Diaries: Live from Palestine

Abdelhai al-Khaldi and his family were among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1967 war, or who emigrated afterwards in search of work. Al-Khaldi and his wife spoke of their life of displacement to The Electronic Intifada contributor Rami Almeghari.

For Palestinians in Gaza, the answer to “Have you ever been to Jerusalem?” is usually a complicated one.

Much attention has been paid to the marches of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria to the borders with occupied Palestine, as well as the courageous protests at the Qalandiya checkpoint in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza. But Palestinians inside what is known as the green line marched on 15 May as well.

Last week, behind the fence of my childhood, Palestinian refugees gathered to demand return. They protesters looked and sounded exactly like the revolutionaries of Cairo’s Tahrir square.

A year of imprisonment has passed. To spend one year in prison is a high price to pay for Israel’s unjust rule. My share has been more modest compared to other prisoners who are about to enter their fourth decade in Israeli prisons. Ameer Makhoul writes from Gilboa prison.

As I stood in the line waiting to check in at the Bradley International Airport in the US state of Connecticut, I wondered how overweight my luggage would be. I did not expect the questions that would come next.

“The old will die and the young will forget” — this was the prediction of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion. Sixty-three years later, I still wonder what made him think so.

Moe Ali Nayel was among the thousands who marched to the boundary between Lebanon and Israel yesterday. He recounts the day’s victories and tragedies for The Electronic Intifada.

A shack made of aluminum sheets and wood, and a few cows and chickens are all that Suleiman al-Urjani, 45, owns in this world. It is the kind of dwelling that al-Urjani, his father Auda and their families have lived in since 1948 when the family was first displaced by Zionist forces from their original home in what is now Israel.

Last week, on 21 April, Israeli soldiers invaded my home in Ramallah, held hostage all those present, and forced me at gunpoint to call my father, a writer and human rights advocate, in order to demand his surrender. This is common operating procedure for Israeli occupation forces.