We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I A Palestinian Memoir

A short beautiful and heartbreaking memoir.

Raja Shehadeh pays tribute to he’s father a formidable lawyer who did a lot for Palestinians with high cost, he lost he’s home, law practice, incarcerated and in exile for years but never stop fighting for Palestinians rights including retrieving the frozen money of Palestinians after the Nakba.

What struck me the most is how life under oppression destroys relationships, a common theme in this book is Raja’s emotional distance from he’s father that he has only come to recognize as a result of deep despair at the loss of their home, he’s life and life under occupation, he now realizes they could have been good friends and had a better relationship. This book is an attempt at repair even in he’s absence.