"I know I am native to Jerusalem, not because Jabotinsky said so, but because I am. I know that Zionists have colonized Palestine without the need to cite Herzl. I know this because I live it, because the ruins of countless depopulated villages provide the material evidence of calculated ethnic cleansing. When we as Palestinians speak about this ongoing and ignored ethnic cleansing—which is inherent to Zionist ideology, by the way—we are at best passionate and at worst angry and hateful. But in reality, we are just reliable narrators. I say we are reliable narrators not because we’re Palestinians. It’s not on an identitarian basis that we must be given, or must take, the authority to narrate. But history tells us that those who have oppressed, who have monopolized and institutionalized violence, will not tell the truth, let alone hold themselves accountable."
