Suad Amiry Quotes & Sayings

The Palestinians try hard to forget when they should remember.
The Israelis try hard to remember when they should forget.
The Palestinians refuse to be victims.
The Israelis make sure that they remain the only victims. — Suad Amiry

What amazes me most is that we, as a people, have shared our collective story of being thrown out of our homeland, Palestine, with each other and with many others- actually we have bored the world with this collective story- but somehow the individual Palestinian shies away, or perhaps is too afraid, to share the very personal story of being thrown out of her or his home, living room, or bedroom. These personal stories are seldom told, not even to our own children, perhaps not even to ourselves. I guess the wound remains open. — Suad Amiry

A thousand times a coward and not once a dead man — Suad Amiry

Spending so much time stuffing everything that lent itself to filling in any way or form, I am not surprised that the Jerusalemites never had time to raise their heads or look out of their windows to see what their neighbours were up to. — Suad Amiry

I come to listen to your pain and to hear the stories and memories of a few obsessed citizens. Jerusalem, I come to you in disguise: in over-colourful, immodest clothes and vulgar make-up... The only way I could come to you was in disguise, as a whore. — Suad Amiry

Nothing makes sense, why should I? — Suad Amiry

There is no other place on this earth where I feel such a strong sense of being a stranger than in my historic homeland. — Suad Amiry

I am also irritated by his use of the expression 'some people'. If the Israelis have been so indifferent, or even happy, as to throw 850,000 Palestinians from their homes, the least they can do is show some respect or a bit of sensitivity by knowing names of the families in whose houses they are living. — Suad Amiry

I tell you,Huda,with the with the service-free arnona they impose on us and the many fines and penalties we East Jerusalem Arabs pay them, we've become the casino where they always win...or even better, the cash cow that they continue to milk. — Suad Amiry

Needless to say, in a country where nothing makes sense only crazy acts do. — Suad Amiry

Only then did I realise that for me, and many others, Israel was virtual. For Murad, Israel was 'home.' Israel was a reality; a harsh reality. — Suad Amiry

When it comes to Jews, you have a two-thousand-year memory, but when it comes to us Palestinians, you have a sixty-year amnesia. — Suad Amiry

It is because you were not allowed to be a normal city with normal people, so much so that you become an abnormal place with abnormal people- Arabs and Jews alike. — Suad Amiry

Fucker, I though to myself. So irritated by a stare!
I wonder what your reaction would have been if you had lived under occupation for as many years as I had, or if your shopping rights, like all of your other rights, were violated day and night, or if the olive trees in your grandfather's orchards had been uprooted, or if your village had been bulldozed, or if your house had been demolished, or if your sister could not reach her school, or if your brother had been given three life sentences, or if your mother had given birth at a checkpoint, or if you had stood in a line for days in the hot August summers waiting for your work permit, or if you could not reach your beloved ones in Arab East Jerusalem....
A stare, and you lose your mind! — Suad Amiry