Adonis Diaries

A letter from a Palestinian refugee to the new Syrian refugee

The tent will be hugely uncomfortable the first night. And still uncomfortable the next year.

As the years go by, your tent will become very familiar and part of you.

Beware not to fall in love with your tent, as we Palestinians got accustomed to.

Beware: Don’t feel happy as a makeshift school or dispensary are erected in the camp. These are not a funny and good omen events: plans are made to keep you where you are settled.

And stop demanding the building of small houses  instead of temporary looking tents: You are sending the strong message that you are getting to like your precarious conditions. You are already doomed as you start increasing these stupid demands. And here is where you’ll eventually be buried.

Never train your kids to be patient: Patience is the worst of tactics adopted by the impotent. You’ll soon discover that you are being sold as chattel.

Selling you out is the favorite hobby of politicians.

And people all over the world will empathize with your situation and verbally support you. Supporting the refugees is one of the best slogans used by politicians at election periods. And you’ll be their highway to heaven and God.

During Ramadan, Christmas… people will remember your condition and come to your rescue for the “Holy” holidays and a reminder to charity.

Your famished kids in tattered cloths will be the target to heart-wrenching photo shoots. And the journalists attempt to vying for recognition, acknowledgment and prizes.

Refrain from taking pictures with the appointed good-will personalities.

You don’t have to complain of pebbles in your bread, the suffocating heat, the freezing cold nights…

Never reclaim a better and newer accommodating tent.

No tent is better than the homeland tent.

Never holler for the “Arab” leaders to come to the rescue: Dead people are totally helpless in your case.

Note: One fourth of Lebanon’s population is constituted of Syrian refugees.

More than 3 million Syrian refugees have flocked to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. And the Western nations barely welcomed 20,000 Syrians on temporary basis.

Over 5 million Syrians have fled their home towns and transferred to other parts of Syria.

A Palestinian woman threatening an Israeli soldier with her shoe during the Palestinian “Land Day“

Behind Barbed Wire, Shakespeare Inspires a Cast of Young Syrians

Syrian children at a refugee camp in Jordan performed Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” a production that briefly took their minds off their own troubles.

The New York Times|By Ben Hubbard