What does it mean to live beyond the wall, where every choice is subject to checkpoints, curfews and military incursions? What does it mean dreaming about the future for a child who is the son or grandson of refugees and who grows up in a refugee camp near Jerusalem?
Palestinian refugees’ families were expelled from their villages to the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. This is the subject of “Letters beyond the wall”, a collection of moving writings sent by Palestinian children to their Italian peers.
The letters provide a unique testimony of children under occupation, imprisoned within the “separation wall”. A linear and focused text, suitable for schools and those who wish to deepen the theme from children’s point of view. The book was published in 2009 by Stampa Alternativa. Some excerpts from the book were in schools and at public meetings by the editors.
“These are letters written by children to other children. Children born on the wrong and poor side of the wall (and of the world) who tell their Israeli and European peers how they live, which are their hopes and how they imagine their future. Kids are all the same: they want to live and grow in peace, play, have fun. “(Preface by Stefano Apuzzo).
I am a 14 years old girl of Qalandja camp. I ask the Arab world, the Western world and all human beings on earth: what kind of guilt has childhood to be killed in this way in Palestine? I was born in Palestine, is this my fault? And yet, I was born in a still smaller place in Palestine, a refugee camp. Is it my fault if I play with a rock or a gun, instead of playing with a doll or a toy car? Is it my fault if I eat only once in a day instead of three? Is it my fault if I live with my whole family in one room with a bathroom and a kitchen? Where are my room, my doll, my life? Why do I have to play in the street, but not in a playground? My crime is being Palestinian? Being a child forced to live in this occupied place? Or maybe my guilt is not being able to shake off this occupation? I can not find someone to answer my questions, but I continue to live my life in this little place in spite of everything, because I belong to this camp and I am proud of this camp, because it is my country, my country and is the place where I will die.
Marah – 14 years old, from “Letters beyond the wall”
The authors:
“Letters beyond the wall” was edited by Barbara Archetti and Serena Baldini, of Vento di Terra and by Stefano Apuzzo, journalist and writer, now councilor in the Municipality of Rozzano (MI). The pictures on the book are by Luca Tommasini.
GHOULA, ANASIYE E HUSEINI
Traditional tales told by Palestinian Bedouin children to the children of the world
Vento di Terra and Tamer Institute for Community Education – Ramallah
year 2014
Language: italian and arabic
minimum donation € 15,00
The book is a collection of fairy tales from the Bedouin tradition, a tool designed to describe the uniqueness of the cultural heritage of the Bedouin population in Palestine and so keep alive the memory of a people in danger of disappearing forever.
The traditional stories collected here represent a rich and ancient knowledge that the Bedouin communities of Khan Al Ahmar, Wadi Abu Hindi and Al Jabal have decided to share with enthusiasm. In the workshops the bedouins children, after hearing them from parents and grandparents, told stories and legends to the poet Anas Abu Rahma and Denis Asaad, the narrator who has expertly transcribed. The illustrations come from a process of exchange between Italian and Palestinian artists, who together have been able to conduct workshops in the Bedouin and Italian primary schools.
Schools, children and teachers to the opposite shores of the Mediterranean meet between pages: the book becomes a valuable tool of knowledge, to support integration pathways and intercultural exchanges.
The book is part of a program sponsored by Vento di Terra for the protection of Bedouin tradition.
