Okay so I guess I need to work on writing more often, but life has been busy and a little crazy this past week.
So lets see Monday (the 25th) was a pretty bad day weather wise. It was raining in the morning when we went to class, and then during class it hailed twice and rained a lot in between, but despite the weather I went to meet up with Miriam in Ramallah. The rain lightened up just enough for me to get to the restaurant where we were meeting. I was so proud of my self that I found it with any problems. I mean I now I’ve been here for almost a month now, but I am so directionally challenged, but anyways I found it and got some tea with Miriam we chatted for a bit and then her other friend Gary joined us. Gary is a very interesting person. He is also Jewish and is here doing economic research. He seems a little quiet at first, but opened up after while and he told me about three very cool things. First was a group that goes hiking in the west bank and they know where they’re going so hopefully Ill be able to join in on that. Second was that he had a web camera he wasn’t using so he is giving it to me for free! I love free things, and third he has been working with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) which is an organization I have followed since high school. He told me they are looking for people to be tour guides for their alternative tours. I don’t know if this will actually pan out to anything especially since I emailed them a few days ago and haven’t heard back, but it would be amazing if I could do that. He said they would even pay me. ICAHD also works with Birthright Unplugged which I would love to work for. More and more since I’ve been here I have really wanted to have an opportunity to share what I know and have learned with others in the American Jewish community. The three of us drank tea and talked for a couple hours, and then Gary had to go home, and I decided I should probably also head for home. I made my way to the shuttles back to Birzeit and went home.
Tuesday we learned about the Balfour declaration and the evils of Zionism in class once again. He is starting to repeat things which is I guess understandable but a little annoying. After class I went to a lecture in Ramallah that Maryann told me about. It was hosted by the Quaker community in Ramallah. The speaker was a social worker and psychologist who specialized in Children and trauma, and since I want to work with Israeli and Palestinian Children who have both experienced a lot of trauma I decided it would be worth it to go. It was very interesting, and I met some very interesting people. I met a woman who runs a physical therapy center for Palestinian children. I think maybe when my Arabic is a little better I will call her to see if I can volunteer there. There was a potluck after the lecture, but I had to leave because I promised I would have dinner with Jean Marie, Marco, Yvette and Elizabeth. I got back to Birzeit with just enough time to go home pee, put on some more layers and head back out again to meet them. We had a very nice dinner in Jifna which is a smaller village near Birzeit where Jean Marie lives. After dinner we hung out at Jean Marie’s for a bit and then took a cab back to Birzeit since it was late and rather cold out.
Wednesday was normal class and then I went for a walk with Vanessa, and got some stuff to make rice and beans. Then we wondered by Katy’s apt and she and Santi happened to be on the balcony and yelled to us to come say hello. So we ended up hanging out with them on the balcony in the sun for a while which was really nice. Then Vanessa and I went back to my apt and made dinner for us, Miriam, Josh and Elizabeth. This was one of those moment when my inner Jewish mother comes out, it makes me so happy to feed other people, esp when they like what I make them. After dinner we went to William’s going away party. William is a Palestinian who I became friends with through Omar. He is probably one of the nicest guys on the planet. He has gone out of his way to walk me home several times since I’ve been here and he also has the ability to fix almost anything. Because of this I was amazed to find that the Palestinian Authority were looking for him. He hasn’t done anything besides be politically involved with the PFLP. The PA wants to arrest him, but they cant stick any except accusing him of harassing international women, which is the most ridiculous thing every considering what I just said about him. So end of story William has to go away for a little bit. We had a little party at Aliya’s to say goodbyes. It started out small but almost everyone came eventually. We went on for so long we ended up having to move the party to Kyle and Ryan’s house where a small amount of debauchery ensued at 4:30am Me Tasha and Kelsy were the only ones still there and I decided walking home at that point would be a bad idea, so Ryan was nice enough to sleep on the couch and let me have his bed (im sure some great feminist leader is rolling over in her grave right now, but its nice to be a girl some times.) Tasha woke me up at 9:30 the next morning to walk home and go back to sleep until 1 when I had to get up for class.
I did miraculously get up for class, but I missed half of it because Lena a friend of mine from AU, who is a Palestinian who lives in Herzliya was visiting Birzeit. She called me when she was at the gate but the guards didn’t recognize her or her friends so they wouldn’t let them on campus so I went to see what I could do. Nothing of course, but we talked for a bit, and then I had to go back to class so we said good bye until that evening when DAM was performing. After class I went home for a bit then we all met up to go to the Ramallah Cultural Palace for the show. I was really excited. Dam is pretty good as far as Rap goes, and well if you know me you know how much I love concerts. Dam was great, but their set was really short, and this guy called Perry Mystique come on, and he was ridiculous. The beats he was rapping to were pretty good, but his rapping was totally off, and he kept doing stupid things like asking if we still liked him. He played much longer than DAM and was not nearly as good. It would have been a very disappointing evening if not for the fact that I got to see Lena again and also Miriam was there. After the show some of us went to Zans which is the bar in Ramallah were all the internationals go. It is very expensive (almost $8 for a Jack and Coke) and both times I have been there its always too crowded. We stayed for a while and then got a ride back to Birzeit from Azeez Omar’s friend. We all went to Ryan and Kyle’s, because for some reason I agreed to go watch a movie, even though it was late and I was sleep deprived. To make things worse Omar decided we had to watch 300 the most violent movie on the planet. I think I fell asleep half way through but when I woke up Hussein was there and he drove Vanessa and I home at around 5, and I drifted off to sleep to the sound of the first call to prayer of the day.
I woke up on Friday at around 2pm I know that’s bad, but I really needed it. Once I was awake I spent most of the day making flash cards for Arabic. In my Amia class we learn so many new vocab words a day so I figure flash cards would be a good way to keep up. I was also checking the news a lot since the violence in Gaza had been steadily getting worse since a students from Ashkelon was killed by one of the rockets Hamas has been shooting into Israel from Gaza. It was some time on Friday when I read that Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defense minister said that the more Rockets Hamas sent in to Israel the greater the Shoah they would bring upon themselves. To quote Al Jazeera (the story was also in Haaretz)
"The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai told Army Radio on Friday.
In case you don’t speak Hebrew Shoah is the Hebrew word for Holocaust. I was in shock I read the line about 20 times. I cannot imagine what he was thinking. It is disgusting to hear a Jew using the word Shoah in reference to what Israel is doing is Gaza. Later his office tried to walk back the statement saying he really meant just a big catastrophe, but I have never heard the word Shoah used in any other context than the actual Holocaust. It made me so angry, and it only got worse when the next day Israel sent ground troops in to Gaza and killed over 50 people in one day, many of which were children.
Saturday was a very long sad and angry day. One the one hand I want to go to Hamas and yell at them. I mean they know what they are doing. The know that Israel is going to fight back and with a lot more power if Hamas is shooting rockets at Israeli towns and cities. Hamas is playing with the lives of the people they claim to represent to make a point. It makes me sick, but just because Hamas is wrong it doesn’t make what Israel does right. In the past five days 120 Gazan’s were killed more than half of them between Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we went to class, but Sammi my Arabic teacher is from Gaza and most of his family is there. We could all tell he was very upset. We made it through the first class but at the beginning of the second class Katy was talking about a demonstration taking place at the Atara Check point near My house. So half way through class Sammi let us go and a lot of people went to the demonstration. I did not go because most people were going with the sole intention of throwing stones at soldiers and when you throw stones at soldiers you and everyone around you gets shot at. Im pretty sure I can do a lot more for the Palestinian cause alive than dead or injured. I stayed on campus and went to a lecture about the destruction of Palestinian villages post 1948 war. The lecture was very interesting and I’m glad I went. A few minutes after it ended I got a call from Kyle asking me what blood type I was. About a million images blazed through my head at that moment each one worse than the one before. It turns out Asaan the guys whos works at and who’s family owns Aliya’s the restaurant we always go to was shot in the leg. The bullet went through the bone and he had to be taken to the hospital and have surgery. He is okay now, but he wont be able to walk for several months because of the damage to the bone. A large number of us had planned to go see a Dubka (traditional Palestinian dancing) performance that night, but since half of the people were at the hospital we just decided not to go. I decided I want to be with some people with a calming influence on my life that evening so I texted Marco told him we weren’t going to Dubka and asked what he and Wilco were doing for dinner. He invited me over for dinner and a movie. Elizabeth was over using my internet so she was invited as well. It was nice to be cooked for. Those boys are pretty good cooks I was impressed. Then we watched No Country for Old Men which I didn’t think was all that great, but maybe I just wasn’t in the ride mood to watch more senseless killing. I walked home with Elizabeth at around 11 so we could wake up early to go to Jericho the next day.
Sunday we woke to find that life in the West Bank was more or less normal so we decided to go ahead with our planned trip to Jericho. Our party consisted of Me, Marco, Wilco, Elizabeth, Yvette, Vanessa Vanessa’s friend whose name is escaping me at the moment, and Thommi’s girlfriend whose name is also escaping me now. It was an interesting trip. We went through a few check points one of which the soldier opened the door to the van and asked where we were from in Hebrew and before I could stop myself I answered in Hebrew. He seemed a little surprised, but then asked to see a few people’s passports and then let us go.
We went to the Hisham Palace which is basically ruins of what was once a very large palace. There isn’t a lot left of it, but are some really cool mosaics that have been restored. By the time we were done there it was lunch time, and Vanessa’s friend took us to a place that he knew in which they gave us a ridiculous amount of very delicious food and it ended up being only 30 shekels each. After lunch we went to the mount of Temptation, which is apparently where Jesus fasted for forty days while the devil tempted him. It was interesting and the monastery there now was pretty cool. Also the view from up on the mountain was pretty nice. After the monastery we went to a Mosque further out in the desert which was supposed to be where Moses was buried, I was rather skeptical. But after walking around the Mosque a little we walked around the area for a bit. I really love the desert in Israel. I guess it’s the only desert I’ve ever seen, but its just so beautiful. Every where you look is more beautiful than where your eyes were just moments before. It’s a little over whelming, and for some reason is always makes me want to pray, so I did. I needed some alone time any ways. I walked away from everyone else for a bit and did some chatting with G-d. after while I was followed and my alone time and praying time was cut short. Then it was getting darker and colder so we decided to head back to Ramallah/Birzeit. When we got back to Birzeit we saw that there was a candlelight vigil going on in the square, so we went and joined. A lot of others from the PAS group were there already. It was very moving. After I was informed that everyone was going to Aliyas to buy lots of stuff to help raise money for Asaan and his family while he cant work. I wanted to go home first to get more layers so I walked back quickly. I was escorted by about 10 little boys from my neighborhood. They were asking me all these questions and to my happy surprise I understood and was able to answer a lot of them. It was very exciting. I guess I am learning something here after all. After I relayered we went to Aliyas had dinner and a few drinks. We were there for a few hours and by the time we finally left I was practically falling asleep on the table. I walked home with Josh who lives just a few houses down from me, and passed out very quickly.
Today was not terribly eventful except that everything was messed up on campus today. I was happy to learn that Israel was exiting Gaza today, but then we got to campus and found out that a kid from Birzeit had been shot and killed that night. There were protests on campus and they blocked the entrance at one point. Even our classes were canceled, but after a while things calmed down and returned to normal. The ability of the Palestinian people to “return to normal life” amazes me. I went home read for a bit then I went to the gym with Vanessa. We finally joined a few days ago but this was the first time we’ve been able to go, I almost forgot how good endorphins make me feel. After the gym I headed home to make some foul (pronounced fool) stew yumminess and then wrote this stupid blog entry for way too long, and now I must do my reading for tomorrow and learn about the rise of Palestinian nationalism.
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