My nine-year-old brother Osama’s favorite food has always been shawarma, particularly the version our mother used to make for us using her special recipe for tahini sauce. After the Israeli Occupation took our mother from us (I wrote about it here) and with the blockade preventing chicken from entering the northern part of the Strip, fulfilling his simple dream of tasting that shawarma became nearly impossible. Every time he asked me to make it, his voice filled with longing, breaking my heart.
He would plead, “Please, I don’t want to just eat it in my dreams. Make my dream real, please.” Those words haunted me, knowing that the one thing he wanted most was something I could not easily provide. Despite the pain, I promised him that once the chicken was available, I would make his favorite shawarma. But days turned into months, and the blockade continued, leaving us with nothing but memories and unfulfilled dreams.
One day, after finding him lost in thought, I realized that his longing for shawarma was more than just a craving. Osama was yearning for the love and warmth that our mother had brought into our lives. He longed to feel a connection to her. Determined to give him even a small taste of that love, I decided to create what we now call “War Shawarma.”
I replaced the chicken with luncheon meat, carefully seasoning it with shawarma spices and preparing the tahini sauce with the same care our mother once did. When I placed the wrap in front of him, his eyes lit up with a joy I had not seen in a long time. His first bite brought tears to his eyes, not just from sadness but from the memory of our mother’s love, which filled that meal.
He whispered, “I miss her so much.” At that moment, I knew that no matter how much the Occupation took from us, it could never erase the bond we shared, the heritage we carried, or the strength our mother instilled in us.
With each bite of that make-do shawarma, we defied the Occupation’s attempts to strip us of our joy and connection to those we loved. It was a small victory, one that reminded us that love and resilience can endure even in the face of immense loss.
