Palestine: a journal of everyday occupation

Last Saturday night (May 23rd) we went to see the final night’s performance of The Siege, a Jenin Freedom Theatre production based on the siege of Bethlehem’s Nativity Church in 2002. The company is touring the UK and we went to the wonderful Battersea Arts Centre, part of which was recently devastated by fire. Despite [...]

I cried this morning. I am a mother. I am a human being. Today, after more than five years held by Hamas, Gilad Shalit was released. I have no doubt of the joy his family must feel. To see the son they thought they’d lost. To hold him close, to finally feel him alive again [...]

The prisoners released today.

First published in PSC‘s Palestine News, summer 2010 issue For a state that ignores international laws and conventions in murdering Palestinians and internationals, and shrugs off all condemnation with no apology or regret, it’s little surprise that it spends a great deal of energy persecuting voices of dissent within its own citizenry. Particularly when that [...]

It is hot. Much hotter than usual, which makes it difficult to do anything much. Especially when we have no water to shower properly or wash our clothes. Of course, not everyone in the district has a water shortage, only Palestinians. Settlers still water their lawns when there is a heatwave.

Since I got home I’ve been finding it very hard to sleep. Not from the heat, which is like a furnace at the moment and with very little breeze, but from a newly resident cockerel in the neighbourhood. After four nights I promised I’d wring it’s scrawny neck, but a distinct queasiness about expiring a [...]