Celebration and Mourning

Just wanted to let everyone know I arrived and am heading down from Jerusalem to At Tuwani today. Don't have much time to write anything substantial. There have been so many tourists here the last few days, which I'm guessing is due to celebrations of Israel's 60th anniversary. Israeli flags line the streets of Jerusalem and many Israeli Jewish homes have flags hanging our their windows. There have been fireworks displays every night this past week as well as other events in the city. Palestinian Jerusalemites (Palestinians who live in Eastern Jerusalem and have residence IDs in Israel but are not citizens) seem happy for the business so much tourism brings, but less than ecstatic about the celebrations. Though the celebration of Israel as a state is a happy occassion for many, for Palestinians it is a reminder of 60 years of dispossession. One people's joy is another's pain. I'm interested to go into the West Bank today and see what Palestinians have been doing to commemorate what Israelis call the War of Independence and what Palestinians call the Catastrophe.