Muna Salim Saleh Mansour
Member of Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas party), Nablus
My husband joked, “What would you do if I were killed?” I said, “I would cry.” He said, “It is okay to cry.” I said, “The house is too small to accommodate mourners.” Mourners arrived in busloads. The march on the day of his death was the largest ever in Palestine. People from surrounding towns and villages joined the funeral even though the Israeli occupation placed roadblocks. [...]
Reem Alshareef
Principal of Cordoba School in Hebron
I adore Hebron, my city, my people, my children, and the school. I refuse to leave. Whatever the circumstances, I insist on staying. My roots are here even though we are now under Israeli control. [...]
Sawsan Shaheen
Law student and former political detainee
All of my family, we are active in the Fatah party. We are under occupation. There are settlements on our land. We must have our land, and a special situation with Jerusalem. It belongs to the Palestinians, to Muslims, because of Al-Aqsa Mosque. We cannot see our families inside Jerusalem. [...]
Patricia Smith: Tuesday
Wore the gold silk blouse, but that’s not the news. The news is that the books didn’t arrive at 10 am, they arrived in Jerusalem at 4 pm, and needed to be off-loaded, with 100 copies rushed through checkpoints (can one rush through a checkpoint?) to Ramallah. The boxes were brought in the exact [...]
Jumana Odeh
Founder-Director of Happy Child Center
I argue with Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints. I say “I am human,” but they don’t want to see me as human. They are in denial. They are there to defend and protect their country. When they pass by hundreds of Palestinians, they don’t want to see the suffering children.
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 [...]
Patricia Smith: Saturday
Coming into Jerusalem last night from Tel Aviv, alone in the taxi, the Wall, which runs alongside the highway in some places, seemed closer and longer. Was it the light at dusk? Or was it closer and longer?
There is a great poignancy, knowing as I do so well, that there is no [...]
Buthaina Doqmaq
Chair of Mandela Institute for Human Rights
More than 380 Palestinian children under 18 years of age are in Israeli prisons. They need to be educated—not tortured, abused inside prisons, deprived of their parents’ visits. The Israelis tour the world demanding the release of one abducted soldier. I demand the international community intervene to free prisoners who are seekers of freedom and peace. We want our detained children home with their families.
Huda Naim Naim
Member of Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas party), Gaza
I live like one and a half million Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza Strip. We suffer poverty, hunger, killing, destruction, darkness, and a lack of medicine and fuel. We wake to the sounds of artillery and bombing from fighter jets. Our children are killed and deprived of their basic needs. Their fathers cannot provide food, their mothers die from lack of medicine. The occupation has destroyed the basis of our life. [...]
Ibtisam Mahameed
Founder-Director of Women’s Center in Faradis
Peace exists—every time the sun rises and the moon and stars shine at night. It exists in the greenery and the mountains, the sea and the beautiful landscape.
Peace is possible without conditions. The minute you set conditions, there’s an obstacle. Look at how many obstacles we place in our lives, [...]
