On 16 July, Caabu held an online briefing with Nada Tarbush, diplomat and representative of Palestine at the United Nations, in which she discussed her late father Mohammad Tarbush's book My Palestine: An Impossible Exile. See below for a recording of the event. You can purchase your own copy of the book here.
Tarbush highlighted that through her father's writing of My Palestine, he aimed to dispel misconceptions about the Arab region and people, particularly Palestinian people, believing in the power of storytelling to foster understanding and awareness especially among Western audiences to whom the book is primarily addressed. This is why he intertwines his own personal story with the broader history of Palestine and the modern Middle East over the past hundred years. Tarbush said that My Palestine is both a memoir and a historical text.
Tarbush described the writing style of her late father, Mohammad Tarbush, as being one that brings historical events to life, and adds a sense of realism and feelings to the narration. She said that as a memoir, her father's story depicts a very unusual and extraordinary life story of a self-made Palestinian's personal odyssey against all kinds of odds. It conveys universal messages about the power of determination, vision, hard work, perseverance, providential encounters and modesty to achieve the seemingly impossible. The most powerful, yet simple, message Tarbush's father conveyed through his story is that Palestinians are human beings like all others, with dreams to live a normal life, struggles, joys, and fears- such a basic point that is often missed as Palestinians continue to be dehumanised and experience prejudice in the Western media.
