UNDERSTANDING MARYLAND THROUGH PALESTINE

Returning home from Palestine this week has been illuminating and challenging to see the interconnectedness between my state and the homeland of Palestinians, a place equal in size and 5,860 miles away. I have noticed striking similarities in the way that farmers here take pride in being from Maryland, raising their children and tending to crops in the same place for generations, similar to the way that Palestinian farmers claim nine centuries of heritage in one place. I feel despairing to imagine if all the farmers in my county were forcibly displaced at the rate Palestinians have been, over 95% of the indigenous population. I have also seen that Maryland has largely erased its genocide against the Native American peoples, the Iroquois-speaking tribes of my county, while Israel denies the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

VIDEO: SHINE A LIGHT ON GAZA

“This is what we want as a Palestinian people, is to feel and have dignity. We are human beings. We are no less than any other people. We have a right to self-determination... I can assure you, we are strong. We are the stones of the valley. We have been here forever, and will continue to be here forever.” -Raji Sourani

Eyewitness Accounts, 2017 July, Delegation 62Eyewitness PalestineNovember 9, 2017gaza, israel, bombs, human rights, raji sourani

LIVING IN (FALSE) HOPE UNDER ISRAELI OCCUPATION

How are they getting away with this? This rhetorical question dogged me for days as I learned about the intricacies of Israel's occupation of Palestine: Concrete slabs 26 feet high tearing through Palestinian neighborhoods and farmlands. More than 100 permits required for ordinary tasks like building a room in your house. Palestinian children being sentenced to five to 20 years in prison for throwing stones, a common form of protest.

"THE ROOM"

It felt like something out of a bad cliche spy movie. I walk up to the passport control window super nervous on the inside but trying to hold it together on the outside when the passport control lady barely looks at my passport before she asked me if I was with the group. I answered yes and was swiftly taken to a holding room where most of the members of my group were being detained.

Delegation 62, Eyewitness AccountsSherly F.November 9, 2017flight, passport, airport, travel, surreal, israel, delegation 62, detention

LIFTA: AN INSTAGRAM STORY

Today we visited the Palestinian village of #Lifta which was attacked by Zionist militias and destroyed during the #nakba in the lead up to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Eyewitness Accounts, Delegation 62, 2017 JulyFarah E-J.November 9, 2017lifta, zionist, nakba, village, 1948, israel, palestine, delegation 62

RAMALLAH AND AL AQSA

As we got of the bus we could here sound bombs and rubber bullets being fired just down the street from us. I started crying in grief, despair, anger. Why are they doing this? Why is nothing sacred in the Holy land?

Eyewitness Accounts, Delegation 62, 2017 JulySherly F.November 9, 2017ramallah, al aqsa, israel, checkpoint, mosque, jerusalem

REWORK OF "HOWL" BY ALLEN GINSBERG

I saw among the best minds of Judaism some destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through Jerusalem's streets looking for a homeland, a refuge, a release from shamefearagonytrauma through an angry fix, angelheaded chosen ones burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo by way of the machine-gunnery of night [...]

Eyewitness Accounts, Delegation 62, 2017 JulyAJ M.November 8, 2017palestine, poetry, poem, allen ginsberg, howl, israel, judaism, hashem, jewish, refugee, synagogue

JEWISH, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS DENIED ENTRY TO ISRAEL

Israel stops 5 leaders on interfaith delegation from boarding a plane to Israel includes Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine and Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.