Diaries: Live from Palestine

Notes on a Visit to Palestine

“I had resolved to be as meek as necessary to ensure that the Israeli officials did not stamp my passport. But I could not and did not try to hide my grim face as I stood in line to be greeted by the Israeli security officials, after coming off the bus that brought me across the Allenby Bridge from Jordan,” writes Ali Abunimah 

A Visit to Shatila

As much as I may tell you about Shatila, I lack the ability to put in words what I saw and felt the day I visited that place. The name “Shatila” has lived in my consciousness as a Palestinian, since 1982, when along with “Sabra,” it came to represent unspeakable evil, the place where up to two thousand Palestinians were massacred by far-right Lebanese militias in 1982, as the Israeli army watched and covered them from positions outside the camp. 

Days of Darkness, Days of Awe: Yom Kippur in Palestine

“I was afraid you’d gone to Rafah”, I say to Ahmad over the wires to Gaza City. More families in Rafah lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers this past week and a young man died for objecting to the zillionth incursion onto his land. I worried that Ahmad had gone to investigate. His extended family lives there. “No one is going anywhere”, Ahmad responds cynically. “It’s Yom Kippur”. 

Nablus: 'I want to go to school'

‘Does anyone listen? Is there anyone who cares?’ reads an appeal of Laith. He wants to go to school. Laith is 9 years old and lives in Nablus. Like all residents of Nablus, Laith is in prison, not behind bars, but under collective house arrest, curfew. Together with his friends, he made an appeal to the world. 

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