Have you heard of the man who had twin sons? Pete and Stuart. Pete was an optimist and Stuart was a pessimist. On their thirteenth birthday their father gave Stuart - the pessimist - an expensive watch, a carpentry set and a bicycle. And Pete’s – the optimist’s-room he filled with horse dung. When Stuart opened his presents he grumbled all morning . He hadn’t wanted a carpentry set, he didn’t like the watch, and the bicycle had the wrong kind of tyres. When the father went to Pete’s – the optimist’s room, he couldn’t see Pete, but he could hear the sound of frantic shoveling and heavy breathing. Horse dung was flying all over the place. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?” the father shouted to Pete. A voice came from deep inside the dung. “Well father,” Pete said “if there is so much shit around, there has to be a pony somewhere.”

This is a section from the book I have been reading The God of Small Things, a best seller by Arundhati Roy. It inspired me to reflect on our situation, and could not help but think that despite all the political dirt that is around us, whether it is Israeli, American, European, Arab, Fateh or Hamas, we are still searching for that pony.

After sixty four years of dispossession and forty four years of direct Israeli military occupation we have not given up. I am often asked the question: “where do you derive your hope and optimism from ?” “Justice” I always answer, the justice of our cause. When you have a just cause and you are struggling for liberation and peace, you cannot afford to lose hope. How could I have survived since 1948 and kept going without optimism and hope. All my volunteer work along the years would have been meaningless and it would not have helped all the children, women and refugees whom we worked with through the various organizations.

However, I never thought I would bring up two generations under a military occupation, and watch my children suffer because their spouses cannot be united with them since they are not from Jerusalem. Jerusalem the city of peace has become the cause of our pain and suffering since Israel sealed it off from the rest of the Palestinian Territories after the Oslo agreement; an agreement which proved to be futile. Even the prisoners who were supposed to be released upon signing that agreement were never released. And now after nineteen years more Palestinians are incarcerated under difficult conditions. Only after jepordizing their lives, the world has become aware of this long overlooked issue. But with their determination and steadfastness, encouraged by the solidarity of the Palestinian people and the free peoples around the world those young men and women are still holding on and still searching for that pony to ride towards freedom and liberation. Please pray for those prisoners and help bring them back home to their families.