whether that place is in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, or on the 1948 lands, affected by the political and the economical situations.
The weather, however, affected by other factors such as how high above sea level is in the region or how far is it from the sea or the desert, thus there are places that have very high temperatures and places with a more moderate climate.
Being more of a winter type of person myself, I love the weather best when it’s snowing. I do not like the cold of course, but the white dress the earth wears when the snow builds up is just beautiful.
My favorite place to go in Palestine is the Coastal Plain, I usually go to Haifa, Yaffa, and Acre with my family or friends, and I love to go to the mountain roads between the West Bank cities as well. And though I only went once but I love Mount Hermon too, especially that it was covered with snow when I went.
Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?
Lots of the Palestinian food is common in the neighboring countries as well, like Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, and all these countries have similar food with Turkey as well, since they all were once a part of the Ottoman Empire, there are only slight differences in the seasonings and the cooking steps.
My favorite dish is called in Arabic “Warak Dwaly”, which means “Grape Leaves”, it’s grape leaves which are individually rolled and stuffed with rice, this is probably the favorite for most Palestinians, it’s usually made at family gatherings or feasts.
The Msachan is another famous Palestinian dish, which is Taboon bread with chopped fried onions spread on it with sumac and it comes with roasted chickens. And of course let’s not forget Falafel, one of the most famous Arabic and Palestinian foods, and most delicious of course.
Now for dessert, my personal favorite is the Kunafa, a dessert first found in Nablus city, it can either be with sweet cheese or cream, and with pistachio on the top of it. Lastly, the drinks black tea and Arabic coffee are some of the everyday drinks we have, and there are some drinks that come on special seasons like the Kharoub and Erk Sous (licorice ) in Ramadan.
Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as “biscuits” instead of “cookies”?
The common tongue in Palestine is Arabic, but every area speaks it in slightly different accents from the others, for example, the letter “ق” which is almost pronounced like “Q” in Classical Arabic, it’s pronounced as “A’” “ء” in some words by the people who live in the cities, while the people from villages and some farmers pronounce it as “K” “ك”, and the Bedouins and the people who live in the 1948 lands and some farmers pronounce it as “Sh” “ش”.
There are some other differences, like the way the people from Hebron expand their vowels, or how the accent of the people from Gaza is similar to the Egyptian accent. Of course, there are Jews whose main tongue is Hebrew with the whole war and fights situation between Palestine and Israel, so for us, it is important to learn Hebrew as well, especially for the Palestinian who live in the areas under the rule of the Israeli government.
Describe briefly a regular day in your country.
A regular day in Palestine.. this can be hard, Palestine isn’t exactly a stable country politically and economically, so this can affect the general activities and mood of the people, so I’m gonna talk about my typical boring day when I walk up a little late since I’m still unemployed, I have my cup of coffee with my family, then I start doing my chores, then I sit doing nothing or reading or watching some TV show, till it’s time for lunch, then the same again till it’s night time.
But there is one thing that may change this boring beyond a typical day, it’s when we decided to go to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa since it’s not too far from my home we don’t need to make plans way ahead to make this visit work, and we can spend as much time as we’d like at any period of the day, and since Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa is a very important spiritual place for Muslims, visiting it always helps feeling more connected with God, with our land and more relaxed and confident in every way.
How does your country compare to others, especially the States since my audience is primarily American? Environmentally? Politically? Culturally?
How do I compare Palestine to other countries? The answer to that question depends on whether we look at that question from the religions and traditions side, then Palestine can be within the countries that care more about these things and keep up to them.
But if we look at it from the opportunities side, well we lack a lot… we lack the proper education system, proper health facilities, and general services, not that it’s very bad everywhere or something, but it needs a lot of development. And of course, we lack our freedom, and that has been the endgame for many opportunities.
Briefly describe three of your country’s historical events that you feel are important.
There are so many important events that changed the course of Palestine’s history, three won’t be enough to describe the sadness that overcame her in many ways, but I’ll mention the tree that came first to my mind.
- 1.) The Battle of Hattin in 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Salah al-Din.
- 2.) The 1948 Palestinian exodus, or Nakba, which means “Disaster,” happened when more than 700000 Palestinians had to leave their homes by either being expelled them or They fled fearing for their lives, about 400-600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war.
- 3.) The first intifada or “uprising”, that happened in 1987.
What are some stereotypes about your country that irk you? What media portrays your country badly be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
There is something that irks me about when some authors write about Palestine and they leave the religion and tradition out of the story, thinking that being Secular means being more civilized and being religious means being fogy, and they write things that may be ok in the European or American community, but it’s not ok in the Palestinian, Arabic, or Islamic community.
Like the in novel called “Morning in Jenin,” which started amazing describing the historical events in a very specific way, but ended being really frustrating from that perspective.
What media portrays your country well be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
Personally, I love a book called Time of the White Horses, by Ibrahim Nasrallah, which talks about Palestine in the late Ottoman period until the year 1948. And I love the movie Kingdom of Heaven about the war between the Christian Crusades and The Ayyubid dynasty in 1187, though it was from a Christian point of view and there were some mistakes in it, but well, what movie doesn’t have mistakes. And I love a poem by Tamim Al-Barghouti called In Jerusalem.
Who are your top three favorite fictional characters native to your country in books, movies, or shows?
No. 1 is Khaled from Time of the white horses. I really recommend that book to everyone!
No. 2 is Handala, a drawing about a young kid with nine hairs with his back to us, drawn by Naji al-Ali
No. 3 Assaad from a novel called Men in the sun by Ghassan Kanafani, and I recommend this novel to everyone as well.
Are you interested in participating in this project? Check out the tips archive to see which countries have been filled and if you’re from a different country, shoot me an email at howellvictoriagrace(a)gmail(dot)com. I’m especially looking for Cuba, Croatia, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Laos.
Suuuuper late to this post, but I really enjoyed learning more about Palestine!
[…] So Your Character is From Palestine … Featuring Nafisa Hawa […]