Palestine is always on my mind

It’s been nearly six months since I left Palestine and returned back home. Much has happened since then, but Palestine is still on my mind every day. I’ve done my best to write about my experiences and share them with others, but I still feel like a sideline spectator, seeing the streets I loved torn with strife on the news.

It’s worth noting that the family I visited in Jerusalem was evicted soon after I left the country. Huwarra has closed again, and tensions have escalated in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. It’s a helpless feeling to see these events unfolding, knowing that they deeply affect people I care about. It’s silly to try and talk about it online or over Skype, I feel like I can just shut my laptop at any time and go for a walk down peaceful streets and watch something diverting on television. They have to continue to resist just by simply trying to live their lives in a somewhat normal fashion. After all, violence and terror are daily parts of life in Palestine.

The only solace I can find is planning to return. I hope to go back this coming summer to improve my Arabic and volunteer more in Nablus. I know this is the path I’m going to go down for a few years. I hope to continue my graduate studies focusing on the conflict. This summer will be a great opportunity to prepare for that. I hope to take more notes, conduct more interviews, and take more photos. I also hope to keep doing my best to work towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict. I might just be one person, but all a movement ever needs is a lot of people and a just cause.

If you’d like to donate to my return fund, you can toss a few bucks my way via paypal.

If all goes well for me, I will be able to pick up where I left off with this blog soon.

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