Izzeldin Abuelaish Quotes & Sayings

The Palestinian mother is the author of the survival story of the Palestinian people. She is the heroine, the one behind the success. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

No one has the luxury of deciding "when" to travel; you wait prepared to travel whenever the border is open, which could be today, tomorrow or next week or three, four months from now. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Your home, whatever it is, is where feel safe, or at least grounded. To be pushed out of t is to be marked with the scar of expulsion for the rest of your life. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

People should know that Palestinians don't live for themselves alone. They live for each other. What I do for myself and my children, I also do for all my family. We are a community. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Was our suffering of any consequence to their consciences? Did they see us as victims> Or were we simply nameless, faceless humans who were in their way? — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Traveling has become such a miserable experience that no Palestinian does it, except those who absolutely have to: students attending foreign universities, patients needing care unavailable in Gaza, businesspeople attempting to pretend that their world will eventually be normal. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

It is true that the sky was always beautiful but I don't remember marvelling at sunset or gazing at the dawn of a new day. Survival does not allow time for poetic reflection. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

It is human nature to seek revenge in the face of relentless suffering. You can't expect an unhealthy person to think logically. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Tragedy cannot be the end of our lives. We cannot allow it to control and defeat us. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

By the age of seven, as an eldest boy, I was expected to help the family with the money. !!!!!!!!!! — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Gaza 1948: Gaza was not a refugee camp yet, just a place designated for Palestinian people when the state of Israel came begin. But day by day it filled up with people who had no place else to go to. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

Anger and violence in Gaza and among Gazans is completely predictable. In a situation like ours, the absence of violence and anger would be abnormal. All of of us feel angry at least occasionally. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

For any human being, freedom is essential, crucial, to our dignity and our ability to be fully human. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

You shouldn't hate something you don't know, because it may turn out to be the bearer of your greatest good fortune. — Izzeldin Abuelaish

How come a Palestinian child does not live like an Israeli child? Why do Palestinian children have to toil at any manner of hard jobs just to be able to go to school? How is it that when we are sick. we can't get the medical help the Israeli kids take for granted? — Izzeldin Abuelaish

The thing is, you cannot ask people to coexist by having one side bow their heads and rely on a solution that is only good for the other side. What you can do is stop blaming each other and engage in dialogue with one person at a time. Everyone knows that violence begets violence and breeds more hatred. We need to find our way together. I feel I cannot rely on the various spokespersons who claim they act on my behalf. Invariably they have some agenda that doesn't work for me. Instead, I talk to my patients, to my neighbors and colleagues
Jews, Arabs
and I find out they feel as I do: we are more similar than we are different, and we are all fed up with the violence. — Izzeldin Abuelaish