Palestine

For seventy-two years the Israeli occupation has tried to bury Palestinians, literally and figuratively, attempting to extinguish their dreams in every possible way.

When a physical structure is destroyed, the intention is to erase all traces of existence, end life, vanish the truth, stop the fight, and fill with fear to drown out hope.  But in the resistance, you realize the real substance is not in the foundations or the concrete. What held that home together in its essence was the struggles that continue, even if all that’s physically left are the keys in the museums. Like museums, stories are not there to create parallel universes, nor to tell distant and foreign realities; they are made to weave lives together, to connect collective memory in a fight against oblivion. To me, these museums preserve the lived memory, the evidence of strength used to fight, and the permanent effort to inherit the legacies.

Esta semana oramos por quienes viven cada día con la amenaza de arresto, detención administrativa y tortura.

Mawlid Nabawi is an important day for Muslims all over the world as they celebrate the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. This day is extra special in Hebron because the city is home to Al-Ibrahimi Mosque, which Muslims consider one of the four most important sites in the Islamic religion. People from different Palestinian cities around the West bank, as well as Muslim tourists from around the world, come to Hebron to celebrate this day and to visit Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the old city. The mosque has been divided into two parts since 1994 after an Israeli settler committed a massacre inside the mosque and Israeli settlers and Jewish visitors have exclusive access to more than half of the site including all of the surrounding gardens. But on this day, the Israeli army allows Palestinians to visit the occupied part of the mosque.

Accompaniment is one of the many ways we work with our partners. Whether it is walking with children to school or being present during olive harvests, accompaniment serves to amplify the community’s voices, collectively document oppression, and provide a sense of safety for some community members.

"Time to get up," says the sleepy voice beside me.  "For what?" I reply.