3/27/08
Wednesday I got to class a little late, because I was waiting for a shuttle with Sandra and it came very late, but I told Sami he couldn’t be mad at me because I brought him cookies. Sami doesn’t know im Jewish so I didn’t tell him what kind of cookies they were but he said he said they were wonderful. I then gave out more cookies to everyone in my class and the other class during break. Tasha, Elizabeth and I left our colloquial class early to go to Bethlehem with Kyle. Elizabeth wasn’t feeling well so she just went home, but Kyle, Ryan, Tasha and I went to Bethlehem. This was quite the experience. First it took the shuttle almost an hour to go through the check point in to Bethlehem because the traffic was so backed up and then once we got up to the check point they weren’t even checking cars. It is so ridiculous. I check point that only slows down traffic is not doing anything for Israel’s security. If anything its making matters worse because it makes people angry. Once we finally got to the bus station in Bethlehem we weren’t entirely where to go. Kyle wanted to go to the Church of the Nativity, so he asked a random guy in an armored vehicle where it was. It turned out the guy worked for the PA (Palestinian Authority) and he offered to give us a little tour of Bethlehem, so we accepted and climbed in to the car. I sat in the back seat with his four year old son Jabreel (Arabic version of Gabriel) who had an amazing ability to fall asleep while sitting in very awkward positions. I forget the name of our driver, but he took us all over the city, and then dropped us off a few minutes away from the Church. On our way to the church we saw a bunch of posters of a guy who had been assassinated in Bethlehem just a few days before we took some pictures. Then some kids came up to us and said why are you taking pictures of those and pointed out a huge banner of the guy and the guys that were also in the car with him when he was killed. It turns out we were right in front of the guys house. So then the kids invite us into the courtyard of the house, and we ended up meeting his father, and some of his children. It was a very intense experience at apparently this guy had some connection with Islamic Jihadi and also with hizbollah. I have to say I was a little scared, but the people were very nice they gave us coffee, and the father talked to us about what happened to his son. He then showed us the key to his old house that was in what is now Israel proper, and also his pre 1948 passport. The family also gave us posters of the guy that was assassinated. We were there for about 45 mins finally we took our leave and headed for our initial destination. The church was pretty, and cool to look at but held no major significance for me. I took some pictures and moved on. We then took a cab to near by the Checkpoint. We got out where the wall starts and took about a million pictures of the wall. Some of the art work is really amazing, and also the things people write on it are very moving. We went through the check point which was a little weird. It was the first time for me to go through one on foot. When we first went in there was no one there. Finally a soldier showed up to check us through, which they did with little problems. Then we got a shuttle into Jerusalem. We got dinner at a wrap place called Terrintino’s in the city center, and I once again got to impressed people with my magic ability to order food in Hebrew. After food we walked around for a bit. Tasha found an American Apparel store and got excited and bought a bunch of stuff. Finally around 9:45 we headed back to catch one of the last busses back to Ramallah and then the last shuttle to Birzeit from Ramallah. We all went to Tasha’s house and hung out for a while then I walked home with Kyle and Ryan, and passed out.
Thursday, we didn’t have class, because it was the prophet Mohamed’s Birthday and it was also Purim! I went to Jerusalem and tried to meet up with a guy from ICAHD, but it didn’t work out. Then I hung out with Rachel for a bit and helped her pick out what to wear for Purim that night. I left around 5:30 to go to Tel Aviv to meet up and go out with Naomi and her friends. It was so nice and warm it made me so happy. I met Naomi at her Ulpan and got the keys to her apt. Then I met Andrea and we went to Naomi’s to change and get ready. My costume was kind of lame but whatever. First we crashed a Birthright Alumni Party that had all you could drink for 20 shekels. It was entertaining. There were a lot of people there that Naomi knew. I just had fun meeting new people and telling all of them what I was doing and that I lived in a village next to Ramallah. After that Bar lost its entertainment value we went to a street festival on Forentine. That was insane. There were soooo many people you could barely move. I was trying to find/meet up with Lisa, but we failed in the end. I did however run in to Ron a guy I worked with in NFTY this summer. When I told him last summer what I was planning to do this semester he told me Hamas was going to Kid nap me and that he was going to have to come rescue me. When I saw him on Thursday and I told him that I was living in the west bank and that everyone knew I was a Jew and no one had kid napped me his response was “Just Wait” I was annoyed by that but I tried not to let it get to me. If he wants to be an ass, that’s his problem. At this point in the evening everyone was rather tired to we decided to head home and promptly passed out.
Friday we got up and lay around for while. Then Yvette from PAS came and met up with us at Naomi’s apt. Then we went to the beach because it was really hot. I forgot to bring my swim suit, but I did bring my sundress that I got in Chile. It was so nice to be able to wear a dress and lie on the beach. Lisa also came to play with us after a bit. Once the sun started to go down, we went back to Naomi’s for a bit and then tried to find the Parade which was over, but we did find an impromptu dance party on the sidewalk outside of some bar down the street from Naomi’s we stayed there for a bit and danced with the crazy Israeli’s after a bit Lisa met up with her cousin and we made plans to find each other later. Andrea went back to Jerusalem. Naomi was going to a private party that you needed tickets for with her friend Carolina. So Yvette and I got dinner and then met up with Lisa at a bar with her cousin. It was pretty fun. They had good music we danced forever, then we decided to hop to another one, but Lisa wanted to go home so we said our goodnights and Yvette and I went to Bar number 2. Where we once again danced forever. We ended up getting back to Naomi’s around 5, but we had a problem. I had a key to Naomi’s but there is a code to get in the main door. The code was stored in my phone which died at the end of the night. I had to convince a girl on the street to let me put my sim card in her phone, but then I realized the code was saved only to the phone and not the sim, but Naomi’s number was on the sim, so I called her and she told me, but her and Carolina got home 10 mins after us anyways. At this point the sun was coming up and we were so tired, but happily tired.
Saturday we literally rolled out of bed around 12:30 and went straight to the beach. And Stayed there until about 6pm. (don’t worry mom I wore lots of sunscreen) in this time we had a lot of visitors. Lisa came with her cousin to meet up with us. The my friend Moran from camp came to hang out for a bit. Then two of Carolina’s friends came and some of Naomi’s friends. We were a very popular group. It was quite nice and hot and it felt so relaxing to be at the beach all day. We didn’t leave until the sun started to go down. Towards the end I got into an intense discussion with Moran and Lisa’s cousin who is also Israeli about the occupation. It is so hard to talk to Israeli’s about this. Sometimes I feel like I don’t have the right since I didn’t live here all my life, but then I think who else is going to bring this stuff up for them to think and talk about. I don’t know if I changed any minds, but at least I made them think about their assumptions about security and the Palestinians. Finally we all decided it was time to go home. I went back to Naomi’s and took a shower and Naomi fed me and Yvette (yeah Naomi!!!) then it was time to go back to Jerusalem. Yvette and I got on the shuttle to the bus station and then the shuttle to Jerusalem, and who should also get on but Mitchel Kramer one of my former campers from OSRUI. He is here doing EIE The same program I did when I was a sophomore in high school. His parents were also there. I guess this week was the parents week. They asked me what I was doing here so I told them, and they thought it was very cool, so that was nice. They even invited me to dinner, but I had to decline. I texted Jomi to tell her what happened and it turns out she was planning on going to visit the campers on Friday so now I’m going with them to Tzuba to do that which is very exciting. I think about half of EIE is my former OSRUI campers. Okay once we got to Jerusalem I took Yvette to my favorite Bagel toast place for dinner then we met Wilco at Jaffa gate and I went out for the third night in a row (not such a good idea) We had a lot of stuff with us and weren’t sure what to do with it, so I used my magic Jew abilities and convinced the security people at Beit Shmuel (the hostel where the NFTY offices are located) that I worked for NFTY and that they should let us put our bags in the storage room. I did it all in Hebrew too! It worked so we were then bag free and headed back in to town. We met up with Andrea who I now know through Naomi. She was at Constantine, which is a really nice and big dance bar. The best part was that she was there with Two guys from American University. So I said hello to all. Constantine closed around 3:30. Since Yvette, Wilco and I couldn’t go home until the first bus back to Ramallah in the morning I took them to Underground which is a slightly sketchy place, but it was the only place I could think of that would be open late. We left there around 5:30 at which point we were exhausted and decided to take a nap in Independence park until we could get a bus to Ramallah.
We ended up sleeping until about 8:30 and then magically made it to the bus station and then to our respective homes. I literally walked in the door and went straight to my bed and passed out for a few hours. Then I ate something and did some reading until Omar Texted to say that they were showing V for Vendetta at Aliya’s. When I got there it turned out they were actually showing American Outlaws which is the worst movie ever! Don’t ever watch it! I suffered through it though by making fun of every scene and making my own dialogue with Josh. Finally it was over and I went home and to bed! (finally!)
Monday we reviewed for the tests we had coming up Colloquial on Wednesday and Standard on Saturday. After class I had to write my first paper since graduation. It was a little hard for me, but not too bad. I Finished around 10 and then called Rachel to talk to her about/ apologize for a bad thing I did. Once we had more or less made up I told her about Hirsh’s (the rabbi in charge of Avi Chai a program in DC we both did) father dying and that the Shiva was this week. Rachel called Jeremy to get more details and we decided to go to the shiva the next day. I went to bed pretty early so I could get up early to go to Jerusalem.
Tuesday morning Rachel called me and we figured out we would go in the early afternoon. I was in a bit if ahurry when I was finally leaving to go to Jerusalem and when I was almost to the check point I realized I forgot my passport. This is a big problem they could have refused me entry in to Israel, but I explained in half Hebrew half English that I left my passport in my apartment in Birzeit where I was studying, but that I was going to Jerusalem for the shiva of the father of a rabbi that I studied with. I don’t think you could have made that story up if you tried. I also luckily had a photo copy of my passport picture in my wallet so I think that helped at well. The soldier told me she believed me and let me through. On the way to Rachel’s I ran in to Sivan who I worked with last summer in NFTY. I had thought she was living in the States now, but apparently not, so we exchanged numbers and hopefully I shall see her soon. Then I had to go buy black flats to wear to the shiva since it was an ultra orthodox family. I borrowed a long black skirt and long sleeved button down shirt from Rachel, and braided my hair. I looked like I was going to seminary. It was pretty funny. Rachel and I took a cab to the home where the Shiva was (oh for those of you who don’t know what a shiva is it’s the seven day period of morning after someone dies in which friends of the family are supposed to come and give their condolences and share in the mourning process.) We were both a little nervous about going inside, but finally we got up the courage. We walked in and we were told to go up some more stairs to another room where we found both Hirsh and Gavriel (who was our guide when we came to Israel with Avi Chai) sitting and talking. I think it is inappropriate in that world for us to be alone too long with them, so we all went down stairs and Gavriel made fun of my outfit asking if I wore it in the west bank. We sat and talked to Hirsh for awhile. He told stories about his father and then asked Rachel and I about what we were doing, which is always funny, because Rachel is studying basically Zionist education, and Im studying pretty much the opposite. Technically the room was supposed to be divided men and women, but when we came there wasn’t really anyone else there so Hirsh said it was okay for us to sit with him and Gavriel. At one point some important looking orthomen came in and Hirsh hirsh gave us a cue to move away from that area. So Rachel and I sat back with Gavriel for while and talked about life etc… when the men left we decided to also say good bye to Hirsh and leave with Gavriel. At some point before the men came and hirsh had been telling stories about his father he told a story that his father told about how educators should be. The story goes that a man was in the woods with his students and he told one of them to pick up a huge rock. Under the rock there were lots of bugs squirming around and moving. The teacher told his student, “before you moved that rock those bugs’ whole world was under that rock and now that you have lifted it, you have opened them up to an entirely new world and universe that they wouldn’t have known otherwise.” I really liked this story, but also Hirsh was telling this story to talk about the kind of educator his father was, and Rachel looked at each other thinking the same thing, that Hirsh had lifted a rock from our heads and shown us a whole new world in Judaism. Rachel decided to tell Hirsh about this as we were leaving and Hirsh started to cry he was so touched. It felt good that we could bring him a little joy during this time. We said our goodbyes and then Gavriel drove us to Rachel’s apt. We hung out for a bit, and then did some shopping, and then went to dinner. I had intended to return to Ramallah Tuesday night, but the service at the restaurant was sooo slow I missed the last bus back to Ramallah, so I slept at Rachel’s with the intention of getting up early the next day and going to class.
I woke up Wednesday with the worst stomach cramps and serious nausea. It was horrible. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but I spent most of the day lying on Rachel’s couch and drinking chamomile tea and honey. I started to feel better around 5:30 and ventured out to superpharm to get a tooth brush and also some soup to eat. I came back and made some soup for Rachel and me. Then Maryanne a PAS person called me to tell me that ICAHD was hosting Rachel Corrie’s parents that night to talk about her death and what they were doing now about it. It was at 7:30 so I went to that. It was very emotional to watch these two people talk about how their daughter was literally crushed to death by a bulldozer driven by an Israeli Soldier. It hurt my heart a lot. After they spoke I asked Maryanne to introduce me to Jeff Halper (the guy in charge of ICAHD) I told Jeff that I had been trying to meet with Eyal the volunteer person for the past few weeks. It turns out Eyal was there that night but he had left by the time I met Jeff, but its okay because now I have an appt to meet with Jeff Halper on Friday at 10 am! Yeah!!! Im very excited. I have been following this organization for years now to actually work for them would be a dream come true for me. Okay so after meeting Jeff we miraculously got a ride to Ramallah from a guy whos name I forgot, but hes an American teaching English and History at the Friends School in Ramallah. Once in Ramallah I got a shuttle with Ryan back to Birzeit. I made some more soup for dinner, and then did my reading for Palestine question and bed.
Today I got up and no one was home. I putzed around for a bit then got ready for class. When I tried to leave I realized that Sandra had locked the door from the outside which cannot be unlocked from the inside. I called her and it turned out she was almost home any ways so she let me out, but before I left she told me that last night at around 3 in the morning our friends Omar and Wissam were Arrested by the IDF here in Birzeit. I hardly knew what to say or do. I wish I was friends with some high up in the military Israeli, but all my friends had pretty low level positions in the army. Omar and Wissam are not violent people. They are both very politically active in the PFLP, but they are not a security threat to anyone. Especially Wissam. Wissam is the one who got shot in the leg by the soldiers at the Atara check point. He cant even walk yet, and his wife had a baby just 2 weeks ago, what the hell do they need to arrest him for, and Omar I don’t even think he could hurt a fly even if he wanted to. I had been starting to feel like I was living in a bubble here in quiet Ramallah and Birzeit, but I guess its pretty easy for the IDF to burst any bubble they want. No one has any idea where they are or what they are charged with, and we probably wont know for another week maybe not even then. It makes me feel very helpless that there is nothing I can do to help. We just have to wait and see what happens. I hope they let them go soon Its hard to imagine ones friends in prison, especially Palestinian friends in an Israeli Prison. Well as amazing as this may seem life here goes on as normal. Most of us are still going to Zan’s tonight, and Im still going to Jerusalem tomorrow to meet with Jeff Halper and then to Tzuba to visit my campers with Jomi. It seems almost unreal, but that’s the way it is here. The most abnormal and horrendous things are part of normal life.
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