AL-GHORBA

By: Amal Awad – Radwan-(Palestine)
Translated by: Fathia Asfour
Palestinian poet & tranlator

O You ! the Waterity of my invocations
O You ! whose luminary breeze gushed out
trampling the slopes of my sleepy hut.
And who fluttered in my wall espaces,
Inscribing my smooth void
with the claws of your wings.
****
O You ! who flares up with stormy rain
and spreads out a wind of illusions
on the banks of my empty gardens.
***
It's me who was prepared
for the lanterns of your soul
to shine me
weddings of joy
And in the paths of birth to spell me shadows of fleeing dream
How many times and times and times!!
to burning agony of darkness
vowed thee I

(آمال عوّاد رضوان لِلوْعةِ العتماتِ نَذَرتُكِ)

أَيَا مَائِيَّةَ ابْتِهَالاَتِي

يَا مَنِ انْبَجَسَ

نَسِيمُكِ الضَّوْئِيُّ

وَاطِــــــئًـــــــــــا

مُنْحَدَرِاتِ كُوخِي النَّاعِسِ

وَهَـــفْـــــهَــــفْــــــتِ

بِفَضَاءَاتِي الْجِدَارِيَّةِ

تَــــنْــــقُــــشِـــيـــنَ

فَرَاغِيَ الْوَثِيرَ

بِمَخَالِبِ أَجْنِحَتِكِ!

يَا أَنْتِ الْـــــــ

تَــــتــــَّقِــــــــدِيـــــنَ

مَطَرًا عَاصِفًا

وتَـــــنْــــــــدَاحِـــــيـــــنَ

رِيحَ خَيَالاَتٍ

عَلَى ضِفَافِ جِنَانِي الْخَوَالي!

أَنَـــــا مَـــنْ تَــــأَهَّــــــــبْـــــتُ

لِمَصَابِيحِ رُوحِكِ

تُــــــشِـــــعُّــــــنِـــــي

أَعْرَاسَ فَرَحٍ

وفِي دُرُوبِ الوِلاَدَةِ

تَـــــــتَــــــهَـــــجَّـــــــانِــــي

ظِلاَلَ حُلُمٍ نَافِرٍ

لَكَمْ وَكَم وَكَم

نَــــذَرْتُــــــكِ

لِـــــلَـــــوْعَــــةِ الْـــعَـــتَــــمَـــاتِ

After a lifetime of selfless service to others and after 7 books, here we are at the very first book launch for a truly prolific author. After 40 years of giving us the fruits of her mind, this is the first public event in which we come together as a community to celebrate her works and to say thank you for what you’ve given us, for how you’ve enriched us. Thank you.

Maybe on the surface we’re celebrating a collection of short stories, but in the realm of the unspoken, we’re actually celebrating the indomitable spirit it takes for someone like Dr. Nejmeh to achieve what she has.

My mother spent the first 45 years of her life as a refugee – a persona non-grata. She experienced persecution most of us have only seen in movies and she grieved the premature loss of her father in a cruel and meaningless war.

As an immigrant who came to this country 28 years ago, she had to grin and bear the subtleties of alienation and the escalating discrimination that we have lived through in the last three decades. She captures so vividly and painfully this cultural shift in Australia throughout the stories of Jadati Tafqid al Hulum. In her story “the Dream is better,” for example, Pauline Hanson, John Howard, The Children Overboard Affair and the moral panics about Lebanese Gangs that permeated every corporate TV station and news outlet all get their footnotes, all get their commemoration, because of the impact that had on us as Arab-Australians who were and are the indirect targets of these moral panics.

And yet, Dr Nejmeh’s collection weaves times, geographical locations and moments in history like they are all an eternal present, an eternal now. Her creator mind takes us out of Australia of the 1990s and into Palestine of the 21st century where for the umpteenth time olive groves are being bulldozed and olive trees are being massacred. Massacred because to those who know, the life in those trees is just as precious as our individual human lives. And It is this tender knowing of land and harvest that Dr Nejmeh captures in her softly spoken, elderly grandmothers. Dr Nejmeh’s work is for all of us, it is our national treasury here in diaspora. It is here to remind us so that we may never forget.

Unlike the grandmother in the title story My Grandmother gives up her dream, I have watched my mother work relentlessly toward her dream, never giving it up, always moving in its direction. Whether in candlelight, between bombs, or between customers in a suburban corner store where she worked 365 days a year as an immigrant in a new country, my mother honed her skills as a thinker, as a researcher and as a writer.

My mother is the only 73 year old that you give a brand new piece of technology to, leave the room and come back to find her figuring out how to use all of its features. She will not ask you to show her, she will not read the manual, instead she will sit there for however long it takes. She will sit there for hours figuring out things like Facebook and how to make good use of emojis as well. My mother has more engagements on her facebook posts than an entire social media and PR agency could produce. I don’t know how she does it, all I can tell you is that I want to hire her to manage my social media accounts.

I’m telling you this because it’s partly funny but it also shows the determination and the vibrant youth of her mind. My mother’s brain is the brain of a young woman. She has laser focus. And the constancy of a professional athlete. She is the most productive person I know.

And she works regardless of the results. She never wrote for money or even for recognition, or facebook fame (which she enjoys, much to my admiration and occasional envy). She does it out of a deep abiding love for her Arab civilization, for the love of our culture, for the love of preserving our history, our stories and our struggles. She kept going not only when there was no one around to support her, but when people were actively discouraging her.

As a scholar myself, I can tell you that the diamonds and treasures created by Dr Nejmeh’s research and fictional writing cannot be underestimated. Their weight will be felt the further we move away in time from this present moment.

There is an entire generation of students in Palestinian refugee schools in Lebanon who are learning about how we suffered and how we lived, about our dreams and our hopes during the Lebanese civil wars’ most horrendous years, because of her short story collections. Because of what those stories make available. Because of what those stories preserve.

Dr Nejmeh doesn’t write the history of war heroes or villains, she doesn’t write the history of the great generals or famed politicians, she writes the unseen and unheard history of ordinary men and women in the privacy of their own thoughts, breaking bread moments before an airstrike might end their existence.

Dr Nejmeh goes into the minds of adult men and adolescent women with such penetrating insight that sometimes it’s difficult for me, as her daughter, to believe that these are actually words written by her. She can inhabit, for example, the erotic imagination of a 40-something year old man with such ease that I am left blushing. And then I remember I must have come from somewhere, and I finally realize that I was not delivered by a stork.

In this latest collection, Jadati Tafqid al-Hulum, Dr Habib further enshrines something that was barely in existence in 1991 when she came to Australia – and that’s the presence of an arab literary community. A community that can reflect on its diasporic experiences and give us a body of Arab-Australian literature. What you see here today is a pleasure and a privilege that we haven’t enjoyed in this country for very long: an Arab-Australian cultural movement and a community that appreciates and recognizes what this writer and thinker has given us unconditionally and without expectations for almost thirty years.

It has taken Dr Nejmeh a lifetime to have the pleasure of this community that now recognizes and celebrates what she has been working towards in candlelight, between bombs, between customers, and after fulfilling her familial obligations. So I want to thank you, for being here, physically and online, and for recognizing just what it takes for someone like Dr Nejmeh to achieve what she has achieved as a refugee, as a woman in a patriarchal society, as a Palestinian in Lebanon, as an immigrant in Australia and as a mother of four ungrateful children.

To have your presence here, to share this precious moment with you gives me tremendous joy. Especially in these difficult times where this country of ours sometimes feels like it’s not ours.

I want to invite you today to do something for our future and for the future of Arab-Australian literature that we are building tonight. I want to invite you to buy a copy of this book and to donate it to a library. A book that sits on your shelf gets read once, maybe twice, but a book in a public or university library is a time capsule. It sits waiting for the person from the future who’s looking for the information it provides. So let’s put in the hands of that future Arab-Australian who is searching for how we were in 2019, who is searching for how we built our Arab-Australian literary heritage, let’s put this book in their hands.

Thank you for coming.

History has just been made and I am overwhelmed that we have reached a historic point for Australian Labor Party to Adopt the motion for recognition of Palestine Unanimously.

The Australian Labor Party National Conference has just unanimously agreed to Call on the next Labor Government to Recognise Palestine. Moved by Current shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong and seconded by Tony Burke,shadow Minister and Federal member for Watson to the applause of conference e delegates. This is a historic moment for the Australian Labor Party and the Australian people.

I am Proud to be at the ALPs National Conference in Adelaide, beautiful South Australia with so many Labor delegates from across the nation working hard and competing on policy ideas that would take our nation into a Just and better future serving the nation and our people. Proud to be at the conference supporting the next Bill Shorten Labor Government that will lead a Government with a focus for a Fair Go For all Australians. Whether it is in the regions or rural areas or in cities, about families and children and about work and employment, about health and education and fair work with fair pay. Proud to be a member of the Union and to see so many Unions supporting fairness for all. Proud to be a member of a Party that has the vision for much better public transport, recognition of local government and Multicultural Australia,an Australian Republic and proud of our Labor Leader’s announcement yesterday for an Independent foreign policy decisions. I hope that will bring us a fairer, Just and peaceful world with greater focus on justice for all people dispossessed. Of particular importance to me yesterday morning was the long awaited drive for Constitutional Recognition of our Aboriginal & Torres Straits Islander Australians and today the conference’ unanimous call for recognition of Palestine.

I feel a great sense of pride that through a democratic process beginning with discussions with Labor’s rank and file leading to branch motions to the State Labor conferences and now to the National conferences we are on the verge of a Labor Government in Power formally Recognising Palestine. Turning decades of stubborn and unfair opposition.

To know that daily Palestinians are losing their homes and land and hope as well as their lives to an expanding Israeli settlements and for us to sit idle and do nothing was painful . With emboldened military occupation of the West Bank, the crippling blockade of Gaza, and the refugees trapped in camps over the borders in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and elsewhere, left the Palestinians people in desperate and utterly intolerable situations. Their state is even more intolerable today under extreme right wing Netanyahu Government unwilling to support a Palestinian date or even to relinquish settlements but to expand settlements and introduce apartheid laws that made life under occupation even more unlivable.

The only way out was for international pressure by way of recognition of the State of Palestine, the Keneset and hard line political parties in Israel had long sought to deny the Palestinian people.

As an Australian I believed we have a responsibility to help see a just solution for the Palestinian people despite the extreme right-wing Governments who have and continue to crush any hope for a brokered peace process. A peace that is well overdue for us in Labor to commit to and embrace as a new policy that would be a beacon of hope.

The Recognition of Palestine is and always was the right thing to do. In partnership with 138 other countries, Australia would not allow the disappearance of a Palestinian State and for the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Labor’s decision to Vote today for recognition is in keeping with the 2017 Morgan Poll revealing that 73% of Australians support ed recognition of Palestine.

I am proud to have been part of this Labor movement. The Labor party in unity with the union movement to do justice to the indigenous Australians through constitutional recognition and in the same conference and on the next day Call for Recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people to self determination and recognise Palestine.

On Palestine Tony Burke has been negotiating in good spirits with Richard Miles. In a Spirit of real trust. Both Richard and Tony given the task of negotiations have delivered with the support of the General Secretary of NSW Iron Lady Ms Kaila Murnain. I am grateful to her and to my friend the next PM of Australia Mr Bill Shorten without him Palestine recognition would not happen. will be done by cabinet. I thank BobCarr, Gareth Evans Kevin Rudd, Bob Hawk Chris Hays and many others for their support. This would not have progressed to this point without them.

I wanted to and was ready and itching to speak as was Chris Hayes another federal member and a great supporter but the case was left to Tony Burke and Penny Wong to speak. No one else.

I was interested in the results and the motion to recognise carried seamlessly between the Left and Right wings of the party. Here I thank Anthony Albanese and once again our giant proponent and key that opened many of the locks and removed the road blocks along the way, Bob, Bob Carr, Professor the Hon Bon Carr.

I thank the tank and file members of the ALP who moved motion after motion after motion recognising Palestine. Gratitude to them for standing up for justice and through them the rank and file sent a strong message to the ALP and its industrial arm and here I am grateful for the support from Secretary of the NSW Unions NSW Me Mark Morey and the many Union secretaries from the Right and the Left. I thank people like former Federal MP Wendy Turner and organisations such as The Arabic Friends of Labor and Labor Friends of Palestine.

On behalf of The people of Palestine I salute my comrades in The ALP for what it is, a party of social conscience, a party of Social justice, a party in which I am proud to be a member for the past 36 years. Labor is the party for fairness and justice for all. Labor is the party for all disposed people all over the world and a party for a Fair Go For All Australians.

Translator: Hassan Hegazy (Egypt)

The unknown that is buried behind my heart
I much fear it condensing illusion
Over the ledges of its cover
I fear it concealing in its soft fine clouds
the moons of my dream
For fear that the hand of my mind to stretch,
shaking me ..
Waking me up..
With a cynical blame
from the wandering of my agonies
*
How can I grant you my heart now
and it was kidnapped by the angels of love
To a space in the open air
*
How can the vibrations of desires to calm down
when they ripple lightly in the spaces of fantasy?
How and its echo splitting the veil of the will
and stop towards them helpless ..
strayed, out of soul !
*
Ah …!
How miserable is the woman
When she is taken, with constrained desire,
to the dungeon of her impossible dreams..
As if longing is dropping the nymphs of dreams
in the depths of their pits
Interbreeding terrible births
Leaving them as love embryos
On their waiting breasts
*
I may have exhausted you;
With the noise of my thoughts,
With the loudness of my heart
I feel guilty
When I stone you with the needles of my senses
And no sin from me to commit
Only you may just incur and suffer
from the crime of my judgment
*
I feel a strange comfort
When I punish you with my revenge
With blemish blame
*
I need you..
With your breeze, I will be my own
And with your dust I will lose my own
So, do not pour the juices of your soul
In the cups of my weakness
Do not pierce the husk of my hopes
I fear you facing its naughty encounter
So do not wake yearning inside me
you have drowned it in fast sleep!
*
Will you overwhelm me every time With the moments of your sorrow and torture,
You may kill fear and suspicion inside me
*
How can I order myself to leave you?
Your heart has occupied me
Your spirit is revealed in the mirrors of my soul
And you are my shadow
Always adjacent to me letter..
My fear..
My kindness..
I am the polished with you / the mortgaged for you
How long I have become a pledge to your charm!
I get frightened when I feel the longing
Clothing me with the dress of sin
I get terrified, running away
Terrified, getting away
So as not to suffer in my loneliness
the needles of pain
Do not let me a quiver
In the windward of isolation pavement
Though those breezes have become the solace for me, comforting me, and have made me sleep!

- Book: A glowing luscious smile
- (poetry) Amal Radwan (Palestinian poet)- First Edition – 2005

فِي مَهَبِّ رَصِيفِ عُـزْلَـةٍ!/ آمال عوّاد رضوان

الْمَجْهُولُ الْيَكْمُنُ .. خَلْفَ قَلْبِي

كَمْ أَرْهَبُهُ .. يَتَكَثَّفُ وَهْمًا

عَلَى .. حَوَافِّ غِلَافِهِ

أَخشَاهُ يَحْجُبُ بِرَائبِ غَيْمِهِ أَقْمَارَ حُلُمِي

أَنْ تَتَطَاوَلَ يَدُ عَقْلِي

تَهُزُّنِي .. تُوقِظُنِي

بِلُؤْمٍ سَاخِرٍ

مِنْ سَكْرَاتِي الْهَائِمَةِ

كَيْفَ أَمنَحُكَ قَلْبِيَ الْآنَ

وَقَدِ اخْتَطفَتْهُ مَلَائِكةُ الْحُبِّ

إِلَى فُسْحَةٍ فِي الْعَرَاءِ؟

كَيْفَ لَهَا أَنْ تَهْدَأَ ذَبْذَبَاتُ الرَّغَبَاتِ

حِينَ تَتَمَاوَجُ فِي فَضَاءَاتِ الْخَيَالِ ؟

كَيْفَ وَصَدَاها يَشُقُّ حِجَابَ الْإِرَادَةِ

وَتَرْكُنَ حِيَالَهَا عَاجِزًا .. شَارِدَ الرُّوحِ !

آهٍ .. مَا أَشْقَاهَا الْمَرْأَةُ

حِينَ تُسَاقُ مُقَيَّدَةَ الرَّغْبَةِ

إِلَى زِنْزَانَةِ أَحْلَامِهَا الْمُسْتَحِيلَةِ

كَأَنَّ الشَّوْقَ يَرْمِي حُورِيَّاتِ الْأَحْلَامِ

فِي سَحِيقِ هَاوِيَاتِهَا

يُهَجِّنُ وِلَادَاتٍ رَهِيبَةٍ

يَتْرُكُهَا أَجِنَّةَ حُبٍّ عَلَى ثَدْيِ انْتِظَارِهَا

قَدْ أَكُونُ أَرْهَقْتُكَ ؛

بِضَجِيجِ فِكْرِي .. بِضَوْضَاءِ قَلْبِي

أَشْعُرُ بِالذَّنْبِ

حِينَمَا أَرْجُمُكَ بِإِبَرِ أَحَاسِيسِي

وَمَا مِن ذَنْبٍ أَقْتَرِفُهُ

سِوَى أَنْ تَتَكَبَّدَ جَرِيمَةَ حُكْمِي

أُحِسُّ برَاحَةٍ غَرِيبَةٍ

حِينَمَا أُوقِعُ بِكَ قِصَاصِي

بِلُؤْمٍ أَبْلَهٍ

أَحْتَاجُ إِلَيْكَ ..

بِنَسِيمِكَ أَكُونُ مَلَكْتُنِي

وَبِغُبَارِكَ أَكُونُ خَسِرْتُنِي

فَلَا تَسْكُبْ عُصَاراتِ رُوحِكَ

فِي كُؤُوسِ ضَعْفِي

وَلَا تَقُضَّ قِشْرَةَ آمَالِي

أَرْهَبُ عَلَيْكَ مُنَازَلَتَهَا الشَّقِيَّةَ

وَلَا تُوقِظْ بِي حَنينًا .. أَغْرَقْتُهُ فِي سُبَاتِ !

لَيْتَكَ تَغْمُرُنِي كُلَّ آنٍ

بِلَحَظَاتِ حُزْنِكَ وَعَذَابِكَ

فَقَدْ تَقتُلُ بِيَ الْخَوفَ وَالشَّكَّ

كَيْفَ آمُرُنِي أَنْ أُغَادِرَكَ ؟

قَلْبُكَ احْتَلَّنِي

رُوحُكَ تَتَجَلَّى فِي مَرَايَا رُوحِي

وَأَنْتَ ظِلِّي الْمُلَاصِقُ

بِحَرْفِي .. بِخَوْفِي .. بِعَطْفِي

أَنَا الْمَصْقُولَةُ بِكَ / الْمَرْهُونَةُ لَكَ

كَمْ بِتُّ رَهِينَةَ رَوْعَتِك !

أَرْتَاعُ حِينَمَا أُحِسُّ بِالشَّوْقِ

يُدَثِّرُنِي بِثَوْبِ الْإِثْمِ

أَرْهَبُ وَأَهْرُبُ

كَيْ لَا أُكَابِدَ فِي وَحْدَتِي

مَغَارِزَ الْأَلَمِ

لَا تَتْرُكْنِي رَعْشَةً .. فِي مَهَبِّ رَصِيفِ عُزْلَةٍ

رَغْمَ أَنَّ تِلْكَ النَّسَائمَ أَصْبَحَتْ

تَطِيبُ لِي وَتُغْفِينِي !

من الديوان (بسمة لوزيّة تتوهّج- عام 2005)

A full house at the Annual Christmas Meeting/BBQ of the Arabic Friends of Labor, held jointly with Bexley and Brighton Branches of the Australian Labor party with key note speaker former President of The NSW Legislative Council, The Hon Amanda Fazio, who is also Co-Chair of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee. The event was attended by a wonderful gathering of party members and community representatives. It was so well attended that the next meeting will need a bigger hall.

On behalf of Bexley and Brighton Branches Secretary and Councillor Tarek Ibrahim welcomed all and in particular many distinguished members of the community including the Mayor of Bayside, His Worship, Councillor Bill Saravinovski, Deputy Mayor Clr Joe Awada as well as the Hon Shaoquett Moselmane, Opposition Whip in the legislative Council NSW and Convenor of the Arabic Friends of Labor, Mr Mark Buttigieg ETU representative and future member of the NSW Upper House, as well as Louay Moustapha, Secretary of the Barton Federal Electoral Council ALP and of Course, our long-time friend the Hon Amanda Fazio.

After welcoming all and wishing every one Merry Christmas and a happy new year, the Mayor handed the Microphone over to the Hon Shaoquett Moselmane who spoke about Scott Morrisons irresponsible and irrational policy of shifting the Australian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem against not only international law, the international community but also the majority of the Australian community, 73% of whom in a 2017 Morgan Poll indicated their support for recognition of a Palestinian state. Mr Moselmane condemned Scott Morrison’s desperate stance but noted that his time and that of the Morrison Government is terminal and will cease to exist at the next federal elections. Shaoquett Compared Labor Policy for peace and for a Palestinian State against the destructive Conservative policy that goes against peace in the Middle East. He also noted that as a delegate to Labor’s National Conference in Adelaide this weekend He is looking forward to Labor recognising Palestine.

Shaoquett also noted that the Berejiklian government has faltered if not on the verge of collapse, is increasingly desperate trying to hang on to power now that the people of NSW have expressed anger with their policy agenda of Tolls and more Road Tolls, aggressive sale of public assets and wasteful spending of $2.5 Billion on demolition of two perfectly good stadiums instead of spending on Health and Education where money is most needed.

Shaoquett took great pride in welcoming to the stage the Hon Amanda Fazio who did not hold back from criticising the Morrison Government for its policy failures, its arrogance on Palestine and its unashamed kowtowing to the Zionist lobby on the issue of the Australian embassy shift. She spoke about the need for further scrutiny of the Government and supported calls for a federal ICAC. Amanda then congratulated the New Opposition Leader as Shaoquett had done and looked forward for unity amongst the multicultural communities to stand together and at the next election turf the conservative Morrison and Berejiklian governments out and bring in a Shorten Labor Government and a Daley Labor government in NSW.