Well tomorrow I leave my beloved Palestine behind.  As I fly over Palestine I look for the camps and checkpoints below where all my dear friends live.

Of course you never see that, the Israeli's would never want people to see what is happening here, so they choose their routes carefully avoiding the above.

 

It is hidden away from public view.

 

For all the people who have supported us as a Campaign I would thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

For my husband who funds my flights and of course his own.  All members of the Campaign fund their own flights and expenses.

 

For the wonderful Campaign members who stand every Saturday for at least 5 hours in the pouring rain, the snow, the sleet, the wind and never once moan about it.  We always find something to laugh about.

 

I only wish everyone who has contributed could have seen the photos and video (even although it was 2 hours long) of Hiba, our first student to graduate.  She is a nurse now.

We have photographs of her graduation on the stall now.  She was grinning from ear to ear.

 

Her words to me were 'Margaret, no matter what the occupation does, I still did it'.

Meaning of course finishing her nursing studies.

 

She also told me her father has bleeding behind the retina in his eyes for the past 5 years and she did not want to tell us because she said we had done enough for her.

 

Now she is working she is paying for him to have treatment.  She told me that the day before I saw her, her mother, and father and her all went to the hospital she worked in.

She told me the doctors came up to talk to her and expressed their delight at meeting her parents.  She explained how proud her mother and father were that their daughter who lives in a Refugee Camp is friends with the doctors and the high regard they have for her.  THEY WERE BURSTING WITH PRIDE SHE TOLD ME.

 

So tomorrow I leave and my heart aches at the thought that every time I leave it might be the last time for me to be allowed to enter and also that some of my friends can either be jailed or murdered. 

 

When I say jailed, I merely mean the IOF have a habit of targeting young men and arresting them for nothing.

 

TO A FREE PALESTINE

 

INSHALLA