{"id":13,"date":"2014-10-16T21:43:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T18:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/?p=13"},"modified":"2015-05-02T15:04:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T12:04:37","slug":"day-1-sounds-of-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/2014\/10\/day-1-sounds-of-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 1: Sounds of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Susan Moskwa<\/em><\/p>\n

7:00 a.m.<\/strong> \u2013 I wake up to a rooster crowing across the street. Did you know that roosters keep crowing until they\u2019re certain you\u2019ve heard them (and then a bit more)? In the movies they only crow once, just as the sun rises. This rooster was far more persistent. But it was charming, because it was novel.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

Chicken coop across the street from our hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

9:00 a.m.<\/strong> \u2013 Zoughbi Zoughbi, founder & director of the Wi\u2019am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center<\/a><\/p>\n

, speaks to us about the center and its mission and role. Today the Wi\u2019am Center is quiet, although it\u2019s frequently the site of Palestinian protests because it\u2019s located right next to the Wall<\/a>, and is one of the few places near the Wall that has trees, which provide welcome shade. (Most trees were bulldozed during construction of the Wall, but Wi\u2019am has made an effort to replant.) Here one of our tour coordinators, Usama, shows us a tear gas grenade that landed in Wi\u2019am\u2019s playground.<\/p>\n

\"Usama<\/a>

Usama shows us an empty tear gas canister<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Playground<\/a>

Wi’am’s playground at the separation wall<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are like a sponge, absorbing the anger of the Palestinian people. When people like you come here to visit us, it helps us wring out the sponge so that we can go back and refill it.\u201d
\n\u2013 Zoughbi Zoughbi, on the encouragement that he and his colleagues take from visits like ours<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Zoughbi<\/a>

Zoughbi Zoughbi of Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

11:26 a.m.<\/strong> \u2013 The call to prayer<\/a> sounds out from a minaret in the middle of the Aida refugee camp<\/a> as we walk through the camp. Children follow us and try to get us to take their pictures and give them money. The camp was established in 1950 and many families still live there for fear of losing their right of return<\/a> if they were to leave. (Others stay because they have nowhere else to go.) The camp\u2019s walls are covered with artwork and graffiti remembering the villages that the refugees came from, supporting the Palestinian struggle, promoting peace, and remembering tragedies and indignities that refugees have suffered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Refugee<\/a>

A housing structure in Aida refugee camp<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Names<\/a>

WE WILL RETURN – Names of Palestinian villages<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Welcome\"<\/a>

\u0623\u0647\u0644\u0627\u064b \u0648\u0633\u0647\u0644\u0627\u064b \u2014 \u201cWelcome\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Identity<\/a>

Identity card wall art<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Aida<\/a>

Our group at the entrance to the Aida refugee camp.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rusty door keys like this one symbolize the right of return for Palestinians, and a memory of home. Many families still carry keys from the homes they fled or were evicted from; many of those houses have since been destroyed.<\/em><\/p>\n

4:00 p.m.<\/strong> \u2013 Sounds of singing. We visit the Church of the Nativity<\/a> which houses the birthplace of Jesus Christ, where the tour group ahead of us spontaneously bursts into reverent song. Later, in the cave where the shepherds were supposedly sheltering<\/a> when they received news of Jesus\u2019 birth, our group sings Angels We Have Heard On High (in multi-part harmony).<\/p>\n

\"Jesus'<\/a>

Jesus’ birthplace – below the Church of the Nativity<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>

Inside the church at Beit Sahour \/ The Shepherds’ Field<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

7:00 p.m.<\/strong> \u2013 Dalia Eshkenazi, one of the subjects of the book The Lemon Tree<\/a>, talks to us about her experience growing up in Israel and discovering that her family\u2019s house used to belong to an Arab family who had been forcibly evicted. She was a passionate and engaging speaker, and our dinner grew cold as we stayed long listening to her.<\/p>\n

I instinctively hear the drone of war planes as a very friendly sound. If the Israeli Air Force hadn\u2019t destroyed the Egyptian Air Force during the Six-Day War, Israel might not exist today. Those planes save me. But they also destroy me.\u201d
\n\u2013 Dalia Eshkenazi, on feeling torn between Israelis\u2019 experience and Palestinians\u2019 experience<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Dalia<\/a>

Dalia Eshkenazi<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Susan Moskwa 7:00 a.m. \u2013 I wake up to a rooster crowing across the street. Did you know that roosters keep crowing until they\u2019re certain you\u2019ve heard them (and then a bit more)? In the movies they only crow … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-october-nov-pilgrimage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}