The High Garden of Allah

Hello Sousan

Keefek?

I don't know why I feel compelled to tell you this, but I really wish that you try to question your perception about the city you hate so much: Ramallah.

I don't know if I even have the right to tell you this (I probably don't) but what do you "really" know about Ramallah?

The reason I tell you this is because I grew up in this city, and I have so much history here (and so does my family on both ends)

Perhaps the city in itself has changed, and even the demography of those who live here, but that is usually the case in any other place on earth that is growing.

Ramallah, for the past 150 years, has not really represented a true Palestinian identity. The reason being that many of the young members of the original Ramallah families began immigrating to the Americas ( most notably the US) during that period. The money they would send back to their families helped establish a certain identity for the "village" as being one of the more affluent and- due to few schools including a girls Quakers school- one of the more educated in the Western sense.

Ramallah's architecture is one other example of the distinct Ramallah identity. It is one that combines the traditional stone building style with a very American and Western influences. The village served as a resort for more than fifty years. Wealthy families rented or owned summer houses in order to enjoy a very green and pleasant spot in a struggle-torn region.

Ramallah was and still is a victim of the general political/ war circumstances. Yet, the playful menace child of Jerusalem never lost its spirit.

It was always counted against Ramallah the fact that it played when the rest of the country was being suffocated.

Yet Ramallah suffered the same.

The Ramallah you know is one that you believe tries to imitate concepts that do not suite her.

The truth is, Ramallah has always "experiented" with foreign concepts.

she has maintained her love for foreign dresses, parties, and the good life. If Ramallah was a human, it will be a 5-year old girl who gets in the dresses and jewlery of her mother's friends as they are busy talking about the most expensive gifts they have acquired.

Ramallah has always smiled. You were not there when Ramallah was being bombed with F-16 every night, when its "friends" did not know if they will live to see the light the next morning. Yet it kept smiling the morning after, as if nothing ever happened.

Ramallah was beautiful. Its beauty slowly changed because you cannot expect a child to escape a burning house, completely unharmed. Yet Ramallah emerged out of the rubble with a child's innocent smile.

The blond hair unevenly burnt. The flawless skin burnt and contaminated with soot.

But it kept smiling.

Foreigner, even those who claim ancestory to th city, have yet to experience the true meaning of the city, in the meantime they only discredit its existence. For us, those who lived through two of the Palestinian intifadas, we know its not a show we're putting on. Ramallahwis simply know how to live. They know the meaning of savoire-faire and the joie de vivre.

in Arabic, "s-Hab Keif".

Ask about the Yaffa rd. (Locally known as the gardens rd.), look for some of the oldest surviving hotels and restaurants, look for the remains of three of the oldest movie theaters in Palestine (Only one of the three still operates) and better, talk to the older crowds who would proudly tell you how they used to wait for the Israeli army tanks to roll past their homes to sneak out, all extravegantly dressed, to attend secret evenings at one of the many untold of night-life spots.

Ask younger crowd who preferred to wait for the 2-hour lift on the curfew in order to leave and have their coffee at their favorate spots, rather than buying their home needs, which they thought they could manage to get in minutes.

Ramallah might be imbalanced, they absurdly call it the "Guardian of Jerusalem" yet it could only be the "delusional daughter of the Holy Land". It always was, and always will be: and this is why we still love it.

A wounded deserter will only find comfort in the accidental encounter of an innocent happy child, Bint Izz, in a tornout once-white dress. One that reminds him that the future might not be as grim as the present.
PS: the New York Times Article that triggered the debate: "Ramallah Attracts a Cosmopolitan Crowd"
An article which was mostly unfavorably received by Palestinians, both young and old, for the most important reason: that it dismissed the Israeli occupation of Palestine.