Status Updates From Χρονικό μιας ατέρμονης θλίψης

When oppression is legalized, its very legality becomes worse than the thing itself, because in this case the oppression would not simply be a question of how a ruler or an authority behaves but the path itself followed by a society and one of the deep-rooted elements of its composition.

An Arab writer satirized the practice of the Israeli authorities in ascribing to their actions & good intentions the human development that takes place in the natural course of events: “When Israel was established my daughter was one year old. Now she is twenty. Did she then grow up and reach maturity as a result of Israeli efforts? This comment brilliantly records the Israeli way of keeping track of human progress.

—If you kill them, we will walk in their funerals. But if this cannot be done quickly, we will find ourselves in a dilemma and must interfere for the sake of reconciliation.

Liquidation? We do not think so. This is an internal matter. Our relations are good. For the sake of sovereignty and mutual concern for national independence, we do not interfere. Liquidation? Why use this expression? We call this “independence.”
Who is responsible? It is not one person, or an agency within a regime. It is the official Arab environment.