Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh: ‘All this solidarity

The Palestinian human rights lawyer and author talks about his hopes and fears for his homeland, and finding a place of refuge amid the chaos of war

Raja Shehadeh is at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah. In the six months since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza he estimates that he has not ventured further than 16km, which is a grim sort of house arrest for a human rights lawyer turned writer whose wanderings have underpinned his life’s work: to demonstrate the Palestinians’ deep relationship with, and entitlement to, the land of their ancestors.

“It’s a quiet existence, but it’s very confining,” he says, over video link from his book-littered study. “Travelling is dangerous, because the settlers are all over the place. And there are closures everywhere, which is a nightmare.” It’s not that he thinks that, as an eminent advocate and commentator, he is in any more danger than anyone else. “The Israelis are indiscriminate in this way … They just don’t care how well known I am or not well known. In so many places people have been killed and nothing has happened.”