Unwelcome

I have been expelled from the country.
Israel decided that I was unwelcome, and they sent me packing.
The Ministry of the Interior declared that I did nothing illegal, I have not broken the law, yet “we do not want you in the country, you must go”.
Why? Because Israeli settlers, who live in illegal settlements, who attack and commit atrocities every day against people who simply try to lead a normal life, have written a report on me and they have sent it to the immigration office.
At the airport they were waiting for me.
“You have breached an unwritten law and got the attention of the wrong people”, these are the words they told me.
Soon before leaving, a Palestinian – a dear one for me – told me “Sooner or later everyone pays the price of their choices”.
Indeed, and I have paid the price for mine. Choices that I would make again, regardless of the pain I feel daily.
But I don’t want to talk about me, I want to talk about those who pay the price every day.
Because three hours by plane from Milan there is an entire community who fight every day to keep living in their homeland; to farm their lands; to build a road, a house, or a bathroom; to gather olives; to go to school.
They fight for living.

There are places there that I know better than the country I was born and raised in; there is a piece of Palestine that is home for me, and forever it will be, I believe.
Still, it is not my home, it is not my land of origin and yet, throughout the years, I have felt such anger and pain that I can hardly put into words.
Seeing broken olive trees and plants, burned fields, demolished houses, slaughtered animals, people humiliated and assaulted.
Settlers who destroy wells, houses, and entire cities, who raid homes, who attack shepherds and children.
I have seen an entire community abandoning their village, too strained by the violence of the settlers.
Families that have emptied their homes, removed their tents, loaded their belongings on trucks in order to leave.
It was atrocious.
Ongoing Nakba.
Do you have any idea of what it is like to leave your house knowing that you will never come back to that place?
Because I have seen it, I’ve seen people leave with trucks full of stuff.
A ghost town, that soon enough would have become the settlers’ place.
I have seen it with my own eyes, but I don’t truly know what it feels like.
I don’t share a special bond with my birthplace and yet I can’t imagine the pain I would feel to just pack my bags and leave, knowing I can’t come back and, even worse, knowing that the place I grew up in, where my childhood memories belong, will be expropriated by criminals.
Let’s say it plainly: the settlers who live in the West Bank – especially in the C area – are criminals.
Among them there are also those who have made the history of terrorism in Israel, knowing full well that they can do as they please.
You can see it in their eyes, and it is terrifying: if they don’t assault you, it is just because they don’t want to that particular day, no other reason.
And then there are the new generations: 16 years old kids who are almost more threatening than adults, full of themselves and drunk with power.
As if this was not enough, there is the Israeli army, that once was define by Bibi as morally outstanding, supporting, protecting, and following the settlers’ orders.
An army that today seems the settlers’ militia.
The General who has contributed to expel me from the country, who between April and August protected the settlers, while provoking, humiliating, and arresting with no charges both Palestinians and international activists, has obtained a promotion.
He got the promotion by disregarding the rights of people who just want to live their lives.
Because Israel is also this: the only democracy in the Middle East - as many say - that however rewards those who deny human rights.
And against all this, Palestine counteracts, every day.
The Palestinians’ answer is a lifestyle, and how can I explain it?
It’s an answer that searches and finds dignity everywhere, even where there is no space left for it.
It is an answer that is fully committed.
Have you ever believed so deeply in something that you accept the idea of being imprisoned or even killed for it one day?
This is the kind of answer Palestinians give.
The occupation takes away every life opportunity and yet they keep planning their lives: studying, building houses, getting married and bringing children into the world.
As Mahmoud Darwish said, “Palestinians are in love with life” because they choose life, every day.
M.