As I was about to write a pleasant story about the open day activities at the Taybeh Latin School, the Israeli settlers burned twenty five of our family olive trees as part of over four hundred trees that were burned to the crisp in the village of Taybeh.
As I was about to write a pleasant story about the open day activities at the Taybeh Latin School, the Israeli settlers burned twenty five of our family olive trees as part of over four hundred trees that were burned to the crisp in the village of Taybeh. The family olive trees were so precious and old and passed from generation to generation, my father-in-law believes they date back two thousand years ago according to their trunk size.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…ten new Israeli settlement houses popped up across my kitchen window on the mountain top in Taybeh. I was in total shock and disbelief. The Ofra settlement reaches from one mountain top to the other and continues to grow while we are forbidden to build on our land that is under Israeli military occupation in the outskirts of Taybeh.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…twenty-five settlers with their guns blocked the road to the entrance of my village and demanded I turn around. Very scary savage looking people with guns, I listened and spent two hours getting home although I was five minutes away then they started banging on my car to turn around.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…we experienced the tragic death of twenty-four year old Thaer Basir in Taybeh, who had a fatal truck accident because the main road Nablus to Taybeh is blocked and his heavy truck did not safely make it up the narrow side dirt road. A tragic loss of life due to the Israeli closure and siege in our country.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…the most wonderful Christian family that relocated to Palestine six years ago and founded the Harb Heart Center in Ramallah decided to move back to the United States with their four children who initially came to enrich their Palestinian Christian values and roots.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…we finished the most scary and bloody academic year since the l967 war.
As I was about to write a pleasant story…many Palestinians like Fr. David Khoury, our first cousin could not travel over the bridge to fly out from Amman, Jordan to raise money for the housing project in our village of Taybeh. The airport is closed for Palestinians and so is the bridge to Jordan. It’s just a big prison.
As I was about to write a pleasant story about the open day activities at the Taybeh Latin School, I realized I must do it on my summer vacation because I am in need of a dose of the western culture due to the fear, anxiety and nightmares I have lived through during these tragic days in the Holy Land full of bloodshed and violence. The sacred land of our Lord’s birth deserves so much better. Church groups need to organize and support their brothers and sisters in Christ to gain justice, liberty, and freedom in the land of Christ’s birth. The American government needs to stop sending money and weapons to kill Palestinian children. Palestinians need their basic human rights. Please help so there might be a pleasant story in the Holy Land.
