occupation no more?

Friday morning I went with some friends to protest against the wall in Bil'in Village. We woke up early and caught a service from Bethlehem to Ramallah and then caught another shared taxi to Bil'in. We wound our way down Wadi Nar (literally "hell road" or "road of fire") and were questioned at the illegal checkpoint about where we were headed and what we are doing here in Palestine: "We're just touring around," we said- my friend and I slouched in the back seat to conceal our Nakba t-shirts and Palestinian flag bracelets...

The residents of Bil'in have been struggling to protect their land and livelihood from confiscation and destruction for years. Bil'in was the first village in which the persistent protests and non-violent actions against the building of the wall through the village produced some results:

"In a high-profile ruling of 4th September 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court concluded that the already built Separation Barrier in the West Bank village of Bil’in is illegal. The Court noted that the existing route was designed to accommodate plans for the future expansion of the settlement of Modi’in Illit and for the construction of a new 3,000 housing-units neighborhood therein, despite the fact that some of these plans require further approval before they can be realized. The judges ordered the State to redraw the barrier, so that the new route shall not take into account planning schemes not yet finally approved. In the ruling, the Court emphasized that “in light of the continuous harm to the residents of Bil’in… the respondents should consider, within reasonable time, an alternative route”. (underline added)"

Unfortunately, this "alternate route" has not been realized and villagers continue to endure attacks from settlers on their land. Just the night before we arrived in Bil'in, some settlers from the nearby settlement invaded a Palestinian's house and burnt several rooms of the house. These settlers will go unpunished for their actions. Bil'in villagers are still struggling to resist the confiscation of their land that is under continued threat as Israel continues to expand the nearby illegal settlement.
When we arrived in Bil'in we gathered with internationals, Israeli activists and Palestinians as Friday prayer let out. We began the march down the hill by the olive trees to the fence the soldiers set up to block the protesters from reaching the wall. We turned away from the road and marched among the olive trees, our hands in the air, shouting"1,2,3,4 Occupation NO More!!" We had barely started marching (and were no where near the fence) when the tear gas canisters started flying in every direction. We kept our hands in the air to show we were not armed- but the soldiers kept firing, some even straight at head level. When you see the tear gas rockets coming at you, the first instinct is to run, but I learned quickly that the key is to keep your eyes up to see where it will land so you can decide were to run. I am thankful for my sunglasses and scarf that I tied around my nose and mouth. But still there is only so much tear gas that one can take before it becomes unbearable to keep your eyes open and to even breathe.
Choking and sputtering we tried to re-group and that is when they started firing rubber bullets and sound grenades.
The protest wound to an end as some were injured by excessive tear gas and rubber bullets. We gathered by the large olive tree at the top of the hill and the man who has been a leader in the protests every week for the past few years thanked us internationals and Israelis for coming to join in solidarity with the villagers of Bil'in.
What we experienced at this protest was nothing to what these villagers have endured. They are continually harassed, their land is taken and destroyed and when they try to protest, they have been shot with live ammunition.
Click here for the article about the protest

There is a certain guilt I feel when I tell my family that I am going to Jerusalem for the day because I feel like I am somehow flaunting the fact that they can not go there.
I can't say how many times here I have questioned why I was born to hold this magic blue passport that lets me go where ever I want. I have never really thought about how precious my freedom of movement is until being here in Palestine. There are checkpoints and walls that separate families and friends, Palestinians from Palestinians. Many people here have never been able to swim in the Mediterranean (which I have swum in several times in the period of the past 5 months) or even get to the Dead Sea (half of which is technically in the West Bank according to the Green Line).
I returned from a day at the Dead Sea a couple weeks ago and my host mom asked me how it went. I told her about the fun of lounging in the sea and spreading mud all over ourselves; how we almost weren't allowed in because our bus driver was Palestinian (we had to do some negotiating with the soldiers at the checkpoint). She was happy that I had a good time, but there are no words to describe the look on her face as she said, "Well, we can never go there."

I spent Saturday with a friend in Ramallah. We wandered through the markets downtown, grabbed a coffee at "Stars and Bucks," the Palestinian knockoff of Starbucks (in its own way it is so much better). We each got a new piercing and did a bit of shopping. I really had a blast speaking in my broken Arabic to the shopkeepers-inshallah I am improving my language skills every day.
We wandered into a gold jewelery shop and the owner was so happy to discover that we are living in Beit Sahour and volunteering with a group involved in non-violent resistance, that he sent an employee out to buy us a cold drinks from the store next door and welcomed us to his home for dinner the next time we are in Ramallah. He told us of the difficulty of movement for the Palestinians, that they cannot even go to the beach for the day. He was eager share with us the world's misconceptions about Islam and assure us that it is, in reality, a peaceful religion that respects other religions and holds Jesus in very high esteem.
My friend was able to get in touch with her friend who lives just outside of Ramallah- They met at a youth peace delegation in Egypt four years ago. It was great to see them reunite after so long. We did a little more shopping, stopped for ice-cream and then went back to her house in a nearby village.
The landscape just took my breath away as we wound up a road surrounded by hundreds of olive trees. We picked some peaches from the trees that lined the driveway before going inside the house. From the upper balcony on a clear day, you can see to Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea in one direction and then to the mountains of Jordan in the other.
There is something about this land. It is hard to describe what it is exactly, but it has this enchanting quality-so much blood has been shed over it.
As always, when welcomed into a Palestinian household, we were offered several cups of coffee and tea and were fed until we were about to pop.
Before leaving, we listened to our friend's mom speak about her experience since the Nakba ("Catastrophe" in Arabic referring to 1948-when Israel declared independence and Palestinians were expelled from their lands). She told us the story of her Aunt who was displaced from her home in what is now Ein Kerem, Jerusalem and forced to live as a refugee- her house still stands and is now occupied by and Israeli family. She told us of her husband's land surrounding their house that was stolen by the nearby Israeli settlement: How the water resources are being channeled to these settlements while Palestinians often go days without water. Her husband had to spent ten years working in the States in order for the family to keep their land and their house because there is very little employment in Palestine- she raised her children alone those ten years.
But in the end, she spoke of her hope: that Occupation will not last forever and Palestine will one day be a nation. It was so inspiring to hear her speak of this hope- Even I have fallen into periods of despair here in Palestine and I am only witnessing the situation -she has endured it her whole life.

We took a shared taxi home from Ramallah after it got dark. There is a checkpoint between Ramallah and Bethlehem (despite the fact that it is a Palestinian only road in the middle of the West Bank). As we were passing through, the Israeli soldier happened to shine the flashlight in the car and saw me and my friend in the back. He started yelling for us to stop- Several soldiers ran over to the car and yelled at the driver:
"Where are you going?!"
He replied calmly, "To Bethlehem"
Then they turned to us- blinding us with the flashlight-
"Where are YOU going"
"to Bethlehem"
"Where are you from"
"Bethlehem"
Again the soldier asked, "Where are you going?!"
(By this point I was getting a bit fed up)
"We are going to Bethlehem. We LIVE in Bethlehem"
"Where are you from?"
"America, but we live in Bethlehem!"
"Do you know where you are going?"
"YES. WE LIVE IN BETHLEHEM!"
"ok, have fun," we heard them remark sarcastically as they slammed the door.
We drove away and everyone in the taxi burst out laughing.
A perfect end to an awesome day.

Life goes on.

I am finding that in the few free moments I have to sit down and write about my time here in Palestine, I am at a loss of words. Perhaps because it takes too much mental, emotional and spiritual energy to write about my experiences here. When I first arrived, I wanted to shout about all the injustices I see here , to expose what is really happening on the ground: what the rest of the world just can't see through such the limited lenses of the media. But it gets harder and harder to only speak the oppression and the suffering without rejoicing in the beauty of the people and the culture here in Palestine that cannot be marred by the ugly wall that closes in on all sides.
Everyday I wake up to a rooster and the man yelling "caik caik! ...caik caik!" outside my window. I sit and have delicious thick-as-mud coffee with my host mom before heading out for the day. By the time I huff and puff up the gigantic hill that takes me to the old city of Beit Sahour, I meet the "caik" man pushing his cart of bread and a woman sitting on the ground with a spread of grape leaves for sale. I hold my breath through the alley where they keep chickens and sell fakous (a mix between a zucchini and a cucumber, famous here in Beit Sahour). This week I bought a kilo of fakous for 5 shekels and brought them in to the clinic for the staff- just a meager offering for their continued kindness- they are constantly giving me food and tea.
After spending the morning at the clinic, I catch a rickety old bus up to the Bethlehem bus station and then hop in another shared taxi to get the Bethlehem Bible College where I have Arabic class. The heat is sometimes unbearable sitting shoulder to shoulder in that taxi... and perhaps I feel slightly more claustrophobic as we loop around next to the Wall and the Azzeh Refugee Camp that houses thousands within a half square kilometer. I find that you can't quite escape from the presence that wall , the watchtowers and the graffiti that continually asks "Where is the Peace?"
I love walking through the market from the bus stop in Beit Jala to Manger Square in Bethlehem. I don't have to buy anything, but just to walk through and take in the sights and sounds and smells is enough. When I practice speaking Arabic with shopkeepers and they find that I am living here in Beit Sahour and volunteering, I am not just a tourist but a friend... By the time I reach Manger Square I am full from sweet tea and coffee and great conversation.

At the clinic yesterday one of the doctors asked me how I find the people of Palestine. I replied that I love the people, that they have welcomed me as family. He said "then you must go home and tell them that we are nice, the Palestinian people. People do not know this."

wedding bells

My host mom's sister got married last night.
I borrowed a dress from one of the women in the family (I don't know who exactly) after trying on several to no avail- apparently I am taller than most women here.
My host cousin decided he would pay for me to get my hair done. (He also later decided to be my body guard for the evening). My host mom did my make up: I don't think I have ever worn so much blue eye shadow in my life.
The wedding party was a blast. After the church ceremony we all proceeded to the reception hall- There were about two hundred people, which is a small number of guests, considering my host mom had over 600 people at her wedding. Inevitably the guest list grows as my host mom put it, in Beit Sahour "if you are not family, you are a neighbor or a friend."
When the bride and groom arrived everyone hit the dance floor and they were quickly lifted up on chairs above our heads as everyone clapped and danced to the live band.
There was so much food, music and dancing. I think I may have done some permanent damage to my feet from dancing in such high heels, but it was well worth it!
We finally stumbled into bed around two-thirty in the morning...

Margaret Thatcher.

I think this exact conversation has repeated itself about 10 times in the past week, not including 4 times today:
(Meeting someone for the first time)
Me: Marhaban! (Hello)
Reply: Ahlan wa sahlan! Kief halik? (Welcome! how are you?)
Me: mabsuta, shukran (I'm good, thank you)
Reply: Shoo Ismik? (What is your name?)
Me: Margaret
Reply: Margaret Thatcher!!

Home. بيت ساحور‎

This past week has been a whirlwind of experiences and I have hardly had a spare moment to process any of it! I am now living in Beit Sahour, Palestine, home to shepherd's fields where the angels proclaimed the birth of the Saviour 2000 years ago.
I will spent the next two months volunteering at the Beit Sahour Medical Center and studying Arabic at the Bethlehem Bible College. I am here on a program called the Palestine Summer Encounter that was created through a partnership between the Holy Land Trust and the Middle East Fellowship.
I live with a beautiful Palestinian couple and their 10 month old daughter (with grandparents, nieces, cousins living right upstairs in the same building). My host Dad works in an olive wood shop carving smaller pieces, while my host mom is a 1-3rd grade teacher in Bethlehem. I have been truly welcomed into this family and I cannot be more thankful for the hospitality I have received from all the people I have met here in Palestine.

***

We met with ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolition on Sunday and went on a tour with them throughout East Jerusalem to witness the situation there. We wound our way from West to East Jerusalem noticing the marked change in scenery: there is a grave lack of municipal services (trash pick up, street lights, paved roads, sidewalks etc...) throughout East Jerusalem- despite the fact that its inhabitants pay the same taxes to the same municipalities as their neighbors on the West side of the city.
In addition, the Israeli government has been systematically (or rather arbitrarily) demolishing the homes of thousands of Palestinian families living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967 . Under the current system, it virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits for their own land. Often a house will be demolished, citing that is built on an area zoned as "empty space." Once the land has been sold to an Israeli, the zoning of the area is changed to allow for building on the land. We stopped outside one demolished building that, only two years ago, housed 35 families. No alternate housing is given to these families who lose their homes. They often will stay in a tent on the site of their demolished house until they can be taken in by family.
The incredible injustice of this system is just unbelievable.

(April 14, 2008)

"Yunis Sbeih, his wife and eight children had lived in their home for four years in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Anata. This morning while Mr. Sbeih was consulting with his lawyer about a home demolition order he received four days ago, his wife called to say that bulldozers had arrived at his home....
By the time the activists arrived, the police and Israeli Army had cordoned off the house, giving the family just half an hour to remove their belongings. Then the giant jackhammer attached to the bulldozer began its ugly work, systematically destroying the fruit of decades of Sbeih family savings....
Once the house had been completely destroyed the jackhammer turned its attention to the surrounding trees, and the recently poured concrete slab that was intended for an addition to the original home....
While all this was happening the hapless family was forced to sit nearby, surrounded by soldiers and police, and watch their whole life collapse. Was this a terrorist family? Had a family member committed a heinous crime? No. The Sbeih family story is similar to thousands of other families in the Jerusalem area who are trying to build lives for themselves and their children." -Fred Schlomka (ICAHD)

***

I am just blown away by the beauty and resilience of the people here. It is a very hard life under the Occupation and yet life must go on, even as the world seems to close their eyes and turn away from the reality of what is happening here.

Israel's dilemma over sick Gazans