"............“We need recognition for what we achieve in the normal run of life,” Abdulhadi says. “Like people everywhere we love our children, we’re chefs, businessmen, carpenters, farmers, industrialists, shopkeepers, we’re participants in the society of the world. We’re not just a resistance movement fighting the occupation.”
Biggest tabouleh, gargantuan musakhan — hardly world title categories likely to impress the world. But Abdulhadi also knows the power of providing food for thought: “It’s important that people hear about the inequities of daily life under the occupation, I realize that. But what really impresses is when you can identify with us, just because we are like you. Don’t we also laugh, cry, love, eat well, compete? By competing on the world stage, we show we exist. Sometimes, we can also be best.”
If Israelis sometimes grumble at the biblical burden of being designated “God’s chosen people,” Abdulhadi seems content to be chosen only by a contemporary best-seller rival to the Bible, the Guinness Book of World Records. At the least, his irreverence grants him a sense of freedom he doesn’t get from Israel.
Abdulhadi’s goal now is to create a new category, for Palestine to hold the “Biggest Number of Guinness Titles” title. No wonder he’s earned the nickname, “Mr. Guinness in Palestine” (or should that be “Mr. Palestine in Guinness”).
And Abdulhadi isn’t confining himself to “biggest”: “Last year I applied for Palestine as ‘The Longest Occupation.”’ Now that would be a major title.
He was rebuffed. “They said, ‘Tibet has been longer.’ I said, ‘Tibet didn’t apply.’ They said, ‘You’re just being provocative.’ I said, ‘All right, I’m applying for the title, ‘The Most Wonderful Occupation.”’
What if Israel were to object?
“Great, I’d tell them, ‘Beat me at my own game, end your most wonderful occupation, the sooner the better.’ I’ll be thrilled to surrender all our Guinness titles — just so long as they get ‘The End of the Most Wonderful Occupation’ title.”
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