This year, we have noticed more rain in Palestine, and we pray that it brings salvation. Day by day, we witness the escalation of settler violence in the West Bank. They do not allow us to live in peace. Yet our lives move like a wheel: we do not stop, because the story must continue. We carry it in our souls, we teach it to our children, and they take it onward, from those who came before us and those yet to come.
Recently, during a visit with a family, I heard someone say, “We Palestinians can endure what other nations cannot. They could not live the way we live. We have been forced to become familiar with attacks. We feel alone. But we cannot leave our homes or our homeland.” Those words stopped me. They made me reflect on how deeply, as Palestinians, we have rooted ourselves in this land; how inseparable we are from it.
One night, I found myself thinking about the videos I saw of the “flying tents” in Gaza’s camps. Tents lifted by the wind and rain. The images were shocking: the bitter cold, freezing water, and mud everywhere. All of this suffering simply because they are Palestinian.
Let us pray for Gaza. Let us pray for those who endure injustice, who have lost their homes, whose fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers have become martyrs. Let us pray for those forced to leave their homes in the cold, searching for work to feed their children. Let us pray for those who seek peace and justice. And we pray to Allah to keep us safe, steadfast, and healthy.
