Dear All,
I have returned to a snowy London... it's bizarre walking into a country that is obsessed with its winter wonderland.
Viva Palestina have finally broken the siege! Considering the difficulties to get to Gaza, never would I have thought that it would be so hard to help. That people would make it so difficult for us to deliver aid and show support.
I believe none of us should stand for that- help should be accessible and aspired to. We all have a little role to play in our daily lives, that whenever we can, we ought to help somebody who may need it.
1. Last Cairo events
2. Jerusalem settler conflict (perverse)
3. West Bank & Ramallah NGO & refugee camp
Last Cairo events
Once the 2 buses had left for Gaza it was a matter of rebuilding the feeling of solidarity in Cairo. Mick Napier from the Scottish delegation sort of took lead from this point and managed to inject the necessary sense of urgency, delegation and leadership that Code Pink had been lacking. He successfully led all of us into a final protest which Marie described in a former blog post. It started off violently, but ended peacefully in Tahrir Square, central Cairo. The atmosphere was festive and solid, yet I am unsure whether we had good media coverage. Some photos below.
And a nice little video...
2. Jerusalem
It was a 10 hour bus journey that stole us from Cairo on the last night of 2009 to drop us off at the border with Israel on the first day of 2010. At Taba we walked to the Israeli border and as a striking contrast to Marie's experience, we got through fine.
I'm going to put this down to the fact that
1. we were travelling in a couple
2. we had re-entry visas in Egypt
3. no evidence of Palestine.
At midday we were in Jerusalem and all I see is very dark clothing everywhere. Our hostel was in the Old City, which is incredibly beautiful and full of small winding roads. Unfortunately tourism has cast its long commercial shadow, hiding any evidence of the conflict. It was so strange to be there, because there was no sign at all of any occupation.
That evening we went to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in Occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli settlers had kicked out Palestinians from their homes. We met a lot of people from the International Solidarity Movement, who took us right down into the middle of the whole issue (to read more see here).
We were walking down the road towards the backdoors of a Palestinian home we were going to enter, when suddenly a lot of young Israeli Orthodox boys came running towards us, blocking our entry.
They started hissing at us, filming our faces up-close with their mobile phones and told us to "Go to Jesus". Rather aggressive and spiteful, but we eventually were let through the doors, which took a lot of struggle from the Palestinian side. The Israeli boys started kicking down and pushing through the doors. Imagine somebody trying to barge their way into your front door, because they claim it their right.
Eventually we emerged onto the other side, spilling out on the main road. I turned to face a house adorned in Israeli flags and I suddenly felt that in a way these settlers may have highjacked their own religion in the name of nationalism. The house I was looking at used to belong to Nasr, who was born there 53 years ago and had been living there up until 5 months ago. He now lives in a tent on a street with his family.
A large group of young Israeli Orthodox Jewish boys began to assemble at the top of the road to pray. It was a Friday and apparently they do this every Shabbat. But was it really to honour their religion? It hardly seemed so,... the praying was aggressive, provocative and not in the most logical of places to celebrate Shabbat. It was quite perverse. The boys come every week from different areas to sing as loud as they can and most times get aggressive by throwing rocks.
Possibly the worst thing was observing the children on both sides developing a premature sensation of hate.
3. Ramallah: NGOs, refugee camp, checkpoints
D and I travelled to Ramallah for only 2 days. It was entirely different to what we expected. There were many posh Mercedes, BMWs and brand new Land Rovers driving through the town.
Ramallah is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and home to most international organisations and NGOs. There's a lot of money going through there via the EU, raising the impression of a false economy.
We met with 3 different NGOs:
All three are headed and run by Palestinians. D and I were impressed- they were incredibly well spoken, opinionated, informed and highly capable people. Not like the stereotypical Palestinian you see on TV. On top of advancing feminist issues and addressing issues of health, both the women's and the health work committees stressed their objectives to create a national movement for an independent Palestinian state. So they are going beyond their specialist goals to form a political movement and be a political organisation, as well as a social/charitable one.
There are the right kind of people in Palestine that are fit for leadership, like all the of people we met at these NGOs. Unfortunately they are not heard, but instead suppressed.
Refugee camp
I took no photos since there are many out there already. I just want to provide a description of our the impressions we got from our short visit.
The refugee camp was established in 1948 and is now home to over 15,000 displaced Palestinians. What began as a temporary lodging for the refugees has now been accepted as de facto residences. But to compare the camp to a residence is a bold overstatement.
The houses are made up of cold concrete, providing little warmth in the winter chill. The entire camp was bleak, grey, sad and very dirty. The only little bursts of colour were provided by the dozens of children playing and delightfully laughing in the streets.
We visited one of the 2 youth centres in the camp, which provides a space for the young people to express themselves through dance, activities, learning and simply talking. The aim of the centre is to engage young people in activities that improve their self-confidence and inspire them to be leaders. It was really nice, D and I had a good chat with a teacher and 5 other young guys (17/18/19 yrs old) and Hosni! A gorgeous young 13 year old.
Their knowledge of the conflict is thorough and they are totally aware of the historical occurrences leading to the establishment of Israel and the slow erosion of Palestine. It was really inspiring to see how in such a sad place, learning and the passing on of history was successfully being upheld.
Yet there are only 2 centres like this for 15,000 people... hope doesn't really survive in an environment like that and I wonder how humanity can even exist in a place where you cannot move, express yourself, be creative or develop. It's a big trap, a big prison.
Checkpoint
I don't have many pictures of this but the few below speak for themselves. The only thing to note here was the lack of ANY Israeli soldiers. They were all shut up in towers or behind bullet proof glass. There is a real fear of terrorist attacks and they make sure to check all Palestinians for weapons. The checkpoint was devoid of any familiar sounds and all you could hear was machinery, metallic clinking and microphone voices barking orders. It was horrid, took 2 hours and is something we would never tolerate here. So why do we accept it over there?
Much love and once again, we are so grateful for all your support,
Katerina
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