This is a time of hardship, so get tougher

Over the past weeks, I have been living a suffocating moment alongside my family and people due to an unprecedented invasion of Tulkarm, its camps and suburbs. I can almost be certain that it is an unprecedented invasion: unprecedented in its dangerous goals, unprecedented in its persistence in aggression, and unprecedented in its persistence in destruction. Over the past weeks, I have noticed one sentence repeated on the tongues of those who were forced by the brutality of the occupation to leave their neighborhoods and homes in the camps and move to other places. This phrase was produced by a long experience of the great and honest Palestinian woman, this strong and solid Palestinian woman who does not give in, submit or kneel. Her inner voice always repeated: We will return, we will return to the narrow room and the crowded neighborhood, we will return to the door that the storm tore down and the window that the tank and the plane destroyed. Until I became fully convinced that the idea of deportation and displacement, which is merely an idea, is constantly pressuring the Palestinian consciousness and sharpening his resolve. The phrase: “We will return” is the most terrifying phrase in the mind of the entity armed with fire, hatred and bullets. It terrifies it and scatters its plans. Continuation.

If you have seen in the past weeks scenes of forced deportation from the camps, by the hundreds and thousands, citizens who were forced to leave, under the pressure of a moment of great hatred, these scenes produced, alongside them, what wipes away the sadness of the temporary forced departure, and reproduces the supreme idea of solidarity that quickly explodes as a parallel state to all the moments of bottleneck that we are experiencing these days.

From the scene of the cramped houses hosting dozens of displaced people, and sharing bread, medicine and air with them, with all that this scene contains of the warmth of Palestinian compassion for Palestinian in their darkest and most difficult moments, I can assert with all the faith in my heart that a people with this authenticity is a people whose destiny is to triumph.

From the scene of searching for the needy, in every corner, and all those who were stranded in the narrow paths in the corners of the governorate, desiring to obtain the honor of assistance and relief from distress, I fully realized that a people with this spirit is a people who are not defeated.

From the sight of the collective kitchens established, managed and supplied by young Palestinians who want nothing more than for the affliction to be lifted and the hand of the executioner to be broken, I fully realise that a people in which there is this enlightened seed is a people with a great future.

The occupation wanted, through systematic destruction and spiteful demolition, to punish the Palestinian, burn his consciousness, and incite him against his dreams and slogans. The Palestinian’s kind hand, broad chest, and participation with his brothers in whatever way possible have always been the means to break the plan and thwart the agenda.

The scene of popular solidarity, public support, and pure awareness that restored consideration to values that the idea of losing, losing, and overcoming terrified us, was the most important bright spot that we have always considered a bridge to cross the bottleneck and a hand that pats the Palestinian conscience with all its wounds, sorrows, and pains these days. If there is anything that makes us overcome the ordeal with all its national strength, it is the epic of popular solidarity that was drawn by the determination of our youth, which went beyond the governorate to other governorates that work with the logic of beehives, monitoring needs, and directing the popular vigour that wants to help and stand by its people, not caring where or when, but it wants to stand and write a position that humanity and history will not forget.

This aggression has been imposed on all Palestinians, in the Gaza Strip, and in the north, center, south, and east of the West Bank, Jerusalem, its valleys, its deserts, its farms, and its villages. These days, it is intended to destroy our national entity by attacking the camp with all its dreams of return, and the city with all its sovereignty, and the village with all its horizons, extensions, and depth. But today, the Palestinian will impose his logic on the logic of aggression, a logic based on solidarity and support with the hand that holds each other together, with strength, firmness, and patience.