“There Is Trauma on Both Sides of My Family but Historically They Don’t Meet”

“There Is Trauma on Both Sides of My Family but Historically They Don’t Meet”. Interview With Palestinian-Ukrainian Analyst Rita Adel

Since October 7th, there have been a number of interviews and articles regarding Israelis of Ukrainian descent. However, the voices of Ukrainians of Palestinian descent are noticeably absent from the dominant Ukrainian news. 

We spoke with Rita Adel about her ongoing effort to navigate trauma and obstacles on both sides of her family. With the start of the full-scale invasion, Rita started to reflect on her positionality as both of Ukrainian and Palestinian origins. She actively advocates for arming Ukraine and boycotting Israel and addresses double standards concerning Ukraine and Palestine. With her activism, Rita Adel establishes sustainable networks of solidarity between her homelands.

Another excerpt:

Unfortunately, I lost hope in mainstream media for many reasons. But the biggest surprise came from Twitter and from many Ukrainians who identified as progressive, anti-imperialist, etc. What was surprising wasn't that they did not sympathize with Palestine; rather, they sympathized with Israel - a stark example of double standards. I remember that since the start of the war and up until now, among Ukrainians on Twitter, there has been a recurring discussion: are Ukrainians allowed to hate Russians? The answer, of course, is that you're allowed to hate your oppressor. This same empathy was not extended to Palestinians. However, when Palestinians express hatred towards their oppressors, they're often labeled as terrorists or subjected to moralistic attacks.

And another:

If you compare the narratives of those that circulated about refugees from the Global South and from Ukraine, the media would again be guilty of double standards. For Ukrainian refugees, it's easier to integrate in Europe, at least superficially, because they don't visibly stand out as different. However, many people in the Arab world also don't understand that Ukraine and Eastern Europe, in general, are not privileged regions. We don't come with a full package of being Western European, even while technically being “white”. Even before the war, Ukrainians were providing cheap labor to countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and especially Poland. In 2018 alone, the Polish government issued about 1.8 million temporary work permits to Ukrainians. Most Ukrainians working in Poland were employed outside their qualifications, merely filling the gap in the Polish labor market. Ukranians were facing a lot of racism, xenophobia, anti-immigration rhetoric, etc. Of course, this anti-immigration rhetoric was mostly directed at Muslim population, but Ukrainians were also impacted by that kind of racism. This is why I find it annoying when people start making assumptions based on superficial observations about privilege and ethnicity, and this is what a lot of people in the Global South and the Arab world don't understand about Ukraine.

The Many Forms of Brassica Oleracea

I feel fortunate that I like broccoli and cruciferous vegetables in general. While there's such a wide range of green vegetables out there of many different species, cruciferous vegetables are extremely widespread and everything from broccoli to cabbage to brusells sprouts to kale, kolhrabi, and romanesco are actually just different varieties of the same species, brassica oleracea. That's artificial selection for you.