Direction West Bank

So with my passport back in my pocket (with a huge Israel stamp on it: let’s just say that I am now officially banned of few Arabic countries…), I finally took a shared cab to go to Jerusalem. Between the check point and Al Quds, the landscape is just amazing: the desert Valleys, of clear beige color, were the scenery all along the road. And then Jerusalem and the Dome of Rock: amazing to see it for the first time. But a proper visit will be for another day.

Direction Deheishe refugee camp, close to Bethlehem: the first view of the wall separating Palestine from Israel is kind of shocking. A wall apparently built for security reasons: I am not sure this total separation will help in understanding each other and come to a solution and a durable peace.

Then I met Yasser, the director of Karama. After discussing with him I felt reassured that my experience here will be worthwhile and that I will learn a lot about the situation in this area. He seems to be the real militant. I guess that when you live in an area like west bank and you do manage an NGO, you have to be a fighter, with strong convictions and beliefs.

My host family (my Palestinian family)

I am staying at Manal and Youssef house. They have 5 children: Ahmad (19yo), Mohamed (18yo), Ayat (15yo), Braheem (12yo) and their baby boy Baha (6yo). They made me feel at home, they are reminding me of my own family back home in Morocco. Since they know I come from an Arab country (even if I was born and raised in France) and that I am Muslim, Youssef wants me to speak Arabic with him (which is quite tricky as I am quite struggling to speak my bit of "Darija", Moroccan dialect, but I am trying). My host family don’t really see me as a “French Arab”, but they do consider me as “one of them” (as Youssef said), as an Arab Muslim. This was interesting to observe as I have often noticed that most of the time I felt I was considered as a foreigner in France and Morocco. I discussed the subject with Yasser and he confirmed that here in Palestine, wherever you live or grow up, you will always be considered Arab, Muslim. It felt good actually to not be pointed as a foreigner all the time. Feeling that you are part of a community without having to fight all the time to be accepted, or to justify your presence within this community.

On my first nights in West Bank, Manel and Ayat came to wake me up “Hayat, do you want to see a jewish soldier?” I thought I was dreaming. So the second and the third time my host family try to wake me up, I then realize it wasn’t a dream. Actually some Israeli soldiers were in our streets searching some houses. From a western point of view this seems unrealistic to have soldiers entering your home in the middle of the night. But I remember my first conversation with Yasser: he told me it happens quite often to have the soldiers entering your home at night. But it’s unbelievable to see from your own eye that these kind of things really happen for real. What the Israeli are looking for by doing that? To protect their own people by arresting some Palestinians who are fighting for their rights? Well the official reason is that these interventions are necessary to help preventing "terrorism". I found it always strange to have governments trying to resolve terrorism with extreme measures that can only bring more hate and acts of violence. Maybe we need to have more justice (and not just justice for the ones who have power/money), equal chances, freedom of speech, economic opportunities… to fight their so called "terrorism". Right now we have Israel with a strong economy, strong politics establishment facing a weakened Palestinian authority with no state and a crippling economy. The feeling of injustice is understandable.