The Disinherited by Ibrahim Fawal

Author:Ibrahim Fawal [Fawal, Ibrahim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Disinherited, NewSouth Books, Ibrahim Fawal, On The Hills of God, Palestine, Palestinians, fiction, Middle East Relations, Middle East, Israel, Holy Land
ISBN: 9781603061957
Publisher: NewSouth Inc.
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

11

Two months after the king’s assassination, Yousif was in Beirut, holding a bundle of Amana Daily under his left arm and handing a free copy to anyone willing to take it. He figured he must have passed out a hundred copies that afternoon, for he had covered Sahat el-Borj at least three times, jostling and cajoling pedestrians on the busy sidewalk. It was a cool and pleasant autumn day and he did not mind the tedious work. Until the newspaper became credible they could neither charge for it nor hire anyone to sell it. Besides, it was an opportunity for him to come in contact with the Lebanese people for whom he had a deep affection, not least because his favorite modern poet, Kahlil Gibran, was born, raised, and buried in Lebanon. Thanks to his father’s tutoring, Yousif could recite Gibran’s poetry from memory.

The Amana Daily readership was rapidly increasing, but not rapidly enough to please Raja. The numbers had to be multiplied, the message spread, recruits found. The organization needed to change people’s mindsets. Otherwise, why exist?

“Communist!” an old man with a thick gray mustache and haughty black eyes snarled at Yousif when offered a free newspaper. The man froze defiantly in his tracks, pursed his lips, and crossed his arms behind his hunched back as if to ward off contamination.

“Didn’t mean to bother you,” Yousif smiled in reply, moving on to other potential takers.

The shoppers were in a hurry yet many accepted the free handout. It was one of Yousif’s better days, and he felt good about himself. He recalled many skirmishes with obdurate Lebanese who resented the Palestinian presence in their country. To some extent he could understand their feelings. By now he had grown accustomed to their indifference and had learned to take their brusque manners in stride. But the condescending effete who answered him in French—those were intolerable.

Crossing the streets, he heard a chorus of horns blast all around him. His month-long stay in Beirut had convinced him of the hazards of driving and walking through the bottlenecked streets of this westernized, glittering, and often charming city. With agility and fancy footwork he zigzagged around the heavy traffic, patting the hoods of a few slow-moving cars which were coming at him from all directions, and listening to the shrill whistle of the traffic officer who put his life on the line by standing, spinning and gesturing with his arms and coming face to face with danger a hundred times more than he would have encountered in the war to save Palestine.

Not even at a moment like this could Yousif forget the sorry performance of all the Arab regimes. They betrayed us, he reminded himself; and, without realizing it, they destabilized their own countries. Look at all the prostitutes in the legalized red district, he thought. Every apartment must be packed with girls who should not be there. Look at them crowding in the windows with their bosoms hanging out. Look at them in their skimpy and garish costumes on balconies and doorsteps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.