Fatima Elkabti is living a dissonant life. The Palestinian American, wife and mother of two boys is doing mundane things, like taking her kids to school and renovating her home. She is also witnessing the death and destruction brought on by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip — and it’s taking a toll.
On Oct. 25, more than a dozen of Elkabti’s family members were killed in Gaza City in a single airstrike.
“They're buried in a mass grave; they don't have a headstone. It's a piece of cardboard with their names on a list,” she said.
Elkabti, who recently graduated with a master's in creative writing from Washington University, is determined to preserve her family’s history. With her forthcoming novel, “The White Parasol,” she shares the story of her family’s dispossession and captures the Palestinian experience from the Ottoman Empire to the present — an experience, she added, that is at risk of erasure.
“These last few weeks, Israel has actually bombed the archives in Gaza,” Elkabti said. “What we end up having is what's curated — what Israel chooses to show us of our own history, of our own paths.”
Elkabti cannot bring back the archives that have been lost, but she hopes to preserve the stories and culture of her ancestors, including that of her great-grandfather, Saeed Zineddine. Zineddine was a prominent lawyer and poet in Yafa, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea, where Palestinians faced mass displacement during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
“I felt like his story encapsulated the story of Palestine. It paints a portrait of Yafa as it was — kind of like Eden before the fall,” Elkabti said. “[Yafa] was called ‘the city of strangers’ because it welcomed strangers and brought together people.”
By examining the past, Elkabti hopes to present a vision for what could be: “a world that's more pluralistic, where everyone is treated with equal rights on the land that they love,” she said. “That's what Palestinians want.”
For the full conversation with writer Fatima Elkabti about her family’s history, including the story of why her great-grandfather was assassinated by a Palestinian gang, listen to the full St. Louis on the Air conversation on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
