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.
This story is from the November 05, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 05, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Angry, Young America
Campus protests against the Gaza war continue to linger as students demand a realignment of US ties with Israel
We need to engage more with communities
Designer Aratrik Dev Varman of the label Tilla has long been a lover of history. One could comfortably call him part-aesthete, part-archeologist, for his clothes dip into vintage styles of the Kutch, Sindh, Balochistan and Afghanistan, bringing alive antique styles and crafts. Tilla, the store and atelier, are situated on a tree-lined avenue in Ahmedabad.
The great luxury slowdown
A year or so ago, if anyone had told me that Tommy Hilfiger would have stolen the show at New York’s Met Gala, I would have laughed. But it seems the end of giant luxury labels is upon us even before we expected it. The American ready-to-wear designer Tommy Hilfiger seems to have created the maximum media buzz at the 2024 Met Gala, according to several data analytics firms.
RAP BRINGS RAPTURE
How indie artistes, especially hip-hoppers, are driving the phenomenal rise of Malayalam music
Employability issues are a narrative created by the corporate world
Prof Yogesh Singh is the 23rd vice chancellor of the century-old University of Delhi (DU). An engineer with a PhD in computer engineering, Singh has an impressive track record of teaching, innovation and research in the area of software engineering. He has more than 250 publications and his book, Software Testing, published by the Cambridge University Press, is well-received internationally. In an interview with THE WEEK, Singh talks about trends in higher education in India, the challenges faced by big universities, and how to make higher education more interesting. Asked about the perception that Indian graduates are “not employable”, he reacts strongly, and emphasises the difference between training and higher education. Edited excerpts:
SERVING WITH DISTINCTION
Conceived as a university like no other, Jawaharlal Nehru University became India's best. Here is how
Mandela Effect and Liar's Dividend
The complex tapestry of AI's impact on society
The other Sabyasachi
I am Sabyasachi Mukherjee, not to be confused with my namesake, the celebrated fashion couturier, declared the venerated director-general of Mumbai’s pride, George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic jewel, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum.
THE MANGO HUNTERS
'Naadan Maavukal' started out as a Facebook group, but what it does offline has helped conserve many indigenous varieties of mangoes
BJP LEADERS, TOO, HAVE HAD ENOUGH
Farmers’ protest has taken the centre stage in Haryana, which goes to the polls on May 25. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is confident that the Congress, which has been out of power for 10 years, will regain its hold on the state. “People who voted for the BJP are disappointed today. It is clear that they want change,” he told THE WEEK.
