《Raja Shehadeh — We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir》 - 免费有声读物

This event is in partnership with Museum of the Palestinian People

Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognize his father's courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja's own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably. Through a host of correspondence, historical and familial documents, including his father’s diaries, articles, legal reports and other writings, Raja masterfully reconstructs a window into a particular father and son relationship; the true story of one family’s journey marked by extraordinary displays of bravery, and a turn of events that forever shifted the trajectory of their fate. At once personal and sweeping, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I recounts not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors, reminding of the threat to freedom and democracy exacted by such forces; highlighting both the costs to and the power of the individual to enact change but also recounts an enduring and particular father and son relationship shaped by its circumstance.

Raja Shehadeh is Palestine’s leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House, Occupation Diaries, and Palestinian Walks, which won the prestigious Orwell Prize​​​​​.