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" It's problematic being an Arab who writes in Hebrew. "
Sayed Kashua
Arab
Who
Problematic
Related Quotes:
" There is really no place for individuals in Israel. "
Sayed Kashua
Israel
Really
Individuals
" Whom do you speak to about introducing a leap year? Is it heresy to request such a thing? Why do the Jews have one and we don't? "
Sayed Kashua
Request
You
Year
" I hate it when I have to abandon my children. I politely turn down most of the invitations I get from abroad and try to fly only when it's absolutely necessary. "
Sayed Kashua
Fly
Turn
Try
" A lot of my friends in my student days complained about how their parents made them play an instrument when they were kids. I always felt compassion for them and didn't believe a parent could be so cruel, but when I check today, those complaining friends grew up to be quite successful, and many of them are now making their children play. "
Sayed Kashua
Compassion
Children
Parents
" I once wrote that the first week in Jerusalem was the hardest week of my life. I was different, other; my clothes were different, as was my language. All of the classes were in Hebrew - science, bible, literature. I sat there not understanding one word. When I tried to speak, everyone would laugh at me. "
Sayed Kashua
Me
My Life
Laugh
" If there was genuine desire on the Israeli side, even without a solution, it would be possible to solve a large percentage of the problems between Israelis and Palestinians by means of simple statements from the Israelis. "
Sayed Kashua
Simple
Desire
Problems
" Many Israelis are educating their kids in a very nationalist, powerful identity, since kindergarten - and the Arabs as well. "
Sayed Kashua
Powerful
Kindergarten
Identity
" Christmas is relentless. It's around the clock. I sit with my little ones in front of the TV screen, and we watch movie after movie after movie. "
Sayed Kashua
Sit
Christmas
Clock
" Americans are connected to the situation in the West Bank and Gaza and Israel because, generally speaking, Jewish Americans were always there, and many American Jewish people connect their nationality to the Israeli one. "
Sayed Kashua
People
American
Connected
" There's a lot of hypocrisy and condescension in Israel's institutionalized support for Mubarak's tyrannical rule, in its backing of a corrupt leader who established a brutal secret police state to suppress his citizens and keep their mouths shut. "
Sayed Kashua
Leader
Police
Support
" I couldn't lie anymore to my kids telling them that they are equal citizens in the state of Israel. They cannot be equal because in order to fit in and to be accepted and to be a citizen in Israel, you need a Jewish mother. "
Sayed Kashua
Lie
You
Need
" Somehow, the rare trips to Tel Aviv give me the feeling that I have a career. "
Sayed Kashua
Give
Rare
Trips
" I hate flying. The first time I flew with my wife, Najat, was the first time I'd ever flown in my life, and that was just a short flight to Turkey. I spent the whole time with my shirt pulled over my head. Then I got used to it. "
Sayed Kashua
Flying
Wife
Hate
" My children don't even know who Fairuz is - a horrifying thought. "
Sayed Kashua
Children
Who
Thought
" A trip to Tel Aviv is a ritual. I always wear the same clothes to Tel Aviv: black pants and a blue-checked shirt that I bought especially from Ralph Lauren. "
Sayed Kashua
Black
Shirt
Clothes
" Thanksgiving is the only day of the year when most of the stores here are closed during the day and reopen after midnight. Even restaurants shut down for the holiday, except for the fast-food chains. "
Sayed Kashua
Down
Day
Thanksgiving
" Israeli independence - what we Arabs call al-Naqba, 'The Catastrophe' - it created Palestinian identity more than anything else. "
Sayed Kashua
Identity
Anything
Independence
" Is it too late to institute a leap year and mandate that the holidays fall on regular, convenient dates - so that Id al-Fitr will come, say, in the spring and Id al-Adha in early summer? "
Sayed Kashua
Spring
Summer
Early
" Well, you can't say you are lucky to live in Champaign, but I was lucky to be at the University of Illinois. It's a very international cosmopolitan community. That's very helpful. "
Sayed Kashua
Lucky
Say
Live
" I really just want to be a writer and a storyteller. But maybe pain is one of the things you have to feel in order to be creative. "
Sayed Kashua
Things
Pain
Feel
" I use a lot of humor, and I follow the saying that if you want to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh first; otherwise, they will shoot you. "
Sayed Kashua
People
Saying
Truth
" When was the last time an Arab MK who appeared on television wasn't there in the role of the accused who is attacked by a skeptical broadcaster? "
Sayed Kashua
Role
Time
Last
" When I was 14, I saw a library for the first time. "
Sayed Kashua
Saw
Time
Library
" I always envied them, the owners of the cars with the white plates who can be seen around Jerusalem. I always wanted to be one of them. We call them U.N., even though U.N. are generally foreign correspondents with leased cars and yellow plates. "
Sayed Kashua
Seen
White
Always
" It always seems to me that my life would look completely different if I didn't have to take care of the rent. "
Sayed Kashua
Look
Take Care
My Life
" Sometimes it seems that what really worries the Israeli governments, even more than the Muslim Brotherhood, is the real Egypt. "
Sayed Kashua
Brotherhood
Real
Sometimes
" Like with all the Arabs, they use the 'suspect procedure' on me. I arrive four hours before the flight. They do a body search in a back room behind the curtain and then escort me onto the plane because they're afraid that on the way I might pick up a bomb from someone. "
Sayed Kashua
Body
Someone
Search
" I'm afraid of a gas leak, although I installed detectors. I'm afraid of a blown fuse that could cause a fire, and that's why I don't turn on electrical appliances at night. "
Sayed Kashua
Leak
Afraid
Turn
" The truth is, I never travel without cash. I always take a few tens with me in case of an emergency. There's never been an emergency, and in time, I realized that Americans don't want to touch customers' dirty bills. They also don't want to touch your credit card: you have to put it through the machine yourself, with your own fingers. "
Sayed Kashua
Yourself
Time
Truth
" How I'd like to start a new life in a distant land. Not because of racism or politics. But to be in a place that I knew hardly anything about, in a place where I wouldn't even care to know the prime minister's name. A place where names and faces would have no meaning for me. "
Sayed Kashua
Start
Me
Life