{"id":59,"date":"2014-10-20T00:34:58","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T21:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/?p=59"},"modified":"2015-05-02T15:01:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-02T12:01:52","slug":"five-things-i-didnt-know-about-palestine-a-week-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/2014\/10\/five-things-i-didnt-know-about-palestine-a-week-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things I didn\u2019t know about Palestine a week ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

1. An average day can be pretty average.<\/h3>\n
\"stars<\/a>

Look, Stars & Bucks cafe\u2014just like in the US!<\/p><\/div>\n

When I told my husband I wanted to go to Palestine, he was taken aback; we had to consult the US State Department website (to see if there were any travel warnings) before discussing it further. In the US we hear about Palestine as a place that launches rockets at Israel; as a place where civilians are killed by Israeli soldiers; as a place where such deaths are acceptable collateral damage considering how dangerous it is and how dangerous the \u201cterrorists\u201d are that the Israeli government is fighting. Our images of Palestine are of civilians throwing rocks at tanks, of bombed-out buildings, of parents crying over their children\u2019s bodies. No wonder my husband feared for my safety; many of my co-travelers got similar reactions from their friends and family.<\/p>\n

But our trip so far has felt pretty normal. We drive around and walk in the streets and have coffee and talk with people. We\u2019ve seen students hanging out on campus and kids playing in sports tournaments. I don\u2019t feel in danger of pickpocketing, the way I do in some major European cities. Sometimes the street vendors can be pushy, telling you that selling trinkets to tourists is their only means of supporting their family (which could certainly be true; the West Bank, where we\u2019ve stayed so far, has >25% unemployment). But mostly it just feels like visiting another country. I don\u2019t feel in danger in the least.<\/p>\n

2. An average day can be pretty terrible.<\/h3>\n
\"Names<\/a>

Names of Palestinian children killed by Israelis in July 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

Palestinians live with daily realities that are unimaginable for most Americans. Those who live in the West Bank can\u2019t leave it without a permit; the process of getting a permit can be long, difficult, and you often get denied with no reason given. Imagine not being able to visit your family regularly, or meet with business colleagues who live outside your neighborhood, or go on vacation whenever you want to. There\u2019s also a lot of bureaucracy; there are over 100 different types of permits, and you have to apply for the right one. In his book Bethlehem Besieged, Mitri Raheb recounts how his father-in-law had a heart attack and was in an ambulance on its way to a hospital in Jerusalem (just outside the West Bank). As a businessman, he had a permit for traveling outside the West Bank; but an Israeli soldier at the checkpoint turned him away (in an ambulance) because at that particular moment he was traveling as a patient, not a businessman, and he was told to go back and apply for a medical permit. He died several days later as a result of not receiving medical treatment in time.<\/p>\n

In many areas Palestinians are not allowed to have electricity or running water in their homes. They\u2019re not allowed to build anything on their own land. In the Aida refugee camp, Israeli soldiers raid the camp regularly (often early in the morning or at night), spraying tear gas and skunk water and searching people\u2019s homes. Imagine not being able to get a full night\u2019s sleep without gunfire outside your door or soldiers in your house\u2026 not just one night, but nearly every night. These are just a few of the stories we\u2019ve heard. There are hundreds more, all told with a touch of resignation and banality, as though they are the norm rather than the exception.<\/p>\n

3. There are camels here.<\/h3>\n

Did you know that!? Somehow I only pictured camels in, like, the middle of a giant desert in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Yesterday we drove past a butcher shop with an entire camel carcass hanging outside on a hook. Sadly I couldn\u2019t whip out my camera in time, but Rick Steves has a photo if you want to see one.<\/p>\n

4. The Wall is a Big Deal.<\/h3>\n
\"Separation<\/a>

Israeli separation wall near Aida refugee camp<\/p><\/div>\n

Israel is building a giant Berlin wall around the West Bank. It\u2019s >60% completed; the final cost will be close to $3.8 billion US dollars. (Imagine what a difference it would make if they instead used that money to provide water, medical care, or services to the occupied Palestinian territories.) Americans, this is your tax dollars at work: the US gives Israel $3 billion in aid every year. Without our financial support, the calculations for whether and how much they could afford to invest in such a project would look quite different.<\/p>\n

>90% of the Wall is built on Palestinian\/West Bank land, leading many Palestinians to believe that it\u2019s another mechanism for appropriating Palestinian land rather than just a security measure. It\u2019s especially likely to scoop out valuable agricultural land, natural aquifers, or culturally valuable sites like Rachel\u2019s Tomb. Many people we\u2019ve met here talk about \u201cfacts on the ground\u201d: it doesn\u2019t matter how many international accords Israel has signed, or whether the US or the UN has denounced this-or-that activity, if there\u2019s a 20 foot wall between you and where you want to go. The Wall cuts families and villages in half and its construction continues while we (the international community) try to broker peace talk after peace talk.<\/p>\n

Israeli separation wall near Aida refugee camp<\/p>\n

Today we heard about four brothers who built a house together for all their families to share. By completion they\u2019d put more than $2 million dollars into it. But Israel built the Wall around it, and the family had to decide whether to give up their house or give up their ability to leave the West Bank at will (they lived in a part of Jerusalem where they were allowed to travel without worrying about permits, but their house had been walled into the travel-restricted West Bank). In the end they gave up the house, because freedom is more valuable.<\/p>\n

5. Palestinians are more than just victims.<\/h3>\n
\"We<\/a>

We refuse to be enemies.<\/strong> Daoud Nassar, The Tent of Nations<\/p><\/div>\n

As I said, before this week the word \u201cPalestine\u201d brought to mind damaged buildings, wailing mothers, children throwing stones\u2014images of a disempowered people, waiting for a peace process to restore some of their dignity. But we\u2019ve met Palestinians here who have chosen not to let the Israeli occupation define them, even while it continues to impact them. They, too, are creating \u201cfacts on the ground\u201d: making life better for themselves and their neighbors in whatever ways are available to them. Groups like Alrowwad, the Diyar Consortium, and Tent of Nations use art, theater, music and dance to give children a creative outlet and teach positive self-expression rather than reactionaryism. Bethlehem Bible College and Dar al-Kalima have created university-level degree programs to help Palestinians get higher education without having to leave the West Bank (even if they\u2019re accepted into a university, not everyone can get a permit to leave the West Bank to attend said university; those that do don\u2019t always come back once they\u2019ve had a taste of life without occupation). Instead of giving up, some people solve problems in creative ways: Israel doesn\u2019t allow the Nassar family (at Tent of Nations) to have electricity or running water on their property, so they use solar power and waterless composting toilets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the luxury of despair, but the steadfast hope that we can make a change for our children and the generations to come that we can be proud of.\u201d
\nAbdelfattah Abusrour, Director of Alrowwad<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe refuse to be victims; we refuse to be enemies.\u201d
\nDaoud Nassar, Tent of Nations<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Susan Moskwa 1. An average day can be pretty average. When I told my husband I wanted to go to Palestine, he was taken aback; we had to consult the US State Department website (to see if there were … 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-59","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\/59","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=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livingstonespilgrimage.org\/lsp-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}