We will never forget…

I want to be able to travel through out Palestine without having to flash my passport at every checkpoint as I wait hours and hours to get from one city to another.

I want to see children finishing a full academic year free of school closures due to israeli occupation.

I want to see university students graduate on time without having to worry about making up the missed academic years spent in israeli jails.

I want to be able to travel to any part of the so great Arab world without having to go through a long complicated process just because my Passport reads “West Bank” under place of birth.

Palestinians everywhere seem to have common dreams and wishes for themselves and their Palestine, and so here is my version of the same and very similar dreams and wishes anonymous once shared here …

I wish that all our children can have a better childhood and future than ours.
I wish to fly around and know exactly the meaning of being free.
I wish to be able to roam in my own country with no fear or peril and be the one to choose where to go, and not the checkpoints.

I wish to be able to go with to the Mediterranean Sea with friends.
I wish to be able to reach Akka whenever I want
I wish to taste the oranges of Jaffa, and the grapes of Hebron. To watch the sunset over the beaches of Haifa, to see the sunrise over the mountains of Safad .
I wish to taste the fish of Gaza, live the nature of Toolkarm, and walk the old streets of Jerusalem.

To walk the serene streets of Bethlehem

I wish to see children playing hopscotch and marbles rather than israelis and Palestinians.
I wish to see one marrying another for pure love and not because they both have the same identity card.
I wish to see a smile on an old man’s face.
To see smiles replacing frowns.
To see tears dry up, wounds clot and sorrows fade.

I wish to see people in camps, places sweltering with the sun of injustice but cold of tragedy, flourish again.
That all prisoners living under the darkness of torture will be able to see sunlight again and return to their homes, so the pale faces of their mothers would shine again!
The dream to see complete sunrise not blocked by the wall.
To see the wall, a gray gloomy monster filled with hatred and injustice, falling and disappearing like a sandcastle washed away into the undertow.

I wish that Eilat will be Um Rashrash, Tel Aviv will be Tal El Rabi and Shkeim will be Nablus again.
I wish to see all refugees able to put their keys in their locks and get back to their homes.
I wish to see unity, peace, and prosperity in Palestine. To feel that our country does exist.
I wish for and dream of a free Palestine.

“From the silence, let the whispers grow until with one voice we can all find a way to go forward in peace and once again hear the laughter of children ring out in that most ancient land of Palestine…”

Where the sun will rise and continue to shine.