A Ray of Light... Soon "Palestine Canton"

By God, my friends, we have lived in this land a sweet and beautiful time, with less hardship and easier crossings; we used to start our cars in Tulkarem, and it wouldn’t take long before we reached the heart of Ramallah in less than an hour. And if we thought of visiting Nablus, Jenin, or even returning to Tulkarem, nothing stood in our way; the roads were open, and the views were splendid, almost lifting the soul with their beauty. And if we longed for the salty sea, reaching it was easy and comfortable, spending time on its beach a joy for the soul and a healing for the weary body.

But today, the story has changed; the West Bank has been divided into "genius" geometric divisions: North, Center, South... and some have even added "North of the North" and "South of the Center"!

- Northern State: The Emirates of Jenin, Tubas, Jericho and the Jordan Valley, Tulkarem, Salfit, Qalqilya, Nablus.
- Central State: The Emirates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh.
- Southern State: The Emirates of Bethlehem and Hebron.

So if you decide to move from one state to another, or from one emirate to another, know that it is not an ordinary trip or a passing errand, but a tough test; you will need a permit, a magnetic card, and good behavior, and your vehicle will also need a similar permit.

You will be asked about your status: Are you married? How many children do you have? Are you over forty? Do you suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes? Do you have relatives from the tenth grandfather who were once arrested? Did you ever love Mahmoud Darwish or Samih Al-Qassem or Abdul Karim Al-Karmi or Abdul Rahim Mahmoud? Do you own a checked keffiyeh? Do you know songs like "My Weapon from My Wounds," or "Poor, O Fatah," or "Fedayee," or "O Pulse of the West Bank"?

And it is essential that you know, before your travels, the opening and closing times of the gates and checkpoints installed on the borders of your state and emirate, and that you know Hebrew to understand the roads that Arabs are allowed to cross, and those they are prohibited from approaching. It is also important to keep up with the news about the settlements established all over the "Kingdom of Judah and Samaria/West Bank previously" to know the dates of their holidays and celebrations, and the return of vehicles, livestock, and horses of their residents to their locations.

And if you want to find the location and route to a Palestinian town or village lost from your memory, you can just refer to the Waze app or Google Maps, or the pages of the entrances and roads of the Arab gatherings.

But if you wish to pray at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, you must obtain a "visa" from the central settlement ministry in Tel Aviv, or from its branches distributed in the settlements close to your residence, and provide all the evidence to prove that your mind has not been contaminated with national issues and curricula.

And if a longing for Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Baysan, Safed, Nazareth, Um al-Fahm, or the Gaza Strip crosses your mind, you will need a special permit from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, a guarantee of one million shekels "in cash", a certificate of freedom from Palestinian history and geography, and assurance of the safety of your body's and mind's composition.

And you can receive "help and support" from the immigration offices established at the crossings of the above-mentioned cantons or states and emirates to facilitate your travel and immigration to any country you choose in the global space, and obtain its citizenship.

We have come to live in "Palestine Canton": separate states and emirates from each other; each with its own borders, crossings, emir, passport, personal identity, special stamps and visas, legislative, parliamentary, and municipal councils, a government and technocrat ministers, currency, banks, telecommunication companies, universities, and a gas and oil well and petroleum refinery.

Settlement is devouring Palestinian land piece by piece, and its ship is sinking in the ocean of the Zionist ideological settlement project. We Palestinians do not have strategies, nor plans, nor institutions to support and stabilize the Palestinian citizen in his homeland; national, political, governmental, economic, financial, and social structures are paralyzed. We have not yet absorbed a hundred years of Palestinian history or more, that the only struggle left to write is for the land only, and everything else is surplus to requirements!.