Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Sami Qurra is a Palestinian writer
Orange Story Books
The story "The Orange of Jaffa" by Dr. Rose Al-Youssef Shaaban (2021) talks in its entirety about the tragedy that befell the Palestinians in 1948, and is somewhat similar in its content to the short story written by Ghassan Kanafani entitled "The Land of Sad Oranges" (1962). In both stories, the orange symbolizes the lost homeland, Palestine. Dr. Shaaban wrote her story for children while Kanafani's story is aimed at adults.
The narration in the story "The Orange of Jaffa" is based on memory. We see Rania beginning her narration with these words, "I often went to the Jaffa Sea with my family...". She remembers what she used to do with her family in her childhood, and in her tone she is longing and nostalgic for a beautiful past. Through memory, Rania tries to relive a life experience that she missed when she was young. Through literature of all kinds, we can create or recreate our past life experiences, and this is one of the most important characteristics that we find in modern Palestinian literature. But Rania is not the only one who relives the past, as we see Rania's grandfather recounting what Jaffa and Palestine in general suffered in 1948, and how workers in the city of Jaffa used to collect oranges and put them in the box to be exported outside Palestine.
Memory in Palestinian literature is an important component of preserving heritage and history from disappearance, and it is an important tool through which we can present a counter-narrative to the Israeli narrative of the history of Palestine, and it is a very important factor in understanding what has befallen us and how the past has affected the present in which we live. In order to preserve the collective memory and identity in their relationship with history, the grandfather recommends to his granddaughter Rania that it is necessary to “preserve what we inherit from our fathers and grandfathers, especially if this inheritance relates to our history and glory.” It should be noted here that the process of oral communication between a grandfather and his granddaughter reflects the importance of oral tradition in transmitting and preserving heritage from one generation to another.
When presenting his documentary film "Jaffa - The Orange Mechanism", which talks about Jaffa oranges, the Israeli director said: "I made films about Palestinian refugees, and dealt with the process of employing memory." But memory connects us Palestinians to the past only, and the most important question is, is there anything that connects the Palestinians to the future? How can the Palestinians benefit from memory and history in making the future? If we agree that one of the goals of children’s literature in Palestine is to teach our children about Palestinian heritage and history and not to separate them from their ancestors’ past, then we must also use literature to prepare our children for life in the future in a volatile, constantly changing and unpredictable world.
We can divide the story of "The Orange of Jaffa" into three chapters: the events of the first chapter take place on the Jaffa beach, the events of the second chapter take place in 1948 as told by Rania's grandfather, and the events of the last chapter take place in Father Ahmed's house.
In the first chapter, we read about the Jaffa sea and its shores, and we read about a Palestinian family living in peace and joy, and each one loves the other, and in it, Grandfather Selim, who showers his grandchildren with love and care, stands out. While the grandchildren are playing on the seashore and swimming in the sea, we see the grandfather swimming in his imagination, absent-minded and sad, with tears streaming from his eyes. As Rania says, he remembers his "old history" and cries over times gone by, and in that he resembles the father in the story "The Land of Sad Oranges" who gets out of the car and carries an orange and looks at it silently, then bursts into tears like a miserable child. Both grandfather Selim and father feel great pain due to the loss of their homeland. Rania has a special relationship with her grandfather, as she feels his pain, plays with him and builds sand castles with him. This happy family is soon disturbed by the treacherous sea waves and spreading panic among its members. But the grandfather says that the sea is treacherous and frightening and warns them of it, and at the same time he asks his granddaughter Rania not to be sad because they will rebuild the sand castle that was demolished by the waves of the sea. Rania's family represents all the Palestinian families that were subjected to the brutality of the occupation represented by the sea. We find in the grandfather's call to rebuild the sand castle a call for the new generation to restore and rebuild the homeland that was destroyed by the occupation. It is an invitation that inspires optimism and hope, unlike what we find in Kanafani's story, for example, which ends with a heartbreak and a feeling that the past will not return.
As for the second chapter, it begins when family members see from a distance a sailing ship raising a flag with an image of an orange on it. Then the talk moves about the pin that the grandfather owns in the form of an orange. This pin was inherited by the grandfather from his father, who inherited it from his father. It is a symbol of the homeland that the grandfather loves very much and feels that it is his responsibility to preserve it. Then the conversation moves to focus on the Jaffa orange and its types, and what happened to the orange orchards in 1948, and the occupation forces’ seizure of them and their displacement to the Palestinians. Like the first chapter, this chapter ends with a tone filled with optimism and hope, as the grandfather is able to return from Lebanon to Jaffa after his departure from it, and return to the orange trade that was practiced by his family and revive it. While Grandfather Selim is happy to talk about the types of oranges and orchards and about the happy past, we see that the father in Kanafani's story finds it extremely difficult to talk about Palestine and his orchards and homes. The father was far from the land of oranges, living the tragedy of his displacement from the homeland, in peace and pain, unlike grandfather Selim, who was able to return to his homeland and to his orchards.
In the last chapter, we read about the loss of the pin owned by the grandfather, his illness, his transfer to the hospital, and the grief of the family, especially Rania. Rania prays for her grandfather's recovery so that she can go back to the sea with him and build sand castles with him and listen to his exciting stories about Jaffa. The grandfather’s grief over the pin reflects the grandfather’s love for the homeland. The orange-shaped pin also symbolizes the homeland. We leave the grandfather Selim ill at the end of the story, as we leave the father in the Kanafani story, sick and miserable, shivering with anger, with a gun and an orange next to him. The orange was dry and dry, indicating frustration and loss of hope. Will the father kill himself? Will Grandfather Selim be cured so that he can return to the sea and tell his exciting stories about Jaffa and Palestine to his granddaughter? Will the Palestinians return to their homeland and land, as Grandpa Selim did? Are they like the father in the story of Kanafani who surrenders to his destiny, or like the grandfather in the story of “The Orange of Jaffa” who struggles to return to his homeland and does return?
source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To