Posted on: 1999

By Khaled Nusseibeh

The Muslim historian Al-Mas’udi wrote: The wise have said: a sign of the fidelity of a human being and his adherence to pledges is his yearning for his brethren as well as his yearning for his homelands. And one of the signs of maturity is a person’s longing for the place of birth… And another person said: God developed the countries of the earth through (human) love for the homelands, and so, a sign of benevolence… is love for the place of birth.

People through an innate instinct have a sense of belonging to a homeland. This belonging is nurtured through experiencing life on the soil of a city or a village or a homeland. Building life through toil, supporting a family and shouldering a responsibility in honoring a homeland cements a sense of belonging. Faith in God and righteousness make belonging to a homeland a more noble sentiment, a truer feeling; corruption, conversely, alongside other factors, may diminish a human being’s sense of belonging.

Many, many Palestinians– and indeed many human beings– have experienced uprootment and displacement from a homeland. For many human beings that chose settling in another homeland the choice was voluntary. For many Palestinians Zionist seizures of their land, their farms and cities, their orchards and ancestral dwellings faced them with forced deprivation of their ancestral land.

The present writer is an example of multitudes of Palestinians who know of their entitlement to Palestine, or to the city of Jerusalem– but who also recognize that their uprootment was an affliction that sometimes visits people on their journey in life. In effect, visiting one’s homeland is presently possible as a tourist: similar, for example, to a citizen of Japan acquiring the right to visit Russia after getting a visa from the embassy of Russia in Tokyo.

But disinheritance does not mean the cancellation of a right or a group of rights; nor does dispossession have the effect of legitimizing usurpation; nor does force have the impact of redefining a structure of rights and obligations related to rights to dwelling, property, secure life, freedom from oppression, entitlement to worship in Allah’s sacred sanctuary– i.e. the Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem.

It is arguable that in each instance of human dispute over protected or violated human life, honor, property– it is morally and rationally possible to distinguish between justice and injustice, between righteous conduct and oppression, between lawlessness and respect for people’s rights and obligations. It is also arguable that by virtue of preponderance or inferior power the stronger have been able to dictate the resolution of a dispute: but the dictation of the stronger or the protests of the weaker do not necessarily constitute what is just. Civilized conduct attempts to defend what is right in addition to affirming power and force.

The beginning of the article speaks of integrity as related to love and yearning for homeland: Palestinians who derive their sense of belonging from faith in God almighty will build their homeland even in dispersal and will struggle to return– and will also honor, build and defend their homeland of migration.

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.