Jalal Abukhater

It feels per­son­al when I hear that the US em­bassy in Jerusalem will be built on land stolen from Pales­tini­ans.

But this does not mean there is no hope.

We lost yet an­oth­er revered Pales­tin­ian icon to the Is­raeli oc­cu­pa­tion.

A Pales­tin­ian Jerusalemite, I live in a sur­veil­lance so­ci­ety rem­i­nis­cent of those in dystopi­an sci­ence fic­tion nov­els.

The Is­raeli au­thor­i­ties re­sent­ed the suc­cess of Pales­tin­ian ac­tivism in Jerusalem and now want to quash it.

And it has made colo­nial vi­o­lence a per­ma­nent fea­ture of Pales­tin­ian lives in the holy city.

Is­rael’s diplo­mat­ic stand­ing in the world is on the rise, and its il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion is rapid­ly be­ing nor­malised.

Emi­ratis are now al­lowed to vis­it Is­rael with ease, but we still have no free­dom of move­ment in our own home­land.

COVID-19 has spread, un­con­trolled, in heav­i­ly pop­u­lat­ed Pales­tin­ian cities, towns, and over­crowd­ed refugee camps.

Here is what a West Bank Pales­tin­ian res­i­dent has to go through every time s/he tries to get out of home.