a normal week in Palestine

Photo: IPC, 12/31/05. Unarmed Palestinians resist land grab by Israeli Occupation forces

Tonight, Punam and I danced at a farewell party for my friend Aryeh, who's going to El Salvador to continue her work as an educator-artist for global justice. Into my mind, as we talked about war, struggle, hope, came lines from the legendary Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish:

If you truly love me, place my dream
in my hands and say to the Son of Mary,
"Lord, how could you have made us endure what you endured yourself?
Will there be enough justice left over
for us to be just ourselves tomorrow?"

From: Night That Overflows My Body

So I took a quick look at the week just gone by in the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

* 5 Palestinians were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces.

* 29 Palestinian civilians, including 19 children, were wounded by IOF.

* IOF conducted 25 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

* Houses were raided and 30 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children and a girl, were arrested by IOF.

* 7 houses and a shop were transformed by IOF into military sites.

* IOF shelled a civilian facility in Khan Yunis.

* IOF imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians and election candidates in the West Bank; and IOF arrested 4 Palestinian civilians at checkpoints in the West Bank.

* IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall in the West Bank; IOF razed areas of Palestinian land near "Shavi Shomron" settlement, northwest of Nablus; and IOF uprooted 400 olive trees in Sikka village near Hebron.

* Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilians and property in Hebron; dozens of settlers moved back to the evacuated "Sanour" settlement in the north of the West Bank; and IOF demolished a house in Beit Hanina village near Jerusalem.

Israel has demanded $2.2 billion from the US in compensation for evacuating illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip. Our tax money. Anyone see any headlines about that?

If you come across some leftover justice, send it this way.