For many Palestinians and Palestinian Americans, the days following the horrific assault by Hamas militants on Israel last weekend have been filled with worry.
Bshara Nassar is the founder and president of the Museum of the Palestinian People, in Northwest Washington. In their waking hours they watch the news or check their phones, hoping for a text message or maybe a brief call. They want some indication that family members or friends are okay. That they have food and water. That they are alive.
For many of the Washington region’s Palestinians and Palestinian Americans, including artists, activists, business owners and educators who have made the area their home, the days following the horrific assault by Hamas militants on Israel last weekend have been filled with worry.
“For 15 years, the Gaza Strip has been under siege and endured five wars,” he said, referring to Israel’s tight security cordon around Gaza."For 75 years, Palestinians have been enduring one catastrophe after another. … If we’re serious about what’s really happening, I expected American officials would be more considerate about what’s happening and take it as a chance to really solve it rather than calling for an escalation.
Nassar grew up on a farm in Bethlehem in the West Bank where his family grows grapes, olives, almonds and figs. He said he does not have relatives in Gaza but worries about a war that could spread to include the West Bank, a patchwork of areas effectively under Israeli control and others governed by the Palestinian Authority, a longtime rival to Hamas, which is dominant in Gaza. As he has watched events unfold, he can only think, he said, that “violence is not the answer.
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