coins and bombs

-by Eva Bartlett, December 21, 2009

*Coins from Palestine, before the Nakba, before the occupation, before the siege, before the massacre. History and beauty remain in Palestine, despite Israel’s effort to erase the history, the memories, the life.

*In the same house in Attatra, northwestern Gaza, a collection of weapons Israel dropped on their area in the 2008/9 massacre of Gaza.

*A lovely house, surrounded by agricultural land and trees.  On the rooftop, the family keeps bees, drawing on the grandfather’s hobby.  When he fled 1948 Palestine during the Nakba, he managed to bring some of his bees with him, and kept his practise as a refugee in Gaza.

Beyond the living room window, the strewed remains of Israeli tank & bulldozer-razed trees and greenhouses.  From inside, it is almost possible to forget the massacre of one year ago.  Except for that collection of spent bombs.