We Have A Home And It's Called Palestine

62 Years, 62 Messages:  We Have A Home And It's Called Palestine

Note: 20 messages part one

by Reham Alhelsi, source

Message 1:While playing one day, I found a beautiful wooden box stacked back in the cupboard. It was well-hidden and surrounded by several sheets as if to protect it from theft or damage. I quietly and carefully opened the box. Inside was only one item: an old iron key. I ran to my grandmother and asked her about the key. She held it close to her heart, looked at it for a while before holding my hand and placing the key in my palm. She had tears in her eyes when she looked me in the eyes and said: this is the key to our home, the home to which we shall return one day. Never lose it, never give up your right to your home and never forget that you have no other home.

Message 2:I am from the old city of Jerusalem. I was born in a beautiful old house that was built by my ancestors. Generations of our family lived in this house. I got married and started my own family. I still live in the same old house with my own little family, my parents, my siblings and their families. We are not allowed to add rooms, enlarge the house or renovate it, while Zionist colonists come from all over the world and occupy our homes. We are squeezed in our homes like sardines, while Zionists are allowed to build mansions on the ruins of Palestinians homes. They think when we are stacked like this in a small place that we will pack and leave and let Zionist colonists occupy our home. We will continue to live in this small old house, and our children and their children and grandchildren will grow up here. We won’t be forced out of our house for we have no other home.

Message 3: my mother married a Palestinian refugee living in Jordan and she moved to live there. After 1967 she wasn’t allowed into Palestine anymore. She wasn’t allowed to see her parents and siblings any more. Her parents died without having the chance to say goodbye to her. She died without having the chance to say goodbye to Palestine. She died dreaming of Palestine and hoping of the return to her home. I promised her to return to her home, my home, one day and I will keep that promise.

Message 4:I am a Palestinian from Gaza. I can’t visit Jerusalem and pray in Al-Aqsa. I was never in Akka, Haifa or Yafa. I can’t visit Bethlehem, Nablus or Ramallah. I am a Palestinian from Gaza. The Zionists occupy my homeland, desecrate my holy sites, and besiege me in my home. They are slowly killing me and my children, but we won’t surrender for this is our home and they are the aggressors.

Message 5:We used to wake up to the singing of the birds, watch the sun as it rises and as it sets, take a walk in the nearby fields. Today, we are surrounded by a Zionist wall. The birds don’t sing anymore because the fields were destroyed and the trees uprooted and the bird nests stepped on. The sun sets and rises behind the wall without saying good morning or goodbye. They can hide the sun, kill the trees, expel the birds, but they won’t kill us or expel us. We are steadfast here, on our land, in our homes.

Message 6:we never needed anything. We worked the land and it rewarded us. We were happy and content. We were rich with our land. During the Nakba, the Zionists attacked our villages, killed many of us, expelled the rest and destroyed our homes. They made refugees out of us. Today we have to wait for food rations from the UNRWA. We still dream of working our lands and the homes that wait for us to rebuild them.

Message 7:They demolished our home. They said we have 10 minutes to remove our belongings. I searched for my toys, my painting book and my feast dress. When the bulldozers started demolishing our home, my father cried. My father never cries. They said our home was built illegally. What about the houses with the red-brick that are built on our lands for Americans and Germans? Everyone in the news says they are illegal, so why aren’t they being demolished? Why do they only demolish our homes? These people in the red-brick houses can go back to USA and Germany, but we have only one place: our home Palestine.

Message 8:Every stone stands witness to the owners of the land. Every olive tree stands witness to the owners of the land. Every hill, every valley, every street and every alley stand witness to the owners of the land belongs. The land of Palestine belongs to us; the Palestinians.

Message 9:Every day I have to wait hours at the checkpoint on my way to work and back. Every day I watch how Zionist soldiers abuse and humiliate Palestinian women, children and elderly. Every day I stand in line at the checkpoint and wonder if one of the Zionist soldiers will again shoot and kill one of us for no reason. Every day I stand at the checkpoint, watch those Zionist soldiers with their machine guns and hand grenades and I think: You can’t hold us hostages forever, one day you will go back to the countries you came from because it is you who have no place here and you can’t imprison a whole nation hungry for freedom.

Message 10:my father’s last wish was to be buried in his village which was ethnically cleansed in 1948. He died saying: Take me back to my home, take me back to my home.

Message 11: one morning in 1967 Zionist soldiers entered our village Imwas. They surrounded the houses and ordered everyone out. They threatened that they will kill anyone who doesn’t leave or anyone who tries to come back. Then their bulldozers started demolishing our houses, one house after the other. Some people refused to leave and were buried under the rubble of their demolished homes. They did the same to the villages of Yalou and Beit Nouba. We walked for days, with nothing to eat or drink. We walked for days with only pain in our hearts for we have been expelled from our homes. Years later, the Zionists established a recreational park on where the 3 Palestinian villages once stood. We never forgot Imwas. We think, dream, plan and live only for the day when we return back to Imwas and rebuild our homes because this is the only home we have.

Message 12:  The Israeli occupation army raided our home in search of children who threw little stones at tanks. We told them there was only us women in the house. They beat my grandmother, mother, my sisters and me. Then they turned the house upside down, threw the flour and the rice and the sugar on the ground, broke the doors and the cupboards and before leaving they threw a gas bomb in our living room. And you still wonder why we resist them with all the means we have?

Message 13:I was born in occupied Palestine. I was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank. The UN, Israel, US, EU, the Arabs and the so-called PA tried for decades to convince me that this is the only home I will ever have. This refugee camp is not my home. I have a home. It is called Jrash, Deir Aban, Beit I’tab, Allar, Al-Malha. I have a home and I will return to it one day because it is the only home I will ever have.

Message 14:my husband has a Bethlehem ID. Our children and I have a Jerusalem ID. My husband isn’t allowed into Jerusalem anymore. The Zionist entity that claims to be a “democracy” divides Palestinian parents from their children. It is either I lose my right to live in my city Jerusalem or I lose my family. My husband and I decided that we would rather suffer the separation than let them expel us from Jerusalem. Now, the family is divided but we have a home in Jerusalem so our children can grow up in their city and one day the family will be reunited in Jerusalem, in the only home we will ever have.

Message 15:We live in Tel Rumeida. Zionist colonists from the US and other places occupy the homes of many Palestinians here and only few of us are still steadfast. We are harassed by the Zionist colonists and the Israeli occupation soldiers day and night. Our children are often attacked by the Zionists on their way to school. My daughter was attacked and her arm was broken and the Israeli soldiers watched and as usual did nothing. My daughter often comes at night and asks if she can sleep in our room because she is afraid that the colonists will come after her again. One day I asked her if she is afraid, she said: yes. I asked her if she wished we lived somewhere else, she answered: No, this is our home.

Message 16:My village is worth the whole world to me. Every stone in it is more valuable than diamonds. I wouldn’t exchange my home for the wealth of the world and I wouldn’t exchange my land for paradise because my land is my paradise.

Message 17:they built a park where my village once stood. Zionists play with their kids where once our cemetery stood and where my grandparents are buried. They make barbeque parties where once my home stood, where I was born. This is my home and it is my legitimate right to return to my home.

Message 18:I am one of the 80,000 Palestinians expelled from West Jerusalem and its villages in 1948. Our land and property was confiscated by the Zionist entity and given to Zionists who have no roots in Jerusalem. I live in a refugee camp and my village is a couple of hours ride away from where I live now, but I am not allowed to enter the Jerusalem area. I see pictures of my village on the internet, pictures taken by Israelis. I tell my children: this is your home, never forget this and never forget that one day we shall return.

Message 19:my little boy and his friends were stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and were beaten by the soldiers. At night, he wets his bed and wakes up crying. He is afraid to go to school alone because he fears the soldiers at the checkpoint might beaten him again, so I have to accompany him to school and bring him back home every day. One day, the soldiers were harassing a group of pupils. I stepped forward to help the pupils. One Zionist soldier shouted: one day we will throw you all out of “Erez Israel”! My little boy shouted back at the soldier: this is our land and we won’t leave!

Message 20:On TV I saw an Israeli claim to be a peace activist. When asked where she lives, she answered: in Maale Adumim. She didn’t say in the illegal colony built on land stolen from Palestinians. To the Zionists I say: You want peace, then give me back my land and let my people return home.