#zochrot

METAL MONDAY: Zochrot by Carcass - When Surgical Steel was released in 2013, I hailed it as one of the best albums of the year. Carcass, the UK death metal / grindcore band, had finally come back with one of their best efforts ever, thus restoring order to the metal universe.

Ruins to the sky: Empty buildings in what was once a vibrant Palestinian town in the outskirts of Jerusalem prior to 1948.

Where once a Palestinian village stood, there are now wild flowers and thick cacti growing amongst the ruins in Lifta, a Palestinian town on the outskirts of Jerusalem that was depopulated in 1948. Fortunately plans to pave over these 200 year old ruins and make a new ritzy housing development for Jewish Israelis have been stalled for now. Wild flowers are tenacious and so they keep on growing here. May our collective memory be as strong.

We saw the central spring in the heart of the town which was being used for ritual bathing by religious Jews preparing for Shabbat and by Israeli teens having fun on a sunny summer afternoon. It was as if a soft bubble of invisibility for Palestinian history was floating around this ancient pool.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred. Only love can do that." - MLK

Light shines through into abandoned Palestinian mosque and olive press building here in Lifta.

The IDF punched holes into the roofs of these structures to make them uninhabitable. Seeing the hole in the ceiling I thought about the holiness of this forgotten history and our sacred obligation to expose the truth in these dark times.