Quotes from Suad Amiry

Nothing makes sense, why should I?

A thousand times a coward and not once a dead man

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chissà se al mondo esiste qualcun altro, oltre a noi palestinesi, che sente la mancanza di un aeroporto.