Samir El-youssef

Samir El-youssef writes for such major English and Arabic newspapers and websites as Al-Hayat, openDemocracy.net, New Statesman, and the Guardian's "Comment is free." His publications include A Treaty of Love, London, Halban, 2008; The Illusion of Return, London, Halban, 2007; and Gaza Blues: Different Stories, Sydney, Picador, 2004 (co-authored with Etgar Keret). Born in 1965 in Lebanon's Rashidia Palestinian refugee camp, El-youssef now resides in London. He earned a M.A. in philosophy from the University of London in 2000.

Forgiveness is good, and a decent society must do the good thing; it might also be the only hope to save present and future Palestinian generations from the curse of a damaged past. But surely one can't expect a stateless people, who for the past 60 years have been condemned to the life of refugees or, at best, second-rate citizens, to forgive? It would be a pure submission to eternal misfortune.

Well, Palestinian forgiveness would be a risk, one that would require the courage of the mad….

For the Palestinians who are prepared to forgive the hope is that the majority of Israelis, out of decency or out of sheer desire for a quiet life, don't want any more war. Realising that Palestinian forgiveness meant that their national existence was no longer threatened, Israelis would want their government to seize the chance, not to confiscate more Palestinian land, but to consolidate the state of quiet and calmness, and do their best to rescue Palestinians from military occupation and second-rate citizenship.

This is probably a mad dream. . . . The alternative, however, is the greater madness of a conflict that would go on for the next sixty years. ¹

–Samir El-youssef, "Courage of the Mad," Guardian, May 14, 2008