‘An act of resistance’: Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian diaries find a new home

Edinburgh, Scotland – On May 11, 1967, a studious young Palestinian teenager named Raja Shehadeh sat down to compose his first dated diary entry.“My dearest diary,” began the 15-year-old in English, “today’s expieriences [sic] that I am about to write in one of your wanderfull [sic] pages is sad, very sad, indeed the bees are responsible for making it sad.”Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Historical reckoning: The push for the US to acknowledge the Nakbalist 2 of 4Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, giant of resistance art, dies aged 79list 3 of 4The Flotilla Diaries: Inside the 2025 mission to break the Gaza siegelist 4 of 4Church of England backs Palestinian Christians despite backlashend of listThe bees had been banished from all of the neighbouring gardens, the teenager confided, and the only remedy to this sadness was to “make a treaty with [the bees] and let them take all the honey from your garden provided they don’t disturbe [sic] you and of course you will not have the right to kick them out either … I will not be able to stand seeing these poor creatures being kicked out.”Was this a child’s rallying cry against the dispossession of the Palestinian people?“Abso...