Being Palestinian: Being Young and Hopeless

Dark Horizons

This is a depressing article from The New York Times about the toll of the occupation on young Palestinians, who are called here the "lost" and "destroyed" generation. The story about the guys selling their weapons, taking a bank loan, and buying fictitious visas to China and Australia only to be treated like dogs by Egyptian airport security and returned to Gaza is a truly terrible update of Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun. The price these people are paying is very very steep and using them as "fuel" for the struggle by a mediocre political leadership that is more interested in scoring points and improving their negotiation position in front of the Palestinian competition is reprehensible.

The article only scratches the surface. Nothing here about those in prison, or have been maimed permanently by their injuries. Palestinian society still doesn't know how to deal with this latter group.

But at the end of the day, it's the Israeli occupation that is imprisoning, maiming, and killing those men and women. The most terrible of the Israeli crimes has been killing hope in young people's hearts.

To be young and hopeless is the most unnatural state of being.

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