Feeling Palestine

  Day 40: November 15  What is Happening on the Ground? I have been trying to absorb and process the news of what is happening on the ground. For Palestinians in the West Bank and inside Israel, the situation is becoming so stressful. The Israeli government is increasing its persecutory measures and passing laws to subjugate Palestinians even more. Every night, dozens of young men and women all over the West Bank are being arrested by the Israeli army. On Checkpoints, Palestinians are no longer asked to show their identity cards but their phones, and anyone who has a photo or any content that the Israeli army believes or claims to support Hamas is arrested and severely beaten. A law has been passed to allow for the imprisonment of anyone who shares or writes anything on social media or who holds a photo the army classifies as antagonistic to Israel. The platform telegram, as an example, is considered as not favorable by the Israeli army. So, the persecution in the West Ban...

  Day 32: November 7 Pile of Emotions: A Personal Note In the living room, I flip between channels, searching for something I'm not sure what. There's no hope of hearing any good news today. I mute the TV sound and turn my eyes toward the blue sky. I hear that sound again: a congested explosion. Once, twice, and three times. One of these sounds I heard was peculiar, loud, and not so congested. “That can’t be good.” I thought. A few minutes later, I read the breaking news: “Rockets have been launched into the Tel Aviv area.” I know. I just heard those explosions firsthand. Human existence is so cynical, conflicting, and non-black or white. It is more complex. My heart aches for Gaza, yet the sound in the air communicates a different reality. I knew that rarely anyone dies from the rockets flying from Gaza.   My heart is in a place, and my ears force me to listen and remember the other side. Should I feel guilty for feeling or for lack thereof? My son interrupts my thoug...

  Wake up, World!  Is this how the Aquarian Age will unfold? The article was written in November 2023 Some readers may find this article uncomfortable as I attempt to look beyond the limitations of a geographical area. I am trying to encapsulate the meaning of this devastating war I am witnessing on the human collective consciousness, which I believe is all connected in its sensitivity to such colossal loss and injustice, regardless of how remote or insignificant Gaza seems to some. I am attempting to portray the tragedy of a group of people, the Palestinians, as symbolic of the potential this tragedy holds to uplift humanity rather than the endless repetition of history, its blind prejudices, and powerful fantasies of how things should be or who should prevail.      Please take a moment to imagine the gravity of some of these facts about this war that were true in November 2023; I included only three. You may have already heard of some of these: ...

  Day 25: October 31 The Nerve-Wracking War Has Just Begun! As a Palestinian growing up in the West Bank and experiencing several phases of this struggle, like the first and second Intifada, I understood one cultural value, an ideological and political theme in our struggle called “ AL-Soumood.” It means “ steadfastness” or “ perseverance ”. It is a major concept developed to challenge a political system set to remove us from our land as a group of people. That was one response to the Zionist ideology that was calling for the establishment of a state for the Jews seeking to drive us, the Palestinians, who are both Christian and Muslim, through multiple discriminatory laws, military rule, and excessive retaliatory wars to leave this land. Sometimes, this process is done slowly, targeting individuals, or fast by using military justifications to empty certain villages, or as is happening now in Gaza. It is natural, and some may argue imperative, for any group of people wh...

  Day 22: October 28 Ground Incursion: Now What? Amidst talks of a humanitarian truce and negotiations for hostage release, everyone was surprised and heartbroken by this development: the ground incursion.   The rare images of Palestinian journalists in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City at the center of this incursion were horrifying. O blivious to their names, u tter darkness was  frequently  lit by all types of bombs and shells. From land, sea, and air, sounds of this inhuman and arbitrary shelling of civilians were ominously telling of the apocalyptic scenes that will soon emerge. The images reminded me of the first Gulf War. Still, it was more horrifying because the number of explosions was higher and more frequent in a much smaller and more heavily populated area. All internet and phone connections are still cut off from those areas. Nobody has an idea what happened to the civilians in those parts of the Gaza Strip or what targets for Hamas the Israeli arm...

  Day 18: October 24 Noah’s Ark Based on real stories out of Gaza   “Can I whisper something in your ears?” the voice murmured. “I saw men crying, kneeling over white bags entrenched in blood, weeping like women.” “I feel so sad. I saw children crying over their dead mothers. At least they could see their mother one final time to say goodbye. I couldn’t.” “I saw mothers weeping for their children, searching for them among the dead. Which is harder, my merciful God, a weeping child over the loss of his mom or a mother over the loss of her child?” A flood of fire and blood was unleashed on Gaza—a tsunami of injustices. Disjointed bodies and unidentifiable corpses are everywhere. Children are writing their names on their body parts so that they can be identified after being dismembered and buried in peace. They will tell the story in heaven. “The Israelites did this. In the name of righteousness,” my God. " They dropped a burning light on us every day and every night....

  Day 16: October 22 Why is this war important?  Looking at the best and worst scenarios for Israel in this war sheds a spotlight on the change Israel needs to face after the war ends. Worst scenario : the worst possible scenario for the Israeli army in this war involves a halt to its operation or aggression within weeks or a few months. This can occur after a possible ground incursion, and after the front in Northern Israel intensifies. This can also happen in case the war flares into a regional one. Assuming any of these three possibilities is not far-fetched. At some point, Israel falls under immense pressure- international or from inside or both- to end its operation. In this scenario, the achievements Israel can declare are that it has ended the lives of many civilians, destroyed the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and significantly undermined Hamas's existence as a political and military body. However, some of the military capabilities of Hamas will still exist. Whe...

  Day 14: October 20th Spiritual Musings: Why Do Such Incidents Occur ? I had an image or a dream inspired by a magical mantra. It was the image of a soul flying like a phantom. The soul was looking for a place to call home. She decided ‘I will go and live in the Holy Land,’ thinking it was the best place. She found it a wonderful place; the weather, the food, the people’s warm heart, their humor, the alleys of thousands of years old cities and villages, and the energy in this place was uplifting.   But she also witnessed so many horrors done to humanity, and the burns she felt in her heart stung like electrical shocks. The soul had so many of them that she decided to go home and hide in fear and decided that she would love only her sons. In hiding, the stings slowly healed, and the sadness eroded, but she discovered that the sons she loved and protected would suffer from the same things she tried to hide from: fate and the cruelty of humans. Fate is part of life that can’...

  Day 13: October 19th  Why Do Such Incidents Occur?   I am referring, of course, to the bombing of Al-Ma’madani   Hospital in Gaza. Five hundred people were immediately burned to death. For any Palestinian, there is no doubt that Israel is the one that bombed the hospital. Palestinian rockets can’t inflict such damage or cause the death of so many people at once. Plus, it has become known to people in Gaza to receive a phone call from the Israeli army informing them that their homes would be bombed and that people must evacuate. They are not told when they will be attacked and are only given short notice – 10 to 30 minutes. In this war, however, apartment blocks were entirely destroyed on people’s heads without warning. As a result, there are about 50 families that no longer exist. Let's pose for a short while to imagine this! Fifty families and all their members are wiped from the civil records, wiped off the face of the earth. According to doctors in the hos...

  Gaza: The Problem That Has No Solution The Palestinian issue is usually addressed from the perspective of its parts and fragments, as divided groups of people and disconnected lines of events. The understanding that arises from such an approach is usually superficial and lacking. This approach of ‘addressing and handling’ the issue by specifically the Western media and, in general, serves Israel’s interests. In this article, I will try to connect the dots concerning Gaza as part of the Palestinian issue, history, and tragedy. Occupation: Gaza, for a long time, since 1967, was under immediate military control. Israeli soldiers were patrolling the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. Back then, the whole struggle was less violent. Israeli soldiers felt ‘safe enough’ to walk through the streets of Gaza and the West Bank because the civilian Palestinian population had no or little access to arms. Through its constant and heavy military presence or occupation, Israel ensured that acc...