Maha Saca
Founder-Director of Palestinian Heritage Center
The past 18 years I’ve worn black. I’ve been with martyrs and refugees. I’ve attended demonstrations and visited people in hospitals. I used to wear black to these occasions and when I returned, I’d change into the colors I love—red and yellow. But I wasn’t taking a stand if I dressed in black for a martyr and then changed. I vowed that after Jerusalem is our capital, I’d wear color again. For now, I add embroidery to connect to my heritage through fashion. [..]
Terry Boullata
Documentary producer
In the construction of the Wall most of the fertile land on the border between Israel and Palestine was confiscated to the Israeli side. These are the most fertile areas, the main food basket for the Palestinian Territory. [..]
Ihsan Mohammed Turkieh
Comedy writer and actress
A checkpoint is a horrible scene, but as a comedian, I like to play the simple Palestinian lady. She says to the soldier, “Please, my daughter, she is in the hospital, let me go to see my daughter.” He barks, “Do you have a permit? If you don’t have a permit, you will not pass.” She pleads, “Let me go, let me go.” He yells, “Yallah, get away from here!” She curses the Wall and yells back, “I wish a tsunami takes the Wall, takes you. Then both of us will be at rest at the end!” The Israelis laugh, but it is very black comedy. [..]
Salwa Abu Lebdeh
Camerawoman and documentary filmmaker
I am a director. I try to show a picture that’s different from the one you see on television that depicts a nation being killed, a nation that lacks life—with only funerals and flags. I show our life: a people with a history, civilization, and heritage. [...]
Ruth: Monday
Piled into Patricia’s car just in time to hit rush hour traffic into the city. We chatted happily on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which winds through a real forest, and discussed everything and nothing: our favourite childhood television series — Bewitched (Louise) and Dick van Dyck (me) — and our favorite [...]
Tamar Borer
Therapist and artist of multidisciplinary stage creations
The courage to live is the greatest courage we can have. The courage to accept death as part of our daily life is probably the major gate through which we can realize freedom.
Faiha Abdulhadi
Writer, poet, consultant, and lecturer
They lifted the curfew one day during the invasion of 2002. I went to the gym and was on the treadmill when a bullet broke a window behind me. I said to myself “I will not notice this, life has to go on.” Such actions are resistance—to continue your daily life [...]
Suad Amiry
Author, architect, and architectural conservator
I feel that our conflict with the Israelis can be reduced to one word: land. I cannot trust an Israeli who is always trying to confiscate my piece of land.
Nothing can change the reality that my father’s house is in Jaffa. If Israelis want peace, they must apologize for what they [...]
