'Uncles of Palestine', by Sara Bawany
Illustrated by Afeefah Khazi-Syed
The uncles of Palestine are a different breed of men. They can spot newcomers from one end of Jerusalem to another. With a warm smile, they ask if you need help. Where you are going. Where you are from. Give you precise directions. They know many can’t return there. They welcome you to the Holy Land anyway.
The uncles of Palestine laugh heartily. Cigarettes in one hand and shai in the other, they speak of their families and of current events. They delight in a foreigner who can chat in broken Arabic with them and they sell olives and spices and pomegranate juice in the alleyways of the old city. Knafeh doesn’t taste the same anywhere else and they know this well, insisting on taking you to the best bakery in Jerusalem.
The uncles of Palestine are a Godsend. The ones who safeguard the holy sites and are eager to teach you the history of the sacred earth beneath your feet. The shopkeepers with their bushy mustaches and kind eyes who tell you stories of apartheid. The bus drivers, their generosity having no bounds, who send money home to their families, but can’t return to them. The taxi drivers who have transported travelers from around the world. The ones who turn from drivers to safeguards. The ones who turn from workers to friends.
The uncles of Palestine, in their gentle and patient demeanor, and in their quick wits and sharp tongues, are the definition of resistance. They ignore the implanted soldiers at the gates and walk to Al-Aqsa every morning for Fajr. The way they live. The way they love. The fire in their eyes. The tranquility shining through their smiles is enough to make you fall in love with this land. This keeper of the olive trees. This home of the prophets.
Sara Bawany is an award-winning poet, author, freelance editor, clinical social worker, and MFA Poetry student at Texas State University. She is the Assisting Managing Editor of its on-campus journal Porter House Review and a senior mentor at House of Amal, a writing institution for Muslim youth. She published “(w)holehearted: a collection of poetry and prose” in 2018, which won Daybreak Press Publishing’s “Best Poetry Book” award, and her second book, Quarter Life Crisis, was published in October 2023. You can access her work at www.sarabawany.com.