Only in Palestine… A Nation Mastering the Art of Paradox

In lands around the world where states are built on the logic of things: young people working, institutions producing, laws protecting, and justice serving.

But in Palestine, we live in a republic of great contradictions where the absurd becomes a daily routine and chaos becomes part of the administrative and political structure, leading citizens to almost believe that sarcasm is a fixed provision in the public system.

Only in Palestine do the elderly remain preoccupied with guarding the chairs they seized decades ago... while the youth guard the doors of unemployment.

The former fear leaving the scene while the latter are incapable of even entering it.

A whole generation carries its degrees like an exile carries the key to his old home... a beautiful memory without a door.

Only in Palestine is Easter, which fills the world with joy and peace, transformed at the gates of Jerusalem into a new test of oppression where the occupation pursues worshippers even in their joy and prayers.

And in every part of the earth, the month of Ramadan opens the doors of places of worship and the doors of mercy and tranquility, except here where Al-Aqsa is closed, and the Ascension of the Prophet is besieged, making the journey to prayer itself an experience of humiliation.

Even faith here needs to cross a barrier.

Only in Palestine does a complete people search for their daily sustenance while a very few have reserved for themselves the people's share in everything:

In money, contracts, privileges, jobs, speech, and the right to represent the pain itself.

Only in Palestine does the educated live as an outcast, the qualified marginalized, while the ignorant sits at the top of decision-making and the opportunist shines while the ill-mannered reaps the largest share of favor.

As if knowledge has become a crime and ignorance a certificate of endorsement.

Only in Palestine, those who carry the burden of the people do not receive their salaries, while those who carry only a title receive more than one salary.

The one who works sleeps worried about his family while the one who does not work sleeps comfortably on his privileges.

And only in Palestine, you might see a policeman walking to execute a prison order against his colleague in public service, while a prison order against him is also issued.

No one here is an opponent of anyone, and no one is a torturer of anyone, as both are victims of the same crisis, and both walk within a mill that does not distinguish between those who implement the decision and those who are subjected to it.

The first finishes his task, then another soldier comes to carry out the same order against him.

Thus, the scene becomes more than a paradox: a victim enforces the law on a victim before becoming the subject of enforcement herself.

It is an image that summarizes the state of the whole nation: everyone is rotating in the same circle and everyone pays the price of a malfunction they do not own.

And yet, it is okay... do not panic, for we have a Ministry of Justice.

And only in Palestine, the media is weak and stiff, oscillating between buffoonery and lamentation, but thanks to God we have a Ministry of Information and a Supreme Council for Media.

Institutions specialized in managing the echo, not in creating an impact.

Only in Palestine, there are no real jobs and no workers, but thank God we have a Ministry of Labor. No significant industry, but we have a Ministry of Industry. We do not possess work or money, but we have a currency authority. There is no constitution, but we have a constitutional court. There is no parliament, but laws multiply as if we are older than the oldest democracies.

And only in Palestine, the number of embassies for beings, loved ones, and in-laws has exceeded the number of checkpoints that besiege the spirit of every Palestinian.
Diplomatic titles multiply and privileges expand while the citizen is constricted by roads, geography, and even by the distance between his home and his dream.

Only in Palestine, you pay travel fees even though you do not possess the freedom to travel except through one obligatory gate called the Crossing of Dignity, where a person's dignity is tested before his papers.

Only in Palestine, educators are without favor, and those with morals are without support while the value of the ill-mannered rises because the political and social market now favors noise over value.

As for our greatest silent achievements, it is the complete consensus to remain silent about this damned reality.
Silence over hunger, silence over salaries, silence over the erosion of hope, silence over institutions transforming into addresses larger than their actions.

Oh Lord... what do we do?
People have aged from waiting, from promises, and from the repetition of disgusting names and the same scene as if the homeland is stuck in an unending day.

And yet Palestine remains Palestine not because of the strength of chaos but because its people are stronger.
It persists thanks to those great simple folk who repair destinies every hour so that the house does not fall on everyone's heads.

In Palestine, the tragedy is no longer only in the occupation, but in that people have come to memorize the details of internal absurdity as they do the names of their streets.
We have come to live the contradiction so much that we have grown accustomed to it and smile at sarcasm because it has become less painful than reality.

Here, no one is innocent of exhaustion, no one is immune from oppression, and no one is far from the circle of long waiting:
A policeman executes an order knowing that his turn will come, an employee works knowing that his salary is deferred until the Day of Judgment, a young man learns knowing that his certificate may also sleep in the drawer until the Day of Judgment, and a citizen endures because he no longer possesses the decision to express anger and the reckoning will be on him.

The most dangerous thing in Palestine today is not the absence of money nor the absence of institutions even with their ridiculous number, nor even the cruelty of the occupation alone... but rather the normalization of absurdity, the administrative injustice, the silence as a virtue, and adapting to error as a kind of wisdom.

And when homelands reach this stage, the problem is no longer about crises but about getting used to them.

Thus, the real battle is no longer just with those who oppress us from the outside but with everything that makes us coexist with oppression from within as if it were an unchangeable fate.

Palestine lacks neither people, nor consciousness, nor patience.
Palestine only lacks the end of this nonsense masquerading as reality.

And the phrase that must remain in memory:
When injustice becomes a daily scene, the most dangerous thing that can happen is for people to stop being amazed.