In many ways, the life of Raeda Taha (Jerusalem, 59 years old) is similar to that of millions of Palestinians because it has been marked by the experience of exile and loss. But in others, it is exceptional. His father, Ali Taha, was a famous Palestinian fighter who was assassinated in 1970 by a commando of the Israeli special forces – including, among others, a young Benjamin – during the assault on a hijacked plane. At just 22 years old she became the Palestinian leader’s press secretary. Three decades later, she is one of the Palestinian playwrights with the greatest international projection. His last work, Akka’s gazelleabout the figure of the committed Palestinian intellectual Ghassan Kanafani, premiered last year at the Carthage International Festival, in Tunisia, in which this year, Taha served as a jury.
Ask. Why did you abandon your political career to dedicate yourself to theater?
Answer. Theater is my passion, I always wanted to be an actress. I like the contact with people from the stage. I dreamed of this career all my life. And when it was time, I fulfilled it. I hope to die on stage. Arafat tried to make me the new face of Palestinian diplomacy, but I am not cut out for politics. I am very direct and honest. I always say what I think.
There are many forms of resistance that are important: writing, film-making, theatre, even weaving kufiyas (the Palestinian scarf). They serve to show that we are a people with our own culture and attached to our land.
Coach Taha
P. Do you believe that culture is another tool for the Palestinian cause?
R. Now, maybe yes. We live in a disappointing political time. The Palestinian National Authority has become just another Arab Government, with all its defects. Art makes people think. But there are many forms of resistance that are important: writing, making films, theater, even knitting kufiyas [el pañuelo palestino]. They serve to show that we are a people with our own culture and attached to our land. The Zionist idea of “a land without a people for a people without a land” is a big lie.
P. And theater, specifically, is it important for Palestine?
R. Palestinian theater has been important in maintaining and telling our collective memory. But as in all areas of our society, it suffered a hard blow with the .
P. Why are you banned from entering several Arab countries?
R. They think my words are dangerous. All my works talk about Palestine directly, without mincing words, and Arab dictators are bothered by the Palestinian cause. They are hypocrites. On television they say they support her, but it is not true. They have failed us many times over the years. They prefer to have a relationship of complicity with the United States and Israel. They would even tell you that they want you to. Another thing is the Arab people, the people. They do love us.
P. What can you expect from the West?
R. The war in Gaza has caused many masks to fall. And not only in the US, also in Europe. You can be arrested for going to a protest with a flag [palestina]. Where is democracy?
P. Where do you find the hope to continue fighting?
R. In the young. I am optimistic about the future because we are on the right side of history. The war in Gaza is taking a toll on the Palestinian cause. The new generations, even in the United States, defend Palestine because it concerns them directly. They do not want their taxes to be used to pay for weapons that kill people, regardless of their nationality. The new generation knows the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. It is a very different reality than a few decades ago. In 1983, when I went to the United States and said I was from Palestine, people responded: “Oh, you’re from Pakistan.”
P. What solution do you see to the conflict? Can we continue talking about the ?
R. That option is buried. The Israelis never really wanted to create a Palestinian state. The conditions they included were terrible. It must be admitted that the negotiation on the Palestinian side was horrible.
The new generations, even in the United States, defend Palestine because it concerns them directly. They do not want their taxes to be used to pay for weapons that kill people, regardless of their nationality.
P. Did that distance you from Yasir Arafat?
R. Only politically. For me he was an adoptive father, and you can’t help but love your father, even when he makes mistakes. After my father was killed, I was eight years old, he took care of me and my four sisters. It was even Arafat that my husband asked for my hand.
P. Don’t you see any merit in this attempt to achieve peace?
R. Only one: it allowed us to return to Palestine from exile, and that is why the fight now takes place in our land, and not in Beirut, Amman or Damascus. And that is very important. We have a very strong connection with our land, unlike Israelis. Since the start of the war, many have left. For them, this is a land of opportunity. Since they have money, many now see that the opportunity is disappearing, they pack their bags and leave. The Zionist project, which has only been sustained by US support, is already beginning to collapse.
P. Have you thought about doing a play about Arafat?
R. Sure, I’ll do it. But it’s still early. It won’t be easy because he is a character with many contradictions. He was a very modest person in everything, in his clothes, in his food… I would even say too much. He was a man of the people, and that’s why they loved him. He was not corrupt, if anything a corrupter [ríe]. He was very cunning, a real fox. And he had an elephant’s memory. He remembered all the details of the people he met. He was a fighter, but as happens with all political leaders, especially the Arabs, he did not know how to pass the baton to the new generation when it was time.
P. Was it easier to do the play about your father?
R. In fact, the play is more about my aunt, whom she considers the Antigone of Palestine, although in the region we now have many Antigones. This woman, who was illiterate and died last year, dedicated herself to chasing Henry Kissinger wherever he went with one goal: to deliver a letter asking for my father’s body to be returned to us. He spent two years in the morgue because they did not want to return him to us so that we would not bury him in Jerusalem, as was their wish. Finally, through Kissinger’s intervention, they handed him over to us, but on the condition that we bury him in Hebron. Until she opened the coffin, my aunt didn’t believe she had achieved it.
P. His father has been labeled a terrorist. Does it bother you?
R. How can someone who has killed thousands of children in Gaza do it?
P. But in the October 7 attacks, Hamas did kill civilians…
R. But that doesn’t give them any right to kill 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Do you know that Gazan children are three centimeters shorter at the waist? This is the fifth war, and many civilians have died in the previous ones. When you apply so much suffering against a human being, against a community, their hatred can be enormous.
P. Is the cry: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” anti-Semitic?
R. No, because it means that Palestine will be free of injustice, not that we will throw the Jews into the sea. We are not going to do to them what they did to us in 1948, when they kicked us out of our homes. Anyone who wants to stay in the future free Palestine will be able to do so on one basis: the equality of all its citizens.
P. Do you think that this idea of a free Palestine will one day be fulfilled?
R. Yes, without a doubt. I’m not saying it will happen soon, but it will. We have been in occupation for 76 years. It took 120 years for the Algerians to free themselves from French occupation.
P. Among activists in favor of boycotting Israel, there are sometimes debates about whether an exception should be made in the area of culture. Thinking?
R. The boycott is very useful and important, but it must be refined. There are many Jews who support Palestine, and I am very proud of them. A person who has done a lot for the Palestinian cause is . Boycotting him, for example, makes no sense.
