Peace and Justice Post

A young Palestinian girl wounded in an Israeli air strike on Gaza [GALLO/GETTY]

“Why us? Why are we cold? What is happening?” my children ask all the time.

They are six and two. When they ask for chocolate and I cannot give it to them, they ask why. I explain to them that it is because of the closure, but this does not explain things any further to them, they still ask: “Why? Why us?”

What they least understand is why their lives are being affected by something which they are not responsible for.

It is hard for me to explain. I am 37-years old and have spent my whole life under occupation. My father was a refugee from Barbara, my original village. He said to me the other day: “Son, we have never lived in a situation like this before. I hope that this will be the last time that we live like this, forever”.

But people live in hope. They believe, even after all this time, that peace will return to us.

Continued . . .