Stories Galore

Tuesday...

Shaher and some of his family:

After an awesome breakfast of falafel, hummus, labaneh, zaatar, olive oil, and tea at Shaher's house, Shaher and I headed out to the Arab American University. Shaher dropped me off for a meeting with the PR people there while he went to a job interview (his position at CIDA is done at the end of the month because the project is being discontinued) in Jenin. I talked for a while with the AAU staff, and they gave me a lot of information about the university. For instance, when I asked about makeup of the student population, they said that almost all their students come from the West Bank, since it is too difficult to come from inside the Green Line (Israel). Just to put this into perspective, Jenin is literally only about 5 minutes from the Green Line, and you can actually see parts of the Wall from nearby villages. So, even though AAU might be the closest university for some students, it would take too much time and be too difficult for many of them to actually go there.

When I told the people in the AAU PR office why I was in Palestine, three of them asked me if PfP could build a playground in their respective villages. Yes, three people in the space of just an hour or so. And this has happened to me many times in the week that I have been here. Hearing these requests reminded me how important it is to do this work. I hope all our supporters around the world will note that people here really do appreciate that PfP can bring playgrounds into the lives of Palestinian children. Later that day, Shaher and I were driving through another village near Jenin and I saw a little girl swinging on a homemade swing made of two thin, black ropes and a dirty rag (the seat) tied to the roof of a broken down cinderblock structure. Imagine if that girl were swinging on a safe, sturdy plastic swing hanging from the solid frame of one of our playgrounds instead...

Back to AAU, though. When Shaher returned, we found Adel, a friend of his who teaches in the Physical Therapy program at AAU. He brought us to see a blood donation drive that had been put together at 2AM in response to the crisis in Gaza. We just happened to come in at the same time as the Governor of Jenin and the President of AAU were giving blood, and I got to meet them. I was very impressed about the turnout for such a last-minute event. The group that organized the drive got more than 120 pints of blood and was only limited by time, as the doctors had to clean up and go at a certain point. Blood drives like this have been happening all over the West Bank as Palestinians here stand in solidarity with Gazans. I hope the rest of the world can follow suit...

After the blood drive ended, we sat and talked with Adel for a while. Adel is a practicing physical therapist as well as an instructor at AAU, and he had many stories to tell me about his experiences doing physical therapy in Ramallah. I asked him what kinds of injuries he sees in his work, and he said that, by far, most of his patients are recovering from gunshot wounds. This has been a big problem in the West Bank ever since the beginning of the second intifada. I too have noticed that there are many disabled people here. Everywhere I go, I see people in wheelchairs, using walkers, or limping. And those are just the visible injuries - this does not include people with injuries to the upper body that may not be as obvious to a passer-by.

Adel also gave us a tour of AAU. This university is new - it was built only about 8 years ago - and the buildings and landscaping are really gorgeous. Like almost everything in the West Bank, it sits atop a mountain and offers a breathtaking view of the surrounding area. In almost all the parts of the West Bank that I've visited so far, the mountains are green and rocky. There are yellowish stones of all sizes everywhere, even in the agricultural fields. I've never seen such a stoney landscape in all my travels. As I look at the stones, I think how obvious it is that stones are the main weapon that Palestinians have as they fight against an occupation. There are not millions of guns or millions of dollars here, but there are millions of stones. Unfortunately, it's not such a fair fight when it's a stone against a tank or a stone against a missile launcher, is it? I don't mean to simplify the issue, as I know that Palestinian resistance movements have been able to acquire some weaponry (and I know this paragraph will trigger more antagonistic comments from my Zionist readers), but for the most part violent resistance here happens with stone in hand.

After AAU, Shaher and I went into Jenin, a small but bustling city located at the very north of the West Bank. We went into a cafe and, again, by total chance happened upon more of Shaher's friends. This time, it was three social workers, one from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and two from another local agency. I only had to ask them one or two questions about their work to start them going on story after story about the occupation. The PRCS social worker told me of a recent story in Gaza about a PRCS paramedic who was carrying an injured man on a stretcher. An IDF soldier shot the injured man through the head, and the bullet passed through and went into the paramedic's stomach. This story triggered another one about two women, who were carrying an injured man to safety. An IDF soldier shot the injured man 3 times to kill him off. And this is policy, it's not just two rogue soldiers going crazy. One of the other social workers told me that a common practice that he's seen is when an IDF soldier will point a gun at a Palestinian and pretend to shoot him. Behind that soldier will be one of his friends, who will shoot his gun into the air at the same time as the first soldier pretends to shoot. This is really scary for the Palestinian on the other end of the gun, who thinks he's been shot.

When I asked more about the children that these men work with in the course of their jobs as social workers, they told me that children in this area face many problems because of the occupation. First, of course, there's poverty. Many children also suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which manifests in problems at school and at home, nightmares, and more. Many of them have seen people killed. One example of this was when a girl in a nearby village was shot in the head by an IDF bullet while sitting in class, right in front of all her classmates. They also talked about how children may drop out of school because it is too difficult to get there each day. One village in the area was actually split in half by the Wall, and a number of children lived on the side away from the school. Every day those children would have to cross through a checkpoint just to get to school, and for some this obstacle became a reason to drop out. These circumstances are not uncommon here.

I really admire the work these people do. When I hear these kinds of stories I want to cry, and I have to stop myself from tearing up right in front of the people who tell them. Sometimes I get back to my hotel room at night and just cry by myself for what I am seeing and hearing here. Why must a people suffer like this? I don't care what excuses anyone uses for Zionism, I don't care how someone may justify this occupation and the military offensive of Israel so that they may feel more comfortable killing Palestinians... This conflict is assymetrical. I know that Israelis do not feel safe, and I can sympathize with that feeling of insecurity, but Palestinians are daily dehumanized and killed by a state and by the people who support that state. The oppression of Palestinians is systematic and its causes systemic. This issue may not be black and white, but it is not an even fight either. I am consumed by such great sadness in this place, and I have trouble locating enough hope...

Shaher also took me to see a PRCS youth recreation center, where his friend is the director. It is always nice to see the happier places here. I have met so many committed people doing such great things for the health of Palestine and its people. I feel completely humbled.

Later that day, I proposed going back to Jerusalem instead of returning to Nablus, but Shaher cannot do so because his permission to go into Jerusalem (much like his car's permission to go through the Hawara checkpoint) expires at 7PM. This means that he can only be in the city of Jerusalem between 5AM and 7PM on any given day. So, after saying goodbye to his family, we went back to Nablus. Just as we were leaving Jenin, though, Shaher's car broke down. Luckily, we were right next to a gas station. The guys at the station told us the timing belt needed to be fixed, so we called a tow truck and rode in the cab of the truck all the way back to Nablus. Shaher dropped me off at his friend's sister's apartment and went back to his own apartment.

This apartment was a big surprise for me. I had expected to stay with two or three women. Instead, I encountered nine college-aged women, all but one of whom are students at Al-Najeh University (the other one doesn't actually live there, she was just visiting). We spend a fun evening giggling and talking. I fielded about a million questions about life in the U.S. and about my own experiences. I felt like a movie star - they even asked me to write them messages in their notebooks at the end of the evening. They were a wonderful bunch of young women, and what terrific hosts! I felt so welcomed and loved, and I had a great night with them. They all promised to add me to their Facebook friends. (Don't forget, girls!)

Again, I'll add pics when I get more time. For now, I'm just going to try to tackle yet another post. What am I on now, Wednesday?