Girlhood exists In Palestine. You Just Have to dig under the rubble to find it.
By the end of August, 2014, over 11,000 Palestinians were injured, and 3000 were dead [1]. Wiped from the health ministry, never to be defended by international law, only to be grieved by their surviving family if there were any left. I wondered how many of the 3000 were 12-year-old girls, if they were nervous about starting middle school like me, and if they listened to One Direction, did they bicker with their sisters? What color nail polish did they use? What was the difference between a 12-year-old girl in Palestine and a 12-year-old girl in America?
There aren`t many 12-year-old girls in Palestine alive anymore.
And when you´re 12, all you want is to feel like a girl, like the changing body you´re in is still yours. And nail polish did the trick for me. A nanoscopic form of agency in a land that felt like it was getting smaller by any minute.
I could not control which house in Gaza was bombed, which home in the West Bank was bulldozed, or raided. Nor could I control who got murdered, kidnapped, or arrested. But I could control whether I wanted Bubble Gum Pink Nails with Sparkly Silver Topcoat on one hand, and Green on the other, if I wanted to save Sunshine Yellow for another time or paint each finger a different color. Girlhood exists in Palestine; it doesn´t disappear with soldiers present, it lingers on, finding nooks and crannies to shine in.
And when Palestine is gone, when the West Bank is inevitably annexed, and Gaza becomes a real estate hub for Kushners. When they rip the olive trees from their roots and start fresh, when bulldozers and bombs destroy the homes, I hope those five bottles of nail polish crack and splatter all over the rubble. And I hope it stains too. I hope that when the settlers move in and see the ruby red and sparkly silver topcoat splattered on the concrete, I hope it annoys them. I hope they get on their knees, sweating, trying to rub it off to no avail. And when they inevitably give up like the cowards they are. Let them know I was there, between the tides of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, I was there. Tell them about the Shekel Store, tell them of the roads I took. Tell them about me. Proof of life. Proof of a Palestinian.
Textauszug aus “Girlhood exists in Palestine” veröffentlicht am 25.07.2025 auf dem Instagram Profil @adaughterofpearl
Gelesen von Raina Ivanova
Quellen
Ganzer Text auf Substack @adaughterofpearl
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMikBpaJ1Ca/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://hayasolivegreengelpen.substack.com/p/girlhood-exists-in-palestine-you
[1] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/key-figures-2014-hostilities