an old, old conflict

Sometime in the middle of January, I started noticing scarves of red and white or black and white check showing up more and more and more. Especially on young people, both male and female. These scarves are a show of support for Palestine in the continuing saga of war and peace between Palestine and Israel. It’s interesting watching the difference between the news coverage of, say, CNN, BBC, and Al Jaziera. Three different takes on it, three different ways of displaying the fights, three different levels of graphic footage. There is a LOT of support for Palestine here, but not in a scary way. People protest, they talk about it a lot, and they wait to see if the new world leaders can get a handle on the problems… I spoke to an old man, and asked him if he thought there would be peace. He said, "we will wait and see. Inchallah, there will be peace." I hope so! And I hope the support here remains peaceful, for it is only something like that that would put us onto Plan Z: evacuate. And I don’t want to evacuate. I want to be here. I do want peace, though. Fair peace, for both sides.