Palestine: a journal of everyday occupation

Tuesday August 26th We’ve been home a few days and life in Palestine has been largely uneventful, by West Bank standards at least. Tonight we went to an event hosted at the Alternative Information Centre in Beit Sahour. It’s an organisation that was established 30 years ago, and does some great work, especially around the [...]

Water is always an issue here. Not because there isn’t enough—there is—but because the access to water, for Palestinians, is strictly controlled: firstly by Mekerot, the Israeli water company, then secondly by the Palestinian water authority. According to figures quoted by Sam Bahour, settlers have up to seven times the amount of water that Palestinians [...]

There are countless stories of pain and tragedy in Palestine. Muna’s story is not unique, but she is my sister, so her life touches me in a very personal way. Her eyes sparkle and her face radiates a gentle kindness, which I find incredible given her and her family’s suffering. There is something about her [...]

As usual there is so much to write about, I almost don’t know where to start. There’s the new supermarket: the only place in Israel and the West Bank where Jews and Palestinians are treated with absolute equality, and it’s in a settlement. Or the water shortage: there’s always a water shortage but it’s so [...]