HANADI

“When I was in university, we were able to visit occupied Palestine. I saw paradise there. Everything – the land, the sea, the air was paradise. I think this land is the most beautiful place on earth. It is like a mother to me, and it is what taught me love. I met my husband because we shared a love of our land. Now, my husband is in jail for defending our land. He belongs to the Al Aqsa Brigade of Fatah.

I didn’t need a war to teach me what this land meant to me. Everything around me since I was a little girl was lesson enough: the soldiers who came to my house; seeing people tortured; the Intifadas. Then, after the Israelis invaded Bethlehem on March 11, the soldiers came to my house again. They wouldn’t let us take our belongings and blew up our house with everything in it. As bad as these things were, they didn’t make me want to leave my land – they made me want to do more for my land.

I am really tired, but I am willing to do anything for my land. Now that I am pregnant, I can’t think of being a suicide bomber. I don’t want to die because of my baby, but who knows what I would do if I wasn’t pregnant. Thank God there is still something I can do for my land. I can be a good mother and teacher. But if I had a magic wand, here’s what I would do for my land: I would protect all the Palestinians from the Israelis and rebuild everything they destroyed and release all the prisoners so they could go back to their families and send all the Jews who came from Europe back there. But the Jews that were born here can stay. Even though Israel doesn’t have the right to exist on our land, I would rather live with Israel than with more bloodshed.”