Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability. They learned to celebrate martyrdom. Only martyrdom offered freedom. Only in death were they at last invulnerable to Israel. Martyrdom became the ultimate defiance of Israeli occupation.

Amal,I believe that most Americans do not love as we do. It is not for any inherent deficiency or superiority in them. They live in the safe, shallow, parts that rarely push human emotions into the depths where we dwell.

For I'll keep my humanity, though I did not keep my promises. ... and Love shall not be wrested from my veins.

We're all born with the greatest treasures we'll ever have in life. One of those treasures is your mind, another is your heart.

I watch life trickle from the bullet wound of a sixteen-year-old "example" and marvel how things weak, even words, will turn vicious and merciless to gain power,despite reason or history

For if life had taught her anything, it was that healing and peace can begin only with acknowledgment of wrongs committed.

How can one find the first moment of love? When, in what instant, does the night's dark sky become blue?