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Lost in the long shadow of the father
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We Could Have Been Friends, My Father And I
by Raja Shehadeh
Profile Books £14.99
PALESTINIAN writer Raja Shehadeh and his father Aziz, a prominent lawyer with a long and distinguished career, spent years defending Palestinian rights and advocating for statehood as the Israeli occupation gradually tightened its grip over their land.
Both men sometimes held different and even conflicting views on how their dream of a Palestinian state could be realised.
Raja would feel his ideas rebuffed by his renowned father’s criticism and tried to carve out a career of his own uneclipsed by the latter’s achievements.
Over time Raja became well known in his own right yet continually sensed a barrier between him and his father.
Following Aziz’s tragic death, Raja began combing through his father’s diaries, articles, legal reports and other writings while developing a deeper understanding of how life experiences and legal cases shaped his outlook.
The book follows Raja’s journey as he gains an insight into the struggles Aziz faced during the Nakba and subsequent decades as he advocated and fought for Palestinian rights while his people faced Israel’s occupation, Britain’s deception and Jordan’s betrayal.
Raja discovers how his father, with some success, managed to fight back against these powers via the legal route and how he suffered the consequences incurred by making an enemy of the aforementioned states.
At the end of his journey Aziz not only begins to know and understand his father in a way he felt unable to do while the latter was alive, but also comes to realise that the two of them were more alike than he imagined.
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