UM SUBHI

"I was about six or seven when I left my village, but I visited it a hundred times over the years. My house was destroyed, but where it stood, herbs grow. They just grow, as if from God. I lived all my life trying to survive away from my land. I never had land again, only a house in Jenin Refugee Camp.

After '67, my husband went to work in Haifa and I worked in the fields of an Israeli woman. She was like a sister to me. Sheíd come to my house to bake bread. In those days, we lived side by side with the Jews.

Everything is different now, since the Intifadas. Even though Israeli soldiers entered my house from the roof and knocked down my front door in the 2nd Intifada, I tell my own children and the shabab (Palestinian youth) that violence is not the answer. But they want to fight for a homeland and a better life. I blame the Palestinians for not wanting a Palestinian state from the beginning. We are refugees and we need a homeland. Not where we once lived, but where we live now. Israel exists -- let it exist.

What is important now is to try to hold onto what I have - my house. I had always hoped to move back to my land, but now I know that no one will be negotiating for the land I once had. I am not going to fight for it. My land is important to me, but first of all, I want peace. Peace is the most important thing. I love peace."