The Palestine Monitor - Interview with Fida Jiryis (January 19th, 2012)

As a Palestinian raised in the diaspora, Fida Jiryis grew up with an obscure yet powerful notion of Palestine as well as what it meant to be Palestinian. Her return proved to be serious challenge to her previously held notions.

The 1993 Oslo Accords granted Fida and her family the opportunity to return to their native village of Fassouta, in the upper Galillee. They were part of the small amount of returnees (less than 50 individuals) permitted within the Accord's framework to implement their "right of return" to villages now located within the state of Israel. Upon her return, Fida not only had to confront her own culture from which she had been estranged but also that of her omnipresent occupier.

Overnight she became an Israeli citizen and was required to learn Hebrew. Deemed a foreigner by her Palestinian peers and a second-class citizen by the state of Israel, Fida describes her transition home as one of "double culture-shock." On 21 January 2012 The Palestine Monitor had the opportunity to sit down with Fida and speak with her about her experience of return, her life as Palestinian citizen of Israel, and her upcoming book.

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Entertainment

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• Mon
• Fida
• Jiryis
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• Diaspora
• Interview

[sbahour]

Excellent interview Fida. We are all anxiously awaiting your new book.

By the way, your first Arabic book حياتنا الصغيرة is a must read too!

Onward and upward!