two thousand and eight

Happy New Year to you Mustafa. You came to see me yesterday at the clinic in Barta'a and I thank you for sharing your story with me. Your impossible predicament highlights the need for all of us to move beyond the champagne and 'happy new year' rituals and try to open our hearts to the suffering of our fellow beings, wherever they may be.

You were badly injured and lost an eye from rubber bullets fired at random during a peaceful demonstration which you weren't a part of. Yet you bear no resentment towards the soldier who did this. You are thirty years old and still living with your parents because you can't afford to build your own place ( a prerequisite to starting your own family). Renting is not an option in the village yet you don't have the freedom to move to the city. In fact you don't have the freedom to travel anywhere outside Barta'a because you are a young single male and are considered a threat by the state of Israel. So, you are stuck in a dead end job (even though you have a science degree from Abu Dis university) and left to roam the streets of Barta'a in your spare time. Occasionally you will risk imprisonment and travel to the nearby Israeli towns with your friends from Barta'a who hold Israeli IDs. Or risk humiliation, delays and detention and travel to Jenin (on the other side of the 'wall'). 'This is not a life' you tell me, but you don't complain.

So, Mustafa my friend, let us hope that 2008 will bring you and millions of others around the world the basic needs and human rights that you deserve (and we take for granted).