"They throw stones!"

Brad and I rented a car in Jerusalem today and drove it back into the West Bank to visit Masada - a desert fortress - and the Dead Sea.  We returned too late to bring the car back so we had to go through the checkpoints surrounding Ramallah.  When we approached I tried just flashing our US passports but the soldiers asked me to roll down my window.  One asked where we were from and where we were going.  I think the questions they ask at checkpoints are just frustratingly silly.  I showed you my US passport and I am attempting to pass through a checkpoint to Ramallah.  Yes, let's waste our time by demanding to know where I am from and where I am going.  

And then the hilarity began.  The kid with the big gun said, "You know it's dangerous there?"  Brad and I looked at him incredulously.  He continued, "They throw stones."  At this we couldn't help ourselves.  We just looked at each other in exasperation and could do nothing but laugh a painful laugh.  And then he waved us through.

This is a common and intentional misconception.  I have never felt I was in any danger whatsoever here in Palestine.  Walking home alone late at night, visiting refugee camps, visiting strongholds of Hamas support.  I do hope that more people who visit Israel, like the Rabbi who joined us on our visit to Bethlehem and Hebron, will include visits to Palestine in their itinerary.  

Americans in particular will find their welcome in Palestine to be very interesting.  You will run into many fellow American-Palestinians and nearly everyone will tell you that they have a relative in the States.  So many Palestinians are American citizens or have family members who are.  They will say, "Oh, I'm from Arizona.  My brother is living there still.  He owns a restaurant called 'American Kitchen'", like the guy running the taxi stand in Jenin.  Or, "I lived in South Carolina for twelve years.  My kids are all US citizens.  Maybe I'll get citizenship through them in the future", like the man who owns a grocery store by my office.

By the way, we are entering Jerusalem illegally...

Here are some pictures from Hebron.

Armed Israeli settler walking freely past the military checkpoint on his way to the complex that houses the mosque and synagogue above the tomb of Abraham.

Military checkpoint in the city.  Palestinian youth waiting to be allowed to continue on their way.

Closed Palestinian shops in Hebron.

Closed shops in Hebron.

Closed shops in Hebron.

Last week we took a trip to Hebron and Bethlehem.  The occupation in Hebron is a bit unique.  About 400 extremist Israeli Jews have occupied the Old City of Hebron with several thousand IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) soldiers there to "protect" them from their Palestinian neighbors.  The neighborhoods outside of the Old City are Palestinian with illegal Israeli settlements interspersed throughout them.  This has been an area of extreme tension and is a hotbed of settler violence against Palestinians.  The city is home to the tomb of Abraham, a place holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  A church was constructed over the tomb.  Later it became a mosque and then it became a place of worship shared by both Jews and Muslims.  In 1994 Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli physician in a settlement in Hebron, got past Israeli security with hand grenades and a machine gun and entered the mosque at Abraham's tomb where he opened fire on people as they prayed.  He killed 29 Palestinians and wounded another 150.  The people within the mosque fought back with a fire extinguisher and killed him.  His cause of death was officially registered as "murder" although no charges were filed against those who ended his killing spree.  Riots followed that killed 25 Palestinians and 5 Israelis.  A two week curfew was imposed on Palestinians only.  They were not allowed to leave their homes while settlers, including those from Goldstein's community, were free to come and go as they pleased.  A memorial was set up for Goldstein at the nearby settlement. 

After this massacre, the prayer site was split into two - one section for Muslims and one for Jews.  There are three checkpoints to get into the mosque.  Both sides have access through a window to the tomb of Abraham and you can look through the window in the mosque and see people praying in the synagogue.

The actions of Baruch Goldstein were the most horrendous of recent attacks but there is a long history of both violence and dispossession as well as peace and coexistence on both sides.  What is happening today in Hebron is dispicable.

The beautiful Old City is a ghost town.  Most of the Palestinian shops have been forced to close.  The floors above the stores has been occupied by Israeli settlers.  The Palestinian municipal government had to install wire fencing above the shops that are still open and below the windows of the settlers' houses to protect Palestinians from garbage and stones being thrown on them.  

As we were sitting having tea with a Palestinian shop owner, a settler came up to him and verbally threatened him.  He asked him "Why are so many terrorists coming from your home?"  Many families lost their businesses from accusations that they were somehow linked to "terrorism" and therefore were a security threat.  

Israeli soldiers set up checkpoints all throughout the city and Palestinians must show their ID cards when they are just trying to walk down the street.  The soldiers can then hold them there as long as they want for no reason.  We saw this.  When a group of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), a group that monitors and reports on Israeli abuses of Palestinians in Hebron, walked by, the soldiers finally gave the young boys back their ID cards and let them go.  

The military presence is much more aggressive and threatening than in Jerusalem.  There are snipers on the roofs with their finger on the trigger and gun pointed following you as you walk by.  Can you imagine your child walking home from school with a sniper's gun trained on her everyday?  When we were shopping in some of the shops that are still in business, a pack of Israeli soldiers walked through for some reason.  They walked through slowly with their machine guns raised and their fingers on the trigger.  They would stop as they approached people, including us, and remain a few minutes eyeing us with their weapons pointed at us.  

Israeli flags fly from the settlers homes but Palestinian flags are not allowed to be flown.

Just this past passover a 2 week curfew was imposed on Palestinians.  One of the families we spoke to keeps a donkey in their house and they were not able to take him out or go out themselves during this time.

The air is filled with desperation as the economy is being strangled and threats occur daily in an attempt to finally clear the city completely of Palestinians.

Hebron is one of the cities that the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem launched their project "Shooting Back" in which they provide Palestinians with video cameras to document abuse at the hands of settlers and the IOF.  A search on youtube.com will turn up some disturbing footage from Hebron.

I cannot express enough how disturbing the situation is.  Palestinians in the West Bank are occupied by the Israeli military force.  The Oslo Accords produced areas A, B, and C with varying degrees of autonomy for Palestinians but this is no matter because regardless of what type of area you are living in you are still occupied.  As a Palestinians you may have your own Palestinian local government and police force but they are helpless in the face of the Israeli military and your neighbors in the illegal settlements.  There is no one to protect your rights.  You are a citizen of a country that has no power to protect your rights and you are not a citizen of the country that controls whether your rights will be respected or not.

Well before I end this I want to explain the title of the post.  You see we got up early in the morning to take the bus into Jerusalem only to catch a bus there back into the West Bank to go to Bethlehem.  The bus that I usually take, which has Israeli plates and can drive through the checkpoint and into East Jerusalem, was not there. They guys told me I could take this smaller shared taxi.  In the taxi they told me that they could either bring me to the normal checkpoint that I go to and I would have to go through the security process and catch another bus on the other side OR they could take me to another place where I could just walk through easily.  So I said "yeah the second one will be good if you think it is easier."  Three of them were going to this second place too so they could help me find my way.  The taxi brought us close to the normal checkpoint but then turned down some other roads and stopped right by the Wall.  What followed was 20 minutes of climbing up and over things and meandering up and down alleys.  Two of the guys were going to Israel to work.  The other guy is a student at the American University in Jenin and was visiting a school in Jerusalem.  Finally this student said to us, "By the way, we are entering Jerusalem illegally.  The Israelis will not give any of us permission to visit Jerusalem." That is when I realized that we were walking around the Wall and sneaking into Jerusalem illegally.  Great.  So much for security.  It was pretty easy and painless.  Many Palestinians still work illegally in Israel, something families depend on to survive.  It is just that now it takes them longer to get to work because they have to find the cracks in the Wall.

Ni'lin: Still not the story they want you to hear

Thank you Neve Gordon and The Nation.  Where is the rest of the world?

Don't Try to Understand

Yasser told us, "Don't try to understand the situation.  There is no logic or answer to be found.   I have been here my whole life, living this experience.  It is the only reality I have ever known and even I can't begin to comprehend it.  Perhaps some day we will get some answers."

Yasser is a very active member of the African Palestinian community in Jerusalem and runs the African Community Youth Center in the African area of the Old City of Jerusalem.  I had an incredible 1.5 hours with him thanks to two other GWU students that I ended up spending the day in Jerusalem with last weekend.  One of them had been working and living in East Jerusalem last summer and had met Yasser then.  On our meanders through the city we found ourselves in the little African section of the city so he asked a guy hanging out on the street if Yasser was around.  To our surprise the guy set off on a mission to find him.  About ten minutes later Yasser arrived and invited us into the center he runs.  

He told us his story.  His father is from Chad and his mother is a "white" Palestinian.  Other Palestinians that I told his story to think it is funny that they are considered "white".  His father came to Palestine on a French passport and therefore in 1967 when Israel occupied East Jerusalem and his mother's family was forced east and settled in Jericho and Jordan, his father and mother were able to stay due to the French passport.  He received a scholarship to study in England but was only given a three month permit to do so.  When he returned at the end of the semester to renew the travel permit he was arrested.  After that he was arrested many times for his political and social activism.  His longest stint in jail was for five years.  He is still regularly arrested and says that anytime there is anything sensitive happening in the city they just come and get him and put him in detention for a few hours.  The last time was back in May when he was leading a group of Palestinian children on a tour of the Old City to counter the 60 years celebration.  He was arrested and taken from the children he was leading.  When his friends at school in Englad asked him why he wasn't returning and lamented about the injustice of it he tried to explain to them (and us) that "It's ok.  Some things are just not a possibility in my life.  It's ok.  I can find alternatives.  I will not give up.  The limitations they impose will not stop me.  I will go to school here.  Every time they try to deny me, I find an alternative."  He also said that every time he is arrested the army and police try to divide him as an Afro-Palestinian from other Palestinians.  They say, "You are African.  Why do you want to support these people? You are not one of them."

When he discussed his work with Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, where drugs and low school attendance are a problem, he echoed the words of the woman I am working with here in Ramallah.  He said that they are very limited in the impact that they can make because of the occupation. By combating drug use they are battling the occupation though. By encouraging youth to get an education they are battling the occupation.

As a lifelong resident of the Old City and as a scholar of Jerusalem Studies he had many things to share with me about the city. When he spoke about the situation and the struggle and the occupation he was completely focused on Jerusalem. It was like he was devoting his life to holding this one piece of ground. He is holding ground while people are offering his community very good prices to sell their homes and move out of the Old City.

He shared with me a very interesting story about the Western/Wailing Wall.  After hearing it I kind of feel like an idiot for not realizing it myself since it is so obvious.  It just shows the degree to which power is all about controlling the narrative.  So did you ever wonder why the holiest site in Judaism, a wall that is thought to be a wall of the 2nd Temple, has a huge amount of open space in front of it in the Old City of Jerusalem where everything else is incredibly cramped with little winding paths throughout the neighborhoods? I am ashamed to say that I never wondered about this before myself. What I learned is that this big open area was formerly the Moroccan quarter of the Old City.  This 700 year old neighborhood became highly diverse with people not only from north Africa but also Muslim, Christian, and Jewish residents of Palestine living in the neighborhood. There were a few meters of space between the wall and the buildings of the neighborhood.  This space became a regular place of prayer for Jews after Sultan Sulayman (1520-1566) cleared a few meters for this purpose.  After the 1948 War, the 1500 Jews living in this neighborhood were expelled by Jordan to the Israeli controlled part of the city, just as tens of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from the Israeli controlled to the Jordanian controlled parts of Jerusalem.  After the 1967 War Israel occupied all of the Old City and put the Moroccan quarter under house arrest while their city planners were brought in. On June 10, 1967 Israel gave two hours notice to the several hundred residents of this quarter that they were to evacuate their homes.  By the evening of June 11th nearly all of the 135 homes had been destroyed.  They destroyed an entire neighborhood in the ancient city of Jerusalem. One old woman who didn't evacuate her home was crushed to death inside it.  Initially religious structures were left in tact. But even the mosques were bulldozed by 1969. Israel offered each family 200 Jordanian Dinars. Only about half accepted it because to do so would have legitimized the ethnic cleansing that took place.

So this is how the "Western Wall Plaza" came to be. It is now considered a part of the Jewish Quarter of the city. Although only 20% of the land is actually a part of the Jewish Quarter, the rest being land appropriated from the Palestinians forced from it, only Jews are allowed to live in this neighborhood. This law has been upheld by a 1978 Israeli Supreme Court ruling in the case of the Burqan family against the state of Israel. The court recognized that the Burqan family were the owners of a house in what is now the Jewish Quarter but said that the special historical significance of the area to the Jewish people trumps all legal claims to the property by non-Jews.

It is strange to walk through Jerusalem and see the American kids on their Birthright trips and all of the Christian tourists and hear all of the stories the guides are telling.  To control the narrative of the city of Jerusalem is to possess the city. At the moment, the pro-Zionism Israeli narrative (only one of many Israeli narratives) is the dominant one. But of course possession of this city, along with the power of narrative, has changed hands throughout time. This is the way of all things I guess. All powers fall, right Mom? I only hope that we can keep the subjugated narratives alive through their period of subjugation.

Omar Qassis

In the middle of the night on March 27, 2008 Omar Qassis, a student at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was woken from his sleep and arrested at his family's home.  He remains in prison now in Israel even though, since he is from the West Bank, it is against international law for Israel to transfer him across territories. He was eventually charged as an adult with "throwing stones" sometime during 2001-2002 when he would have been 16 years old.  This charge does not require that the charge be connected to a particular incident or a particular day. So it is impossible for him to present a defense and an alibi. Below is communication that Birzeit University's "Right to Education" campaign received from him on May 17th:

"I am O.K. but since my arrest my weight has dropped from 67 to 59 kilos.  Since arriving in Ofer I have not been given enough sugar so I have been feeling dizzy and dehydrated, and I couldn't sleep for the first 4 days.  I had hemorrhoids which were painful but my requests to see a doctor were ignored.  In the end I had to skip meals to be able to see a doctor.

The hemorrhoids developed while I was under interrogation because I wasn't given any clean clothes and the solitary confinement cell I was in - 'the hole' - was really humid.  I was in 'the hole' for 11 days.  Also when they started interrogating me I was tied down to a chair while intelligence officers questioned me for 4 hours at a time. Some soldiers told me that I would get hemorrhoids from sitting down so much if I didn't start confessing.

I also couldn't sleep because of the mental distress I was under.  I wake up easily, every time a soldier walks past. I saw soldiers beating other inmates and fear that I could be next. I'm also very disoriented, I hear sounds of dogs barking and people screaming at night. I think these are recordings but they affect me. I also heard a siren the other night and I imagined Israel was going to war with Iran and that they had evacuated the prison leaving me there alone. I have lost my bearings and am generally confused about the times of day or night.

The other day I cried. I cried at the sight of an old man, probably in his 60s, sitting alone and looking very fragile. I also know that he is diabetic. I can't stand to see the injustice he is in, and even less to imagine the injustices he has seen.

Now that I am here in prison I am in less physical pain but I am still stressed at the uncertainty of it all. I have no idea how long I will be in prison. I have no idea what they are doing or claiming. All I know is that I'm not a threat to security but I was still being questioned about all sorts of things, so anything and everything is going through their heads.

I basically just want to know when I can see my family again."

A Wedding in Ni'lin

We held a workshop in Jenin today on women's representation and participation in the Palestinian media.  But what I want to tell you about is that one member of our staff was not able to make it to the workshop.  Her sister-in-law was getting married yesterday in the village of Ni'lin, near Ramallah.  Ni'lin is facing the construction of the wall.  It will cut them off from their land.  Land that now has the raw sewage from the nearby Jewish settlement running through it.  They are waging a legal battle against the construction but the building goes on regardless.  So they have been launching a creative non-violent battle as well.  They go out in the evening with noisemakers to remind the settlers on the hill above them that they are still alive and will continue to live even if the wall is constructed.  The response to these noise demonstrations has been the arrival of the Israeli army in the village at 2am with a noise machine, not to mention the response that happens during the protests - tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition.  On Friday, the day of the wedding, there was a protest scheduled.  Palestinians were going to be joined by Israeli and International solidarity activists. Because of this the Israeli army put a curfew on the village. Nobody was allowed in or out and movements were limited within the village as well because it is divided into two halves by an army checkpoint. 

This gets me back to my co-worker.  She had to call and tell us that she wouldn't be able to make it to the workshop because she was stuck in Ni'lin.  The wedding was a somber affair as the bride was not able to make it to Ramallah to get her hair and makeup done and many of the guests were not able to arrive.  Not to mention the tear gas and ammunition in the air due to the fact that despite the curfew, and the inability of Israeli and International activists to join them, the village held one of their largest protests to date.  600 villagers participated.  The Israeli military responded.  24 people were injured, 3 houses were damaged, 4 Israeli activists and one news reporter were arrested for being present.  Ambulances carrying the wounded were not allowed to leave the village.  There were further plans for the residents of Ni'lin, joined by others, to repave one of their roads that was torn up by a bulldozer but I do not know if that is taking place tonight.  If the village stays under curfew, with people unable to go to work, visit hospitals, friends, and family and just live, then there will be a march on Ni'lin starting in a nearby village.  

I am writing this because it is important to know that non-violent protests and demonstrations are being held in towns and villages across the West Bank every week.  And I am telling you about my co-worker because I think people forget that this is a place where people just like you live just like you do.  They have weddings and the bride makes plans for her hair on this big day.  

I am also writing about this because people have been asking me about the attack in Jerusalem a few days ago. It is tragic for family members.  But I just don't think people realize that there are attacks every week that are much closer to me.  And they are not just at protests.  They are the child shot in Hebron and the 2 people shot the next day as they walked in his funeral procession.  They are the Palestinian shepherds that are run over by Israeli settlers' cars as they walk their flocks on the side of the road.  And of course the targeted assassinations. I know that a man taking control of a bulldozer and plowing it into cars right in front of news cameras is quite dramatic and terrifying.  But the systematic violence of the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank, much of which is not caught on camera because of the restrictions placed on journalists and human rights monitors, is much more terrifying to me. 

Zeina Ashrawi Hutchinson's Letter

I wanted to share with you this letter written by the daughter of Hanan Ashrawi, a civil society leader and political activist here in Palestine.  The tragedy of it is that it is not an exceptional story.

Denied the Right to go Home

by Zeina Ashrawi Hutchinson

21 June 2008

I am Palestinian - born and raised - and my Palestinian roots go back centuries.  No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem, my birth place, is not Palestine, even if they tell me that Palestine doesn't exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights.

I AM PALESTINIAN.

Name: Zeina Emile Sam'an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab.  This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card.  An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine.  Born in Jerusalem, I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan).  I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport.

Here is my story:

I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia.  I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC.  My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem, along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon - when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document.  We did that year after year.  As a people living under and occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us.

In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual "Returning Resident" VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document.  After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks, my turn came.  I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window.

"Shalom" she said with a smile.  "Hi" I responded, apprehensive and scared.  As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed.  The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual.  After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: "Where is your American Passport?"  I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands.  She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: "You don't have an American Passport?" suspicious that I was hiding information from her.  "No!" I said.  She was quiet for a little longer and then said: "Well, I am not sure we'll be able to extend your Travel Document."  I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home!  I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document.

After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US.  My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do.  She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens.

A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extend my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the "Returning Resident" VISA.  Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA.  Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said "tourist VISA".  Whey am I getting a tourist VISA to go home?  Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn't going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going.  She didn't add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up.  So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it.

My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer.  So a month before we were set to Leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask for a VISA to go home.  I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home.  When my turn came I walked up to the window; "Shalom" she said with a smile on her face, "Hi" I replied.  I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction.  I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home.  She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without incident.

A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card.  I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn't get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail.  I left a message with the information they needed but kept calling every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process.  I finally got a hold of someone.  I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information that I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order.  She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn't acceptable.  So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina.  A few hours later my cell phone rang.  "Zeina?" she said.  "Yes" I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent.  She said: "ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your VISA was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid."  "Excuse me?" I said in disbelief.  "Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid.  This decision came from Israel, not from me."

I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach.  "Why?" I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card.  I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this was my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail.  Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn't be given the VISA and then said: "Let the Americans give you a Travel Document".  

I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home.  I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents: "Put yourself in my shoes, what would you do?  You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can't!  What would you do?  Forget that you're Israeli and that I'm Palestinian and think about this for a minute!"  "Sorry" she said, "I know but I can't do anything, the decision came from Israel."  I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that - knowing that they could, and they had!

This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card.  The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it.  Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one's own home?  Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time?  Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn't be able to come back!

If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport.  In fact, the Israelis encourage that.  I, however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back!  I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most powerful countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my own home.

As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home - I am one of many.

Kristof's Trip to Hebron

NY times columnist in Palestine.  Even though I don't agree with all of the reasoning in this article, it is fantastic to see it in the American media.

No Discernible Line of Thought

I was reminded by a friend that I haven't posted anything in a while.  I guess I have just settled into a routine and gotten acclimated and started to feel too normal here.  I have been busy though so I'll share a bit of that with you.

I found an Arabic tutor.  Her name is Ranad and she is really great.  She was just starting university here when the second Intifada broke out.  It was impossible to attend school so she went to the Chicago and studied architecture.  She stayed for seven years and just returned last year.  Anyway, she is a great teacher and hopefully will be a great friend.  Saturday evening we went to a musical performance sponsored by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.  It is a beautiful, new, unique structure in the old city of Ramallah.  They added modern materials and shapes to the old stones of the city.  I don't usually like this combination of modern and ancient but I really loved this place.  The music was played on a roof that had large pieces of metal towering and bending above and around us to aid the acoustics.  The first to perform was a group of classical musicians from Spain, Italy, and France.  They were very enjoyable although I got a laugh out of their decision to play "What Would You Do With a Drunken Sailor" to a group of people living in a landlocked country that requires permits to leave, most of whom practice a religion that prohibits the consumption of alcohol.  The second group was a Palestinian group.  They are known for singing the songs of Sheikh Imam, an Egyptian singer and composer who was famous for his political songs against the ruling elite and in support of the common man.  Much of his music was written from Egyptian prisons where he spent time due to his criticism of the government.  His lyrics are still used today in anti-government street demonstrations in Egypt.  The message of his music resonates throughout the Arab world and is particularly meaningful to the Palestine question.  Here are some translated lyrics from a song he wrote about Palestine in 1974:

"O Palestinians, exile has lasted so long,

That the desert is moaning from the refugees and the victims,

And the land remains nostalgic for the peasants who watered it

Revolution is the goal, and victory shall be our first step"

The first few songs that they played contained very complex language but the later songs were much more accessible to the audience and everyone started joining in by clapping and singing along.  It was really a beautiful evening and had an effect on me for some reason. There were many children there and others could be heard playing in the street below us.  People were on the roofs of nearby buildings, watching and listening. As we arrived at the venue old men had been sitting in a circle outside carrying on some type of discussion. People so enjoyed their musical guests from Europe and really seemed to appreciate these small gestures of international recognition that Palestinians are so often denied.  The evening just felt like this big gift of beauty, happiness, peace, freedom.

I am also really enjoying the women that I work with.  A new woman just started last week.  She is from Gaza and her husband is a Fatah member.  When Hamas took over in Gaza he fled to the West Bank.  She followed him here seven months later.  We have all managed to find time during the day or over ice cream after work to discuss and share our lives as women.  Bikinis, marriage, the difficulties of being a working mother, domestic violence, what does "women's rights" mean?, remembering that we are all living within a culture that shapes us and our views on these things. These conversations have just reinforced for me how much women around the world share and that there is a tremendous amount of strength that we can gather from these shared experiences.  Of course in our conversations there are many things that we disagree about but we have so many issues to discuss because as women we face the same things even if we differ on how we choose to face them.

One more thing - a friend of mine who is in El Salvador this summer, another society that has recently lived through a traumatic conflict, was telling me about how he interacts with people who lost fathers or limbs, or eyeballs in a conflict with a government that is still in power.  He said that the current situation is not exactly Peace, but more like a "hangover".  So he was asking me, in light of a poll that he saw that showed 2/3 of Palestinians supporting "terrorist attacks" on Israel, if I thought that even if a political agreement was reached that removed the settlements, gave Palestinians free access to Jerusalem, set up a Palestinian state with the territorial integrity to flourish, etc., etc. would society still be suffering for generations from the hangover of this 60 years of conflict?  I don't know.  I think it would help that unlike El Salvador or South Africa for instance, that their former enemy would be in another state altogether.  The internal Palestinian fighting is very concerning though.  I think there would be such an exuberance in the air if (biggest IF you have ever seen) there is a just and comprehensive agreement that allows Palestinians to live freely within their land and control their own lives and futures (and too many other details to possibly list).  But, no, I don't think people are going to forget about their Nakhba (catastrophe) of 1948.  How could they?  It is a defining aspect of their history and identity.  No, they will not stop thinking about the land they used to own along the sea in what is now Tel Aviv or the farms they worked in the Galilee.  And they will never forget the indignities and oppression they continue to live with now.  (I'm sorry that these thoughts are so disjointed.  I wasn't planning on writing any of this.  I guess I'll just keep going with it though.)  Many Palestinians have told me that these experiences make them stronger.  They are proud that they continue to live.  They are proud to be the most highly educated society in the Arab world.  They are proud that they have not given up and that they continue to seek freedom and independence.  While dispossession and oppression is central to every negative aspect of life, it is also central to every positive aspect of life.  To marry, to laugh, to fly a kite all mean something different, something more when you are struggling for your ability to exist.

I guess one last thing that I will address here - the fact that 2/3 of Palestinians support "terrorist attacks" on Israel.  To me this has no meaning unless we understand who is doing the defining of "terrorist attacks".  Are they attacks on the Israeli security that is denying shipments of food and fuel into Gaza?  Are they rockets fired out of Gaza into the surrounding Israeli areas?  If it is these two acts then I would put the number of supporters or at least sympathizers at an even higher figure.  Here is why - to Palestinians these attacks are not terrorism. They are a response to a state military apparatus dropping bombs in their neighborhoods where children play and using their position of power to cut off the population of Gaza from the outside world, not to mention food, fuel, and medicine. Sure, maybe the Israeli army doesn't "target" civilians (usually) but they don't care to avoid them either.  Therefore Palestinian militant actions are not seen as acts of terrorism but as acts of war, self-defense, revenge, resistance.  I don't want to give the impression here that 2/3 of Palestinians are participating in violent methods of resistance.  I am just saying that there is no way they are going to label these actions terrorist and outright reject their use while the world continues to give Israel free reign to disregard the lives of Palestinian civilians, not to mention Lebanese!  What I would like to underscore, because I don't think we ever hear about it in the American media, is the strength of the non-violent movement here in Palestine. Nearly everyone participates in some way. Whether it is trying not to buy Israeli-made goods, joining your neighbors in flying kites out the window of your house after a curfew has been put into effect that denies you your right to leave your own home, or participating in one of the protests that occur throughout every week here.  This non-violent movement has somehow stayed alive throughout all these years. This is quite remarkable since besides the occasional favorable court ruling or the delay in Israel's theft of land because people have chained themselves to bulldozers, what has it accomplished?  The outside world is largely ignorant of this extremely active movement, the situation has deteriorated to a level of complete absurdity, and the international community has not yet been willing to join them on the large scales that brought down Apartheid in South Africa.  More thoughts on this later. 

Grandmothers' Stories

Today we had lunch with the Grandmother of the family I am living with.  She lives just below us.  After lunch she told me a part of her story.  Her and her husband had three children, all boys, together.  He was a doctor.  One of only two in their area.  During the periods of conflict, including the 1967 war, her husband was imprisoned several times by Israel.  The charge was that as one of only two doctors in their area that he was providing medical care to wounded soldiers.  Would we expect a doctor not to treat the wounded?  While he was in prison he was tortured with electric shock and burned with cigarettes.  Their oldest son died during one of these times of imprisonment and his wife had to bear this loss alone without her husband.  He was seven years old.  The husband died at the young age of 60 which, wrong or right, the grandmother blames on the stress of imprisonment and torture.

As she finished her story she tried to communicate to me that she accepts the way her life has unfolded but that doesn't diminish the pain it has been filled with, including the current pain at the situation in which her grandchildren are being raised and in which her old friends are coming to the end of their life, not in peace.

One interesting thing about this storytelling session was that when she first spoke she said, "The Jews came and arrested my husband."  Her son corrected her and said, "Mom, don't say Jew.  They are Israelis."  I have noticed this a lot in conversations with people.  The word Israeli is always used.  Not Jew.  Perhaps this is a generational change since the grandmother initially used a religious rather than national descriptor before her son corrected her.  I see this as a recognition that their struggle is against a state and religion is not an accurate or meaningful description of the system they are struggling against.  

In other news - I attended a screening of a new film produced by the Palestinian human rights organization - Al Haq.  You can watch the trailer here.  It tells one woman's story (and she was in the audience), of the ethnic cleansing of the three Latrun villages of Beit Nouba, Imwas, and Yalo in the West Bank.  This was carried out during the 1967 war.  It was quite a horrific story of forced migration.  The woman left her disabled mother behind in their house, expecting to return to her in a few days when the army let them back in.  After living in open fields for a few days with no food to feed their children, her and her husband returned to check on her mother and harvest some food from their fields.  They found her mother's body in a field, her husband was shot and killed in front of her for returning, and she was driven off the land by the Israeli army in a truck full of other women who had returned to their homes to gather more supplies.  The villages were then completely destroyed.  Every building.  And today an Israeli-only camp called "Canada Park" has been created with funds from the Canadian Jewish Community.  There has been an attempt to erase the history of the land.  Israeli school children who visit the park are told that the remnants of foundations of old churches, mosques, and homes are from some ancient village - not Palestinians.  The refugees from these three villages remain extremely active in protesting their expulsion from their land and their denial of return.  They are afraid that their land will be permanently ceded to Israel in the event of a political agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian governments.  The film also showed the work of Israeli organizations that are trying to educate Israeli youth about the truth of Canada Park.

Vacation on Segregation Sea

I don't mean to just keep posting articles.  But here is another example of how this occupation is being carried out.  The link is to a press release from ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) about the teaming up of the Israeli army and Israeli business owners on the Dead Sea to prevent the "mixing" of Palestinian and Israeli visitors to the popular weekend destination.  They expect to be able to explain away these types of bigoted policies with one word - security.

One Perspective

Very interesting blog posting by a Jewish American activist.

Occupied Time

This article was published on the BBC's website a few days ago.  It is written by an expat living in Ramallah and is a good description of the strangeness of life in this little bubble of freedom within the occupied West Bank.

Tonight we were on our way out for a walk in the city.  A few shops would be opening up although most remain closed all day on Friday.  On our way out we ran into some family guests that were on their way out from the grandmother's house that is below our house.  So we were all called back into the house for more visiting and eating.  The guests were the grandmother's sister, her son, and his family.  They came from Nablus.  The older women sat me down and said that they wanted me to know what has happened here and what their lives are like.  I spoke with the son's wife for quite some time.  She is a university professor in Nablus.  She wanted to know how the US can continue to let them live this way.  Her family is in Gaza and it is impossible for them to see each other now.  She was distraught and confused over Obama's comments about Jerusalem.

And then she started looking at her watch.  She explained that because her husband is a doctor he is able to get a permit to drive his car within the West Bank rather than take taxis everywhere.  But they have to go through the whole process of renewing this permit every 3 months.  And then she explained the clockwatching.  They are only allowed to be on the road with their car until 10pm.  They need to end their visits early enough so that they can make it through all of the checkpoints and get back to Nablus and off the roads before they turn into a pumpkin at 10pm.  She said, "you can see how it is always on top of us."

Obama in Palestine

People here have been avidly following the presidential primaries in the US and Obama made big news here after his speech on June 4th at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  In his speech he said "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."  The international community, including the US, does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  Embassies are in Tel Aviv.  The Bush administration response was that this is an incredibly sensitive issue that can only be decided through mutual agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.  Abu Mazan (President Abbas) also came out strongly against this statement by Obama.  

There was a feeling of resigned disappointment when I was discussing the elections with people today.  They thought that Obama would represent something new for America, and therefore for them.  Like me, they thought that he would take a more nuanced and honest approach to the conflict.  When I asked today whether people would prefer Obama or McCain the response was "neither".  I worry that people will look at the next 4-8 years of their and their children's lives as a continuation of the steadily deteriorating situation in which more and more land is lost and any glimmer of hope gets dimmer and dimmer.  I still plan to vote for Obama but he has been an immense disappointment for me since I fell in love with him in 2004.  I will likely never let myself love another politician again - but I guess this is probably a healthy thing.

Work is going well.  I really enjoy the women that I work with.  I visited the family of one of them tonight.  Visiting is way of life here.  It's nice.  Neighbors come by with their kids regularly for tea and chatting.  All generations together enjoying each other.  I had a great time.  The food was amazing and it just kept coming.  They have fruit trees and grape vines outside their house so the grape leaves for ورق دوالي  (stuffed grape leaves) and the fruit plate were very locally supplied.  The ride home was interesting as well.  A friend of my friend's brother drove us around the city for a while before bringing me home.  He was born in America but his Palestinian parents moved the family from Florida to Ramallah 12 years ago - not too long after the Oslo Accords.  The problem is that he has no Palestinian ID card.  He is just a Palestinian American with an expired visa.  Without the Palestinian ID he cannot pass through Israeli military checkpoints without risking being deported and separated from his family, unable to re-enter due to his Palestinianness.  With a checkpoint at both the north and south of Ramallah he is trapped here because he doesn't want to take the chance of being barred entry after he is deported for being caught without proper papers.  Because of this he has not been able to attend University.  It is just one more absurd life in this absurd situation.

Qalqilia

Today I officially began my internship with Filastiniyat.  They are a civil society organization that works on issues of youth, women, and free media.  The founder of this organization is an incredible woman.  She is active in media and political reform in Palestine and is involved in international and local women's movements.

We travelled to Qalqilia, a city further north in the West Bank to do a training with groups of youth from Jenin, Bethlehem, and Qalqilia.  With a Palestinian taxi we were riding on the shared roads.  There are other roads that only Israelis in the West Bank are allowed to use.  Driving through the West Bank you see settlements dotting the hill tops and reaching down the agricultural land on slopes of these hills.  The valleys are full of Palestinian villages.  You see Palestinians waiting for buses and across the street there are settlers waiting for buses.  You pass through checkpoints where Palestinian cars get stopped.  You see some cars with orange ribbons flying off of them.  These are the settlers who opposed the dismantling of settlements in Gaza and who oppose any effort to dismantle them in the West Bank.  The signs are in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.  People are so segregated and yet they are living amongst one another.  

Qalqilia is one of the cities that has been most impacted by the construction of walls and fences within the West Bank (rather than on the internationally recognized green line).  The economy of the city thrived on agricultural production and employment in Israel.  Now a fence has been constructed that completely encloses the city of over 50,000 people and it is extremely difficult for Palestinians to get permits to enter Israel.  There is only one way in and out of the city and it is through an Israeli army checkpoint.  This is one of the places in the West Bank where Israelis are not allowed to go.  On our way out the soldier asked us "Where are you going?"  It is just offensive.  Can you imagine that your city is surrounded like a prison and there are people with guns stopping you every time you use the one exit available to you?  And then to top it off he asks you where you are going!  This question is pointless.  Obviously you are going to one of the places that Palestinians are allowed to go to since you can't use the other roads and can't get through the checkpoints to places that are off limit.  Why do they ask this!?  Every time you want to leave your town you have to say "I am going to visit my mother-in-law in Ramallah" or "I am bringing my daughter to her university".  

The training with all of the young people was good.  As I have found in the last few days, people want to tell me their story.  They know that they are misrepresented in American media and that Americans are ignorant of the complexities of this conflict that are so openly discussed and debated within Israeli and Palestinian society.  For some reason these extremely important discussions are off limits in the American political dialogue which is terribly harmful considering the role that America plays in aid to both countries and in the peace process.  One man at the training, Osama, wakes up every morning and sees the fence which runs right by his house through what used to be his father's land.  He just received a degree in physical therapy after being held for two years in an Israeli detention center with no charges ever brought against him.  Seems to be a rite of passage with 40% of the Palestinian male population having been imprisoned.  His father is the only one in the family who has secured a work permit for Israel.  Osama keeps being rejected.

Other villages suffer a worse fate of not only being completely enclosed with only one exit but also having this gate open only from 6am until 8pm.  If you return home after 8 you are locked out of your village.  Even villages that aren't enclosed by a wall of fence face closing.  I witnessed one today on the ride back to Ramallah.  Tanks had pulled into the village entrances and blocked the ways in and out.

I knew about all of these things before I came here but they are almost unbelievable.  Seeing them with my own eyes has not lessened the disbelief.  I can't understand the motivation for this extensive system of oppression.  When will enough Israeli parents join those who are already raising their voices and demand that their children no longer be required to spend their days manning a system of oppression?

On a personal note - I am doing well.  It is a difficult city to get your bearings in and I am notorious for not even having bearings.  But I am figuring out my way around bit by bit.  The family I am staying with is great and I have a lot of fun with their kids.  It seems like this whole blog nonsense is coming off a lot more like my thoughts than actually sharing my travels.  I guess email is still best for really keeping in touch (especially since this is so one way!).  So all of you - send me an email and keep me updated on your summers!

UN Map

This is a United Nation's map from 2007 detailing how the West Bank has been fragmented and the movement of Palestinians within their own land (see resolution 242) has been severely restricted.  It has been very awkward for people here to encourage me to visit other places within the West Bank and Israel.  They say to me "You are a foreigner here so you can move freely."  I, as a foreigner, have more freedom of movement than Palestinians and even Israelis since the Israeli army does not allow them to pass through into some Palestinian controlled areas.

To Begin

This is the beginning of my blog which will document the events, thoughts, people,  and feelings that will fill my time during my stay in Ramallah, Palestine/Israel/West Bank/Occupied Palestinian Territories/Palestinian Authority/Judea and Samaria/You name it.  

I came to the West Bank through the King Hussein Bridge border crossing between Jordan and Israel/Palestine (excuse the slashes - I think I may be using them a lot when writing about a place that is so contested).  In Jordan I, like Moses, first gazed on the Promised Land from Mount Nebo.  I thought I would suffer the same fate as Moses (die before setting foot on the land) after spending 9 hours waiting and being questioned on the Israeli side of the border.  I got there in the morning and shut the place down as the last person to be let into Israel that day as I watched hundreds of others, mostly Palestinians, come and go after me.  I was the last person left at the border crossing!  I think that it got so late that they realized they could no longer send me back to Jordan since there was no longer any transportation in the no mans land between the Israeli and Jordanian border security stations.  

The problem was that I have a Lebanese stamp in my passport from just days before the war broke out in 2006 and I was completely honest with them about why I was coming to the West Bank.  I told them I was going to Ramallah, staying with a Palestinian family, studying Arabic, and working for a local Palestinian NGO.  Needless to stay they were equally unthrilled about each of these aspects of my travel.  They did a very thorough job questioning me and it was pretty awful.  The interrogation room was freezing cold and there was a very mysterious looking man sitting silently in the corner.  I know they have to do this and I have no problem as a foreigner with having to go through those 9 hours when I enter another country.  That is not to say that I don't have a problem with Palestinians having to go through this simply to return to their homes and families.  Some people told me to lie and say I was a tourist going straight to Jerusalem but I couldn't do it.  And in a way the fact that they let me through gave me some hope.  They absolutely could have turned me away no problem but instead they let me in and I have an opportunity to learn first hand about this land that has captivated me since I was a child devouring books on the Holocaust, the formation of Israel in 1948, and all of the turmoil of the past 60 years that has followed.

I am staying with a family here in Ramallah and from the windows of their house I can see West Jerusalem, the al 'Amari refugee camp across the street, an Israeli settlement, and the archeological site of an ancient city. Surrounding the city are military checkpoints and roads that are off limits to Palestinians.  The major roads connecting Ramallah with the Jerusalem and Nablus have been cut.

I will also be working with a Palestinian NGO called Filastiniyat.  I begin work there tomorrow.

Forgive my wordiness.  It appears to be incurable.