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" 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. "

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" 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

My Life

Laugh

" It's problematic being an Arab who writes in Hebrew. "

" 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

Life

" Somehow it seems that all parents are certain that they themselves were victims of abuse in school and that they will not allow this to happen to their children. Even though children can also be the cruelest group imaginable - especially the cutest of them. "

" The smell of onion is the most effective thing for relieving stinging eyes irritated by tear gas. "

" People who go far don't sleep an average of 14 hours a day. "

" I wanted to bring likable Arabs into the average Israeli living room. "

" 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. "

" I don't know how it works with the Jews, but here in Beit Safafa, as in every self-respecting Arab community that is respected in turn by the state, there are no street names and no house numbers. "

" As I see it, religion shouldn't interfere in a relationship. "

" 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. "

" I wish I could be proud of being an Israeli citizen, but how can I do that when I'm not really recognized as a full citizen? "

" What kind of people will these ghettos of Palestinians produce? What form of morality, national consciousness and hope will people be left with after so many years of stifling occupation and a sense of hopelessness? "

" 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. "

" Back in Israel, I would spend much effort and plenty of money on presents when I went abroad, even if it was only for two days. "

" 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. "

" Israeli independence - what we Arabs call al-Naqba, 'The Catastrophe' - it created Palestinian identity more than anything else. "

" 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. "

" We were, as Arabs in Israel, educated not to leave our villages, in order to protect our identity. "

" Sometimes I think that if we have to go back, then it certainly won't be to Jerusalem. Not to the Jerusalem beset with racism that we left at the height of the last Gaza war. "

Sayed Kashua

War

Back

" I can never get to sleep without a book. "

" Sometimes I can write very angry columns, but I know that it doesn't work. "

" I began to write, believing that all I had to do to change things would be to write the other side, to tell the stories that I heard from my grandmother. "

" I wanted the Israeli mainstream audience to meet different kinds of Arabs - not just terrorists or politicians - and to listen to their language and their stories. "

" 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

" There is really no place for individuals in Israel. "

" Sometimes it seems that what really worries the Israeli governments, even more than the Muslim Brotherhood, is the real Egypt. "

" Many Israelis are educating their kids in a very nationalist, powerful identity, since kindergarten - and the Arabs as well. "

" 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. "

" The Palestinians have tried everything, and by God, it's Israel's governments that taught us that the only thing the Israelis appreciate is force. "