I came across this story by Ethan Bronner which I think is just a great way to cap out the week… a group of women who defied the laws of Israel with their own peaceful protest involving (of all things!) a swim in the ocean!
The women – most of whom had never seen the ocean before – were Palestinians from the southern part of the West Bank, which is landlocked, and Israel does not allow them in. They risked criminal prosecution, along with the dozen Israeli women who took them to the beach. And that was part of the point: to protest what they and their hosts consider unjust laws.
The beach trips – seven in total so far – began a year ago as the idea of one Israeli, and have blossomed into a small movement of civil disobedience. In a newspaper advertisement, the group of women declared: ”We cannot assent to the legality of the Law of Entry into Israel, which allows every Israeli and every Jew to move freely in all regions between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, while depriving Palestinians of this same right.”