The Sunbird

The Sunbird by Sara Haddad

The Sunbird is not an angry outcry for justice for the Arabs who choose to live there.

Sara Haddad's book comes at a time when the world’s eyes are trained on the catastrophic events that daily occur in the Middle East. While much of the West is appalled by the relentless destruction wrought by Israel, her book does not engage in the struggle but instead presents a gentle, quite subtle account of an eighty-year-old woman reminiscing about her childhood in Palestine in 1947/48 when her simple, peaceful existence there was shattered by the war to establish the new state of Israel.

She now lives in Sydney, appreciates the very different yet colourfully vibrant landscape surrounding her, but acutely misses her life back in her homeland. She is so anxious for education that before she is of an age to attend school, not yet six years old, she crouches on the window “like a sunbird ready to fly” to listen and to watch. Nabila has always regarded education as an important privilege.

One fact mentioned by Haddad is that the Palestinian literacy rate has always been high. This fact places into damning context the destruction of schools in Gaza, and indeed the destruction of Palestinian childhood in general.

When she recalls her childhood, it is with a sweet innocence, devoid of any ugly recriminations. Bombs fall, but she does not know why…

The ongoing tragic position of the Palestinian people is summarised in the Addendum, as the British and then the Israelis sought to deal with the establishment of the new Jewish nation. From this, it is clear how deep the wounds must be to the Palestinians, displaced and bereft of the things they hold most dear.

Nabila recalls the terrible events she witnessed and how the Nakba genocide almost claimed her life as she lost the sight of an eye in a bombing. Sometimes the experience of one person can be more moving than statistics which seem merely theoretical. Through Nabila’s story, the data about the deaths of children are realised: how they are being murdered, orphaned, homeless, starved, terrified, and having limbs amputated without inaesthetic in numbers which must shame anyone with a trace of humanity in their consciences.

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