Carmel and the Bracelets of Occupation

In the long, cold darkness of night, when twilight draws its curtains and you can’t see your way, and the wind rages in your face, making you lose your balance, and oppression seizes your voice so your scream goes unheard… Rise from the rubble, carry your soul on your shoulder, and resist your terrified enemy. For dawn is inevitably coming… Karmel, daughter of the sun, daughter of this land kneaded with sweat and blood, daughter of wheat stalks and orange groves, daughter of Carmel, Galilee, and Haifa, a Palestinian prisoner who suffered the torments of oppression and injustice in the occupation’s prisons, yet she bloomed from the ashes like a cactus blooming among the hard rocks of Carmel. Karmel is the voice of the voiceless, the voice of the oppressed in that holy land deliberately ignored by the world, those who hold onto embers, patient in the face of injustice, revolting against oppression, clinging to truth and land, and true to their covenant with God. Among them are those who have passed away, and among them are those who await, and they have not faltered.