Suad Amiry's Book on Life in Palestine under Occupation Exposes Israeli Crazy-Makers
Suad Amiry is an amazing woman. I recently met her at the RIWAQ Headquarters where she co-directs the Palestinian Centre
for Architectural Conservation. There she takes on the air of a military general, but instead of developing a campaign
of destruction and exploitation; she painstakingly directs gathering architectural data on and photos of historic and
current records of Palestinian homes, market places, cultural and religious sites and communities - some thousands of
years old.
For Amiry, the enemy is not your typical urban blight but rather the 36 billion dollar, US funded, military might of
Israel that audaciously demolishes homes, communities, antiquities and refugee camps as well as lives throughout
Palestine. Israel is involved in a campaign against anything Arab (as opposed to Jewish) some sympathetic Israeli
scholars explain. Amiry's job is to document that heritage and restore it whenever possible, even though she cannot
protect it.
Amiry's personal life is also a daily battle under Israeli occupation. In her autobiographical, "Sharon and My
Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries," just released in English by Granta, London, Amiry's comic-tragedy takes the reader on
a dizzying journey through growing up as a member of the Palestinian Diaspora to her later commitment to the prison-like
existence as a Palestinian professor, wife and activist living in Ramallah.
In this ever-cruel, Theater of the Absurd existence members of free societies in the world would never tolerate, Amiry's
quick paced prose exposes the brute insensitive and oftentimes lethal actions of the Israeli crazy-makers that dominate
every moment of Palestinian existence. But our heroine though victimized is not a victim, spontaneous and outrageous she
takes on her would-be jailors with wit and style and farcical antics worthy of comic greats such as Charlie Chaplin
engaged in mocking egregious breaches of man's profoundly disturbing inhumanity to man.
Born in Damascus in 1951 to Palestinian parents who fled Jaffa in 1948, her father was a Jordanian ambassador and her
mother ran a printing press. Upon acquiring a degree in architecture in Beirut, in 1981 she accepted a job at Birzeit
University, outside of Ramallah. In 1991, she was a member of the Palestinian delegation at the Washington peace
negotiations, and in 1996, she was made deputy minister of culture in the first Palestinian government. In 2003, Amiry
co-edited a gripping pictorial and essay record of the Israeli 2002 Re-Occupation, "Earthquake in April."
Though not yet released in America, "Sharon and My Mother-in-Law" has been translated into 11 languages and has won the
prestigious Viareggio prize in Italy. Unable to purchase the book in America, I was able to easily access it from
Amazon.com's UK website. It is also available through their Canadian website.
ENDS