The Occupation Diaries is a personal account from Raja Shehadeh of living in Ramallah. The entries are written primarily during 2010-2011. During this period, many significant events take place including the Gaza flotilla raid, the Arab Spring, the cottage cheese demonstrations in Tel Aviv, the Gilat Shalit prisoner exchange, and the Palestine 194 campaign, as well as the continuous building of the apartheid wall and increasing Israeli settler violence.
As a writer and activist from a relatively affluent Palestinian Christian family, he offers a unique perspective. He regularly reflects on the present-day political, economic, and social state of the region. For example, he comments on how the Israeli media usually reinforce “the representational framework of [Israel] as an island of civilization surrounded by savages” (1569). He regularly criticizes the Palestinian Authority and its ineffective policies that do nothing to protect Palestinians; “The olive growers go to pick their olives and are attacked by settlers. They have no one to call upon: the Israeli police stand on the side, watching and doing nothing, and the Palestinian police are prohibited from interfering” (1167).…show more content… Realizing that it is “easier to dismiss an angry spokesman,” Shehadeh struggles to maintain a calm visage (543). But at the same time, he does not want to “stand passively smiling…preserving [himself] as though [he] was all that mattered in the world.” He wants to “feel the anger and rage, rage against the dying of the light.” He wants to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, like the blue skies and his olive trees, but he is by no means okay with the injustice allowed to occur around
