We start the day with A from Maschom Watch, a women organization that tours the checkpoint to make sure that Human rights abuses do not take place. (they still frequently do but.)
The checkpoints are here for security they tell us. How can you explain then, that most of them are between PALESTINIAN VILLAGES? It does not make any sense.
The route of the wall does not make sense at all also. And by the way, they want us to call it a security fence. I have never seen a security fence twice as high and 3 times as wide as the Berlin Wall. Have you? This WALL is massive. It cuts through villages. It cuts through universities. Most of businesses have closed because of the wall. The wall is another trick for ethnic cleansing. It is made to create "facts on the ground". The settlements...are now so big (Maale Adumin is a city, with 4 swimming pool, a huge shopping centre, a park..) that they is no way they can be dismantled. The Israeli governement says that it is for a 2 state solution, but settlements and the wall have made this solution impossible.
We finally get to a checkpoint, INSIDE a Palestinian village, actually cutting the village in two. Cars are not allowed in the village, therefore villagers have to park outside, then walk with their shopping, belongings....
We are "welcomed" by a scary looking Israeli soldier. He sees that I am filming and does not look happy about it. I hide my camcorder better. We want to ask him questions but he refuses to answer. He tells us to leave. Now. I try to go up to another soldier, but the scary, super armed one, tells me off. He is the boss here.
We oblige after a few minutes. Our next stop is Bethlehem University.
We get to the University and are welcomed by students. They are so happy that people from Europe...come to see them. They speak really good English. They take us for a tour of the Uni.
D, one of the student explains that her parents live in Koweit because unable to find work here. She lives here with her sister.
When I ask A, another student, if he is religious, he answers:
"No, I am not. I believe that there is someone up there, but will pray with Christians, Muslims and Jews"
He also tells me that his house has been demolished 3 times. Every Palestinian has a similar story of dispossession, humiliation...
Another student, a nurse, tells us that he is unable to work in Israeli hospital (the best ones).
We have to leave. I decide to stay and have lunch at the Uni Canteen with 4 students and 2 members of my group. We talk about everything but the occupation and the conflict. When I ask them if they have emails..they crack up. Palestinians do have emails, do watch TV, love music (even if I did not agree with their choice for number 1...Shakira) they love films ( Forrest Gump) and TV shows (friends). They are not animals after all....On the contrary, I find them a lot more civilised than most of Europeans. We have a lot to learn from them. A lot.
They tell us that they do want to go abroad to study, to travel, but that they WILL come back. They are needed in Palestine. Palestine is their home, their country. The love Palestine. They are the future and they know it. Palestine need their brains. More than ever.
We exchange email address..and I have sadly have to go. Could have spent the whole day here. They give me hope for Palestine.
We then rush to meet N, from Badil a Palestinian organisation working with refugees. 531 villages have been destroyed in the 1948 "war". Refugees are now scattered throughout the region. Resolution 194, passed in 1948, has made their return compulsory. Israel has turned a blind eye. The international community did not react.
The problem for Israel is that if they accept the return of the refugees, they will be more Palestinian than Jews in Israel therefore making it impossible for Israel Jewish state impossible to exist. Democracy. A state for all its citizens.
We then head to Deisheh refugee camp.
We meet N, the leader, a chain smoker with a fantastic moustache. He tells us his incredible story. He has first been denied the right to leave Palestine, and has now been denied the right to leave Bethlehem altogether. If he cannot leave, he tells us, the world will come to him. He has invited internationals from all around the world to visit him in Deisheh.They have built a community hall in the camp. Its now been used for weddings, conferences.....12000 people live in the camp. The camp has 1 clinic. They are now trying to built a small hospital. But they need money, and help to build it. A refugee from Deisheh has recently tried to go to an Israeli hospital to get his cancer cured. The doctor told him that he will receive him in 3 to 6 months. This sort of thing occur every day.
In 2002 the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invaded the camp during the second intifada. They imposed a 45 days curfew as well as house arrest. A boy got shot 50 times for not respecting the curfew. The IOF left after 45 days. Not one single weapon was found. Not one terrorist was found either. They army destroyed everything in the camp. Going Thru houses (knock the door down, then the wall, go thru the second house..and so on).
We talk to a lot of young Palestinians. One just got out of jail. He spent 5 year inside. He is now 21. He offers me to come a live in the camp for a while, in his house. I can teach him English, he will teach me Arabic. He wants to go to Paris, London...
His parents were not allowed to visit him in jail for 2 years.
Those people are amazing.
He leave the camp. I love them, all of them.
Its not 6.11pm and I have been in an internet cafe writing while listening to Arabic music for 2 hours. I really have to go.
Maarhaba.
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