Five Days in Palestine

How can I even begin to describe what it is like to visit Palestine? There are hardly any words. Seeing the actions of the Zionist Entity on social media, a television screen or in the news is much different than walking the land of Palestine. The flag which we raise from the streets of Dublin to Beijing to New York is here made real, concretized in the spirit of the Palestinian people and the land which they cultivate, on which they build their villages and raise their children, in defiance of Israeli occupation, its mechanisms of control and acts of terror and everyday brutality designed to make life miserable for its 3-million strong indigenous population.

Ramallah

Jerusalem, to Israeli inhabitants, Western tourists on holiday and diaspora Jews on their State-managed Birthright trip, appears as a normal city, orderly streets bustling with merchants and tourist sites and coffee shops. This is a facade, for the region is the epicenter of violent settler-colonial ethnic cleansing, hidden from sight. Bus 218 near Damascus Gate heads for the Qalandia checkpoint, from where entry and exit into Ramallah is strictly regulated by Israel. “This is the cage they built for us, “ tells me an elderly Palestinian man who spots me staring at the apartheid wall, 10 meter tall, half a meter thick, sprawling as far as the eye can see on top of which nests barbed wire, surrounded by military towers, floodlights and loudspeakers. The walls, yellow plated and green plated cars, roads for one and the other, the Israelis and the Palestinians, Jew and non-Jew; human and subhuman; an entire regime built on separating people by their origins. This logic is by no means unique to the Zionist Entity, but here it is accentuated to its extreme, enlarging the erstwhile system of apartheid in South Africa, the British occupation splitting Catholics and Protestants in the North of Ireland, the Villa miserias of Argentina between the rich and the poor, Fortress Europe which casts asylum seekers out to the sea to die, the wall between Mexico and the United States, the camps of Donald Trump imprisoning migrants, segregation of the Roma schoolchildren from their Hungarian counterparts and anti-Traveller laws in Ireland … walls of the past, walls of today and walls of the future which are threatening to be fully materialized, this time dividing the Palestinian underclass from their Jewish rulers.

What unites the segregation of people in these cases is the psychosis of an in-group and an out-group, the fear of being “invaded”, the delirium of being under siege. “It is shocking for you, but this is my everyday life. Here, everyone you see is suffering. It is not an easy life for us, life here is miserable, “ he explains. Caught by the barbed wire nested on the wall – more massive than the one that divided East and West Germany in the 1960s – bottles and stones, on its surface, graffiti; small acts of resistance by the Palestinian population, in the face of Israeli brutality. He offers to guide me through the checkpoint. A short walk, and a turnstile appear; the Israeli military towers blare out stern warnings, and shine their lights on the Palestinian side of the border. The difference is immediately visible. The streets are dirty, overcrowded, overflowing trash bags dot the median strip of the road, a building has collapsed, rainwater harvesting cisterns stand atop residential complexes, smells of chaos … it is poor and destitute, a world away from the Israeli territories. On our way to the city center, we pass clinics and schools protected by the United Nations, fenced off, and a large sign outside reading “firearms prohibited”. “This is no man’s land here. The Israelis only take the garbage every two weeks. We cannot even travel freely. They shoot us if we try to cross [without permission], “ he says. He seems to know everyone here. “I make peace with everyone. That is why I have so many friends here, “ he continues as he waves and greets locals. “No one listens. The world is blind to our suffering, “ he finishes, adding on a hopeful note that “many American Jews are waking up to the reality of occupation, and oppose Israel. Information is key”.

In Ramallah, atop a hill, stands the Mohammed Darwish museum, in honor of his memory. A massive fortress, with a tiny museum, a symbolic act, really, which expresses the unbreakable steel spirit of the Palestinian people. The flag which we raise around the world, the flag of Palestine, there stands representing a real nation, no longer in the abstract, but materialized in the subjected Palestinian people themselves. They will never give up. Ever. That much is clear. The Israelis cannot put a stop to the righteous resistance of the Palestinian people no matter how hard they try. Next to the Abdul Nasser mosque, where I stay in a hostel, sounds of prayer fill the street, with tenacity, the Palestinian people unbowed in the face of occupation.

The society is cohesive, and the streets are safe; the door to my hostel is permanently unlocked; but the place is haunted by the looming Israeli occupation, who raid the city at night, throw stun grenades, hoist their weapons and kidnap Palestinians, some never to be seen again. What else could they do but resist? They do what is necessary for the liberation of their nation, freedom for their people, nothing more. Despite this, the Palestinians express a wish for peace, not revenge. “It is Israel who causes trouble. They want to take more of our land, build more settlements, and kick us out. We just want to live, peace for the Palestinians and Israelis“ says one of the taxi drivers who takes me to and from the tourist sites in Ramallah.

Massafer Yatta

Sami Hureini, a well-known Palestinian activist, invites me to stay in his guest house in Al-Tuwani, located within the Massafer Yatta conflict zone, accommodating international activists and members of the press. Taking the taxi down from Ramallah, as we were nearing the Gush Etzion Junction, 3 Palestinian resistance members from the Islamic Brotherhood martyred themselves by attacking the adjacent Israeli settlement. They wielded knives. The border had come to a halt. The young Palestinian man sitting next to me in the service was watching a video of the events. I asked to see. There lay a martyr with his head bloodied, spilling out, on the ground. Shot by the Israeli forces. “The Jews are causing trouble, “ said the older man in front, as we turned to take another road. A gun to a knifefight … the resisters were up against the entire Western empire, and were bound to die, but in their bravery went ahead with the actions, killing one settler and injuring a few others. How brutal could the Israeli regime be, if the people of Palestine are driven to such actions, with whatever little weaponry they have, I wondered? It is truly the battle of David and Goliath. Road after road towards Massafer Yatta bears the flag of the Zionist Entity; settlements, military outposts and checkpoints dotted, while signs warn Israelis against entering the Palestinian communities, which is “dangerous and forbidden by law”.

Massafer Yatta comprises 19 villages, with a population of about 800, many of them activists. They have been forced into this role to protect their families, land and history. The Israeli courts have ruled against the indigenous population, unsurprisingly, and 1,00 could be evicted under the pretext of the area being declared a military training zone. The ultimate aim is to make way for Israeli settlements. Over the past few decades, raids, attacks and harassment have become a constant facet of life here, by settlers in cohort with the Israeli army. At night, raids, stun grenades and arrests of Palestinians; demolition of schools, homes, solar panels, wells and mobile bathrooms, instilling a sense of terror for all those who are building their lives here. Served with hundreds and hundreds of demolition notices, constituting a violation of international law by wilful population displacement, the Palestinian way of life, peaceful for centuries, is under threat, but the plight falls on deaf ears within mainstream media. They tell the Palestinians – their villages having existed for 200 years, stand unrecognized by Israeli courts – that they have no permit to build there; so they raze it to the ground, leaving families homeless, from the infants to the elderly, dwelling in caves, without so much as an apology; in fact, they delight in their brutality, and claim the entire land as their own. An eviction from a home in Dublin for the benefit of a rich landlord, the crushing of a student encampment in New York, the deportation of a migrant in Paris; this is the same logic underpinning oppression, only in an accentuated format in Israel.

In September 2025, the guest house in Al-Tuwani was raided by the Israeli military, served with a demolition order, highlighting Israel’s efforts to thwart solidarity actions which threaten to expose the truth about the regime of occupation. “Will you sit and watch?” is painted on the surface of the wall in bold letters. It is a rudimentary set-up, with mattresses for sleeping, a fireplace, shisha, coffee and tea, a kitchen and the rest which activists use. I help the activists cook rice with lentils, cumin and garlic. The campfire burns. “We go with the Palestinians. That is our role. We went out to the olive harvest to talk to the army [to restrain them] and that worked, “ says one of the activists from Italy, who has visited Palestine multiple times since 2016.

All around, settlements which have pitched themselves on top of the hills to assert psychological dominance, with massive headlights flooding the night, army outposts, looking down on the Palestinian communities. They have their own highways, shops and luxury infrastructure. Imagine the scenario. A group of Israeli settlers, these religious fanatics who believe God has sent them on a mission from 3,000 years ago, arrive in your area. They plant the Israeli flag on your land. Then, they descend from their settlements to kill, beat and harass the sheep you herd in the season; they terrorize your children as they walk to school; they throw rocks at your house. A military apparatus of a powerful State then aids them, and its soldiers stand idly by as they terrorize you, oftentimes joining in. You protest peacefully, and it is met with violence; already, the paralysis of 24-year old Haron Abu Aram by 5 Israeli army bullets, and likewise the death of Awdah Hathaleen at the hands of an Israeli settler with an assault rifle. The Israelis declared the surrounding area military training tones. When they do, everyone is forced to evacuate by law, and the buildings must be demolished. Then, the settlers come. The Israeli government has been supporting the settlement movement since the start – they would not exist otherwise, “ she explains. In recent times, the work of the activists has shifted, as olive harvest season is over, and sheep herding has become increasingly difficult. “The Palestinians are scared to go out to shepherd sheep. Our work has changed a lot in recent months. Between January and February 2025, we did shepherding. Now it is just construction work to rebuild from the rubble and sleeping out in the villages to protect the Palestinians. That is though, when staying overnight, you are basically waiting for someone to come and kick you, “ says another activist, also from Italy. “Tomorrow, we will go out to the villages, “ she says.

Khallet al-Dabaʿ

Khalet Ad Dabaʿ, with a population of about 90, has been the home of Palestinians for centuries; one of them, 89 years old, was born before the Zionist Entity ever became a terrible reality. What was once homes, agricultural land, wells and walls for sheep; mobile bathrooms and cabling, footpaths and kitchens and water tanks has been ground to nothing; all that is left is rubble, dirt and scraps of metal, undiscernable, crumpled objects, beds surrounded by no walls, demolished by Israeli bulldozers, surrounded by armed men and women, and the protective arms of the West. It is the same story repeated with hundreds of villages around Palestine inflicted by Israeli violence; this is everyday life under occupation.

The activists are helping the Palestinians get rid of the rubble, metal and trash, clean up and rebuild their community, punctuated by tea and coffee breaks. Underneath the rubble, we find tiles, family pictures, and the Quran; a my little pony themed bag of a schoolgirl, knives, spoons and forks which were once used during family dinner; medication and sweets. “In case the settlers or the army comes, hide in the caves, “ says one of the Palestinians, “or in the wells!, “ jokes an activist, to laughter, in a moment of levity. The Palestinians wield a pickaxe to break down the cabling that has gotten stuck under the rubble, so that they can toss it; this too will have to be arduously rebuilt. A boy, about 10 years old, carries a bucket of dirt on his shoulders. Brick by brick, wall by wall, Palestine is rebuilt; brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel will fall. After about 10 minutes of pushing and shoving, a fallen mobile bathroom stands upright … a small victory. As we are here helping rebuild, Israeli military helicopters, fighter jets, army planes and cars pass by; once the cars pass by, near to our village at the road, we hide, so as to not be seen. “Hide, the army is on the road, “ says one of the Palestinians. The worry is that they might come back later with bigger numbers, destroy what we have rebuilt and take our construction tools; this is why sometimes, the reconstruction takes place at night.

Since May 2025, the village has been destroyed 4 times, rebuilt 4 times, in an attempt to drive out its inhabitants. The Palestinians, however, have met this adversity with resilience. They are never giving up. They keep rebuilding for weeks and weeks, working 8 hours a day, only for it to be demolished again in a single night. “Again, and again, and again, “ as put to me by one of the activists. This is a recurring facet of life in this area. This work – of rebuilding – is resistance. For me, it is only a day, for the activists, a few weeks, but for the Palestinians, it is their whole lives. The Palestinians here sleep either in tents, or in the caves below their houses, in makeshift beds, mostly mattresses; an elderly woman washes clothes amongst the rubble in a washing machine, which she rescued as her house was being demolished.

“We are staying here. We have no other land, and despite this difficult time, we will continue to exist. No other land to go to. This is where we are, from where we are built, ” says Jaber Dahahsis, 39 years old, affirming that “we will not leave unless they force us off the land. They tried all injustice and crimes against us and we did not leave. We have no other place to go”. He explains that the community has lived here for centuries. “We started to build and to plant more. We did the school, we did the community center. The civil administration that belongs to the occupation in May 2025 came here and destroyed everything. They destroy everything for the source income for the families, agriculture, trees. The excuse that they are always finding for us here is that we are here illegally, “ he says. However, “we have our ownership. It’s a recognized village since forever, but they are trying by force to demolish this village and remove us from the land. We, as landowners, reject this. We live in this difficult situation, and today we are working, thanks to the Palestine activists, and the international activists, to rebuild, “ he continues, adding that “we are all together now, working in the village to rebuild what the occupation destroyed, to try to create a life from this again. It’s the beginning. It’s small what the work we are doing, but we are continuing to do what we can do“.

His message to those outside Palestine is “stop hypocrisy from the leaders of all the world. If the world wanted to stand up, to stop the occupation from this, they could do it. We hope they will act. We respect all the people around the world who are acting for us. We hope they will put more pressure on their government to stop. The Israeli government supports the occupation with materials, with bulldozers, with weapons … stop this hypocrisy and hold them on account”. “We are families like any other family. We have the right to live, to live with our kids in peace. Today, life here is completely killed. Kids want to have a play. They want to have their school safe. We just want to live, “ he concludes.

So much for the accusations of “Pallywood”, which Israelis like to use, I see it all right in front of my eyes, I witness their brutality… if only everyone could see it, then the world’s eyes could be opened: this is what our taxpayer money is going towards, the weapons and bulldozers and the soldiers to sustain the occupation of this land. Western governments cannot claim ignorance, only wilful disregard of the plight of the Palestinian people; all their talk of diversity, inclusivity and equality, progress and international law, these are empty words in face of the reality on the ground. These concepts do not descend from heaven and apply equally to all of humanity; they are mediated by institutions, and these institutions are tied to the Zionist project. The Western governments do not see the Jews as equal to the Palestinians; they too are subscribed to the idea of Jewish supremacy, which is what the “State of Israel” is founded upon; that is its entire raison d’etre.

In addition to perpetrating genocide in Gaza, it is this cold, calculated and rational brutality that Israel imposes on the Palestinians, as part of their wider project of settler-colonial ethnic cleansing. Their neighborhoods raided, futures destroyed, where are they supposed to go? They have no other land. They want to kick them out of their territories by constant terror. It is clear to me that the entire Zionist apparatus has but one goal: the annihilation of Palestinians as a people. They do not see them as humans, nor as animals, they see them as vermin … but it is the land of the Palestinians, and has been for centuries; in this village, the old lady who washes her clothes in the washing machine outside can attest to this, having seen so much of Israel’s terror throughout her life; and the children grow up with it from the moment they are born; in a neverending cycle of oppression and resistance.

It is self-evident that the land from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea is no other land than that of Palestine, but it is occupied by a foreign invader, a mechanical parasite known as Israel, which stretches from Jerusalem to Hebron and beyond, seeking to claw its way to surrounding nations in search of Lebensraum, with its metal armored trucks, outposts and yellow barriers, checkpoints and turnstiles; its military men and women with guns and its drones and surveillance tech, 10-meter high walls with barbed wire, its settlements and flagpoles on which they plant their illegal claim to the country dotted around what seems like each road. There is nothing native about it; it is hated by all the masses in the surrounding Arab states and the indigenous population, but with one hand it clings firmly planted by force sucking the region of its life-blood, and then with the other, reaches across the globe, with its blood-stained lobby entrenching Jewish supremacy within Western institutions. The situation surpasses insanity; Israel is a sick, dysfunctional and twisted entity, a military apparatus masquerading as a State, concentrating the worst poison of capitalist logic in a single region, at the upper threshold of which is fascism, Israelis doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did once upon a time to the Jews.

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