EAFOL16 intern Amal writes about Ghada Karmi's inspirational session
To be taken back to the time of when I first learned about the Israel-Palestine conflict was one thing I definitely didn’t expect from this year’s festival. I’ve learned the truth and I know how it happened, it just felt so different when I heard it from someone who has lived through it all, and thanks to the Festival I got to hear it from Palestinian author Ghada Karmi. Needless to say, after her session, I was in awe and inspired to purchase the book for myself. I cannot say that I knew much about Karmi before the session but what motivated me to attend her session was the fact that she’s written a book about how different Palestine is now compared to when she remembers it as a child. In her session, You Can’t Go Back: Ghada Karmi on her Return, she spoke about her book Return: A Palestinian Memoir, in which she describes her return to her homeland in 2005 after 50 years of living in London. Karmi spoke eloquently and passionately about the home she went to reconnect with and how its changes and differences affected her. She also discussed what the future holds for her homeland with its new and altered reality. Despite knowing the facts about Palestine’s condition, I can never see the dramatic differences in Palestine the way Karmi sees it and it has made me appreciate my position as an Emirati woman, being safe and sound in my own country.
To be taken back to the time of when I first learned about the Israel-Palestine conflict was one thing I definitely didn’t expect from this year’s festival. I’ve learned the truth and I know how it happened, it just felt so different when I heard it from someone who has lived through it all, and thanks to the Festival I got to hear it from Palestinian author Ghada Karmi. Needless to say, after her session, I was in awe and inspired to purchase the book for myself. I cannot say that I knew much about Karmi before the session but what motivated me to attend her session was the fact that she’s written a book about how different Palestine is now compared to when she remembers it as a child. In her session, You Can’t Go Back: Ghada Karmi on her Return, she spoke about her book Return: A Palestinian Memoir, in which she describes her return to her homeland in 2005 after 50 years of living in London. Karmi spoke eloquently and passionately about the home she went to reconnect with and how its changes and differences affected her. She also discussed what the future holds for her homeland with its new and altered reality. Despite knowing the facts about Palestine’s condition, I can never see the dramatic differences in Palestine the way Karmi sees it and it has made me appreciate my position as an Emirati woman, being safe and sound in my own country.