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Falastin: the place and people
Appears in
By Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley
Published 2020
There is no letter ‘p’ in the Arabic language so ‘Falastin’ is, on the one hand, simply the way ‘Falastinians’ refer to themselves. On the other hand, though – and in the Middle East there is always an ‘on the other hand’ – the word is a big one, going far beyond a straightforward label. It is about geography, history, language, land, identity and culture. Ask a Palestinian what the word ‘Falastin’ means to them: the answer will rarely be short and will often end with the word ‘home’.
For us, for the purposes of our book, ‘Falastin’ is about all of these things. Geographically, it refers to a small piece of land at the eastern-most corner of the Mediterranean Sea where Palestinians have been living for many centuries. That this statement is so complicated by the fact that this land is also home to other peoples, Israelis, is something we are very mindful of. Our aim with Falastin is to tread the fine line between paying heed to the situation on one hand and remembering, at the same time, that our book is first and foremost a celebration of the food and people of Palestine.