Maximum Occupancy

One of the memoirs that I wanted to read after the October 7th events that kicked off the latest round of horror in occupied territory, is called They Called Me a Lioness. I picked it up as an audiobook, as it rose to relevancy for being pertinent to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. This is a history of the region and grassroots activism, but also a story of childhood interrupted by Zionist policies and judicial system.

Yes, you should read it.

An American journalist, Dena Takruri, focuses on the lioness Ahed Tamimi, but does not tell her story in a vacuum. It acknowledges her privilege in becoming a young counter culture figure due to her youth and proximity to certain beauty standards, speaks of the foundational support her family and community has built in their fight for their lands and culture, and gives faces and names to the tragedies that make up the one-sided fight between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Not to make my blog about me, but this is a whole “how is my complacency and bystander behavior contributing to the Islamophobia and Middle Eastern biases so prevalent in the United States” journey that I am trying to take means that I was receptive to her story. While other reads or listens are at times recounting anecdotal examples, I find that the ones from Palestinians who use their family as examples of the injustice in this conflict makes it easier for me to conceptualize how fucked up it all is.

Since the subject is so young, there is a different tone (one of hope, unaware of what the future would hold for them since this was written before October 7th 2023, and one of patience as they are not yet bogged down with the feeling of futility) in the retelling of the events that proceed Ahed Tamimi's life.

In her early twenties, she has seen her family locked up and killed by the Israeli government, in addition to spending time as a political prisoner. More know for the images of resistance of her that went viral, and for the videos in which she acted in emotional self-defense as a child, she has been seen as a threat and has to deal with the consequences of being a lioness. The government has tried to tame and imprison her, but have yet to break her spirit.

At the time of the attacks, she was being held and was one of the people in captivity. In November of 2023, Hamas and Israel were able to negotiate a hostage swap that included Ahed Tamimi. Like many others, she has be removed/fled/displaced from her home on the West Bank. And after listening to her story I know that this is a crime decried by many Indigenous populations throughout our modern history.

Why do we keep making the same mistakes, why do we keep creating new wounds within our species, and why do we vilify one group (Hamas) when other has a higher body count? This book does not answer that, and the many that I have read do not give me a satisfactory reason. Here I am reading and recommending with the hope that knowing about a horror might do something to negate another in the future.

Where do your hopes lay?