“Kindergarten playground update.”

Cheerful news from the West Bank.

Good news arrived at 6:05 (Pacific Time Zone) yesterday morning in a WhatsApp text from R., whose full name I cannot use. It was followed a few minutes later by a text from Kathem, whose name I can and often use.

Both messages were a series of photographs depicting work under way on the playground at the Ghassan Kanafani kindergarten in Al–Mughayyir. They show a bulldozer grading the site, a backhoe digging a new sewage line, the installation of a septic tank for the bathroom, and finally the laying of wire mesh in preparation for the concrete pour.

These are not glamorous pictures, but I have rarely seen any more exciting. They brought happiness to my heart, and I hope this news brings joy to yours, especially to those who have supported this project from the beginning. The money that was so generously donated by many of our readers, along with matching funds from our partner in Hebron, will provide a playground with new play equipment and badly needed repairs to the roof and bathroom.

This is to be celebrated, and I invite you to take a moment to do so: Let this success sink into your heart and into the marrow of your bones and give thanks for it.

Al–Mughayyir is raided almost every day now, and building a playground in this remote village, thirty miles north and east of Ramallah, is nothing short of a miracle. Just this past Saturday a text arrived from Kathem at 6:24 am as I was waking up on the West Coast of the United States (4:24pm in Al–Mughayyir) showing I.O.F. soldiers, or settlers dressed as soldiers—there is no longer any meaningful distinction—lobbing gas canisters into the village and shooting at random. The previous Sunday, Kathem sent a video at 8:05 pm local time of soldiers brutalizing a Palestinian teenager—banging his head on a concrete sidewalk—before arresting him.

As we celebrate a success in the name of the physical and psychic health of children who would be in kindergarten in any ordinary circumstance, we must not forget these daily realities or the toll they take on these children.

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There were times when it seemed that this playground might never be built, times when I feared I would need to return all of the money to each donor. In August the project was suddenly put on hold when our contact in Ramallah was arrested. It was then that I knew I had to go back to the West Bank as soon as possible.

In 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations as terrorist groups. This was intended to destroy these groups because of the work they do in support of Palestinian people and communities—part of Israel’s long efforts to unravel Palestinian society and ultimately cleanse the land of its indigenous people.

Because of this designation, anyone funding these organizations or working in any capacity with them can be arrested for supporting terrorism. One of these groups, the Palestinian Women’s Union, operated 37 kindergartens throughout the West Bank and Gaza. These schools were named after the beloved Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, who was assassinated by Mossad in Lebanon in 1972. All of the Ghassan Kanafani kindergartens in Gaza were destroyed months ago in Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide.

The Union is one of our project partners. These ordinary Palestinian women and mothers are nothing short of heroic. Despite enormous risks—including constant threat of arrest—they continue to serve the most vulnerable rural communities. In addition to administering the kindergartens in the West Bank, most of their work these days is focused on providing psychosocial therapy for women and children in response to the continuous violence in their lives.

The realization of the playground project entailed multiple meetings with our partners in Ramallah, Hebron, and Al–Mughayyir—people whose identities must be protected. On my very first day in the West Bank, 23 October, we met at the kindergarten to review the scope of work. Moving this project forward meant finding a way to secure and deliver money so that all transfer of funds remained off the record and under the radar. Above all, it involved enormous levels of trust and good-hearted intentions that prioritized the needs of young children while ensuring the safety and anonymity of our partners.

Palestinians, I have learned, are able to create something from almost nothing. Israelis destroy and Palestinians rebuild. Where there is a need, Palestinians find a remarkable way—even in the face of increasing violence in the West Bank and an ongoing genocide in Gaza and at a moment when hope seems completely lost.

The persistent resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people, their willingness to take personal risks—up to and including the sacrifice of freedom and life—is a testament to their unfailing dignity and humanity. Their example is a light to the world. Palestinians, despite continual efforts to erase them, are showing all good people the way forward even as much of the world betrays them.

I decided to share some of the challenges this project faced so that readers know what is possible when people of good will work together and refuse to give up. In this new year, may each of us be inspired by the example of our Palestinian sisters and brothers. May we be moved to take meaningful risks. May we never give up and may we never lose heart.