A Vision Affirmed

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Prologue 1
4. Becoming Palestinian 15
5. Beyond Recitation and Ritual 19
6. Only Icons 22
7. Resident of Both, National of None 25
8. Without my Jaffa: Other Seas 28
9. Buffeted By How Others See You 31
10. Disrupting the Peace of Others 34
11. Fate: A Blessing 37
12. The Invisible Face of the Occupier 40
13. A Palestinian State of Mind 44
14. No Land’s Man Determined to Return to Palestine 48
15. An Ornithologist from Iceland 54
16. A Recurring Sound. A Familiar Image 56
17. A Journey in Progress 60
18. In Dust 63
19. Citizen of the World 66
20. Being Nobody 69
21. Embracing Uncertainty 72
22. ‘Our Country Lives in Us’ 75
23. Forever Gazan 78
24. Ties that Bind, Ties that Sustain 88
25. Pal.I.Am 91
26. Things We Carry With Us 94
27. The Sadness Continues 98
28. Childhood Curtailed 102
29. Forty Days of Mourning 105
30. Seeking ‘Home’ 109
31. Voices from Within 112
32. The Tree 115
33. A Road Taken 119
34. Living in a World of Double Standards 122
35. Walking in Her Years 125
36. Claiming Citizenship 128
37. Breathing Politics 131
38. Motherland 135
39. Painting my Way Back Home One Stitch at a Time 137
40. A Demon of Hope 140
41. Contradictory Worlds 145
42. Bint Liblaad on the Road 148
43. Darker Shades of Exile 151
44. Present in Absence 161
45. Inside as an Outsider 164
46. Caught Between the Taste of Sunshine and Chopin Nocturnes 168
47. I See Palestine in my Rear-View Mirror 171
48. Guide to Being Palestinian 177
49. Memories that Live 180
50. A Boy from Mash-had 183
51. Reconciling Araby and America 186
52. When Will it be Vacant? 189
53. Living in Letters or the Arrogance of a Cityless Man 192
54. Palestine in the Nepantla 195
55. Enduring Ties 199
56. The Pain and Beauty of Dispossession 202
57. The Durable Cords of Memory 206
58. Mujaddara – Arabian Haggis! 210
59. Still Life 213
60. Subversive Abstraction 215
61. Where to Now? 218
62. Fitting Nowhere 221
63. Home is Where the Heart is. But Where is Home? 230
64. A Vision Affirmed 233
65. Bridge to Palestine 236
66. Badge of Honour 239
67. Homemaking 241
68. Stranger to my Own Story 244
69. No Room in my Luggage 247
70. Labyrinth of Memories 250
71. Palestine the Brave 253
72. From Ajjur to America: Rootedness in Diaspora 257
73. In, but not Of 259
74. Lurching at Jericho 262
75. Rolling Grape Leaves on a Map of the World 264
76. An Act of Resistance 267
77. The Mukhtar and I: A Day with my Grandfather in the Old City 270
78. Parsley, Miryamiyah, Rosemary and Za‘tar 274
79. In Search of a Common Language 277
80. Fostering Palestine 280
81. Seeds of Justice 284
82. My Resilient Flag 287
83. Written on his Forehead: My Father, Aziz Shihab 296
84. Aiming High 299
85. My Mother’s Heels 303
86. Images from a Shattered Mirror 306
87. Be/longing 310
88. Eating Forbidden Palestine 313
89. Palestinian-Something 316
90. No Paradise to Recreate 319
91. A Mission to Explain 323
92. A Heavy, Unwieldy Bag 326
93. Lost to Geography 330
94. Transcending Blind Allegiance 333
95. Still a Palestinian 336
96. Homing Instincts 339
97. Born(e) in the Heart 342
98. Bodily Wounds and the Journey Home 345
99. Holding Palestine Close to my Heart 348
100. When All is Not What it Seems 351
101. The Weight of Our Blessings 354
102. A Sometime Palestinian 358
103. Entry Denied 361
104. Barricaded 364
105. Glossary 367