Qalandiya

“They’re stealing her minutes” said another driver about another dying woman of the same disease, at the same place.

Some of the remaining living moments of both women were stolen as each of them lies dying, waiting for the back-to-back procedure that takes place before she can get on her way to her home, to her family.

This woman, a cancer patient, was treated at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, until the doctors gave up any hopes of her recovery and sent her home to Jenin, so be surrounded by the members of her family for the little time left.

But here, in this place, at this checkpoint, everything runs by the book, and only by the book. No ‘discounts’, no extenuating circumstances.

Not one, not two, not three – four Palestinians asked me, as if I were a living seismograph, when the big strong earthquake is due.

Why? – Because then Israel will be done with, and we will be done with the Occupation…