Jordan/West Bank border

Crossing the Jordan/West Bank border via the King Hussein Bridge is truly an experience that you wish you will never live again. It seems logical to think the border is under Jordanians and Palestinians control; however for “security reasons” the Israeli do control that border. So I went through the Israeli security check and the first think that caught the agent eyes is my first name “Hayat”. “What is this name Hayat?” he did say. As soon as I heard that I knew that it will be a long process for me to be allowed in Palestine.

So after 4 and ½ hours wait (and long discussions with some fellow Palestinians/Americans who apparently were used to these long wait), and after many questions about my motives for my visit (and what is my father first name, where am I going to stay, how come I came to Israel alone, would I visit the west bank, Do I know some people in Israel…) an Israeli agent asked me some more questions and then she told me to wait a little while and said “hope you’ll enjoy Israel”. I have noticed the people put aside like me where all of Arabic or Muslim background.

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.

Volunteer work

Kids in Karama organization: The kids in the refugee camp seem to be happy to have a place where they can come, relax and participate to different kind of activities. It doesn’t look like the kids can enjoy much activity in the camp or at school. So Karama initiatives are really appreciated by the kids and the parents. Despite the language barrier we manage to communicate with the kids: most of them learn English at school, and some told me they have improved their languages skills at Karama by discussing with the volunteers and by participating to the free English courses (given by native english speakers volunteers). The kids were also more than happy to help us improve our Arabic skills J while we were spending time together (making craft works, painting or playing...).

All the kids and teenagers were polite and respected Karama’s volunteers. However, I couldn’t help but notice the tension between the kids sometimes: when you start distributing materials for activities the kids will fight to get it first, they often fight  for different kind of reasons and I had to separate the kids involved (to stop the fighting going on), and this happens few times a day. I felt tensions, nervosity at times: it was manageable but it makes me sad to see that with the entire situation going on they have to fight each other. I wonder if all this tension I have witnessed is linked to their current situation living in a refugee camp (which is a very difficult situation).

I enjoyed talking to young adults and teenagers and asked them how they see the future and what they want to do when they will grow up. Even for the young adults who go to Uni, they do feel that the future is very uncertain for them. It’s quite difficult to project yourself in the future and think about what you really want to do with your life when you are living in a refugee camp. I have met a Palestinian volunteer at Karama and he’s trying to start a project to start breaking this tendency. He wants to help children start thinking of their future and start thinking of a possible career. The project will allow kids to express themselves, to explain what they like, and to help them pick a career or a field which will match their taste. This will also involve visits to different centres, museums, sciences library, hospitals (to meet up with doctors, nurses…)… I think that this kind of project will suit Karama objectives as the kids need to improve their communication skills and start thinking of the future in a more positive way.

Life in West Bank and Education

My travel in Palestine allowed me to have a better understanding of the situation in refugees camp. The little space they have doesn’t really allow to have any green space (gardens...), space for house building is quite limited so most of the families add up floors to their actual house, isolation is not really well done in the houses which means it’s quite cold inside the house even if winters are not really cold in Palestine (compared to France or UK).

When I discussed with Palestinians I also noticed that they don’t have much faith in their own government. To be honest, during my stay I only saw some UN cars around, but I never saw an official or an office from the Palestinian authorities. Also, they don’t really believe in the peace negotiations with Israel and the International Community. And on this point I totally understand their position. I went to Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem and I saw many Jewish settlements. They are everywhere, most of the time on top of hills which is quite strategic as they can overlook the villages and defend themselves in case of attacks. All these settlements are protected by Israeli army and you can only enter it if you show your ID. From the information we have in Europe, I didn’t know that so many settlements were in West Bank. When you are there and you go around you will see these areas everywhere. Even from my refugee camp I could see a settlement area (and it was really close, like 3 or 4 km away). So what is the deal exactly? Are we all naive by believing that there will be peace processes starting again, while many settlements are already within West Bank? The situation seems to be quite tricky right now and it’s difficult to imagine how the situation will evolve in the next years. Will they still extend the Jewish settlements all over West Bank? How will the local people react?

I was also quite surprised to see that there is no communication between Palestinians and Israelis. As a Palestinian, the only contact with Israelis will be with soldiers or employers. The Jewish settlers don’t mix with the locals, they have their own areas  and their own protection (armed soldiers). In Hebron, Jewish settlers even have a street forbidden for Muslims Palestinians: they are the only ones to be able to use this street (for security reasons of course).

Another subject discussed with many Palestinians was education. They all noticed that the level of education in Palestine has decreased with time. The classrooms are more and more crowded; quality of education is not as good as it used to be. Education is the backbone of any society, how can West Bank manage their future if education level keeps decreasing? I had the feeling that some people want West Bank population to stop fighting for theirs rights, for their land and for their freedom and the best way to achieve this is to attack their education system.

Also, the whole structures  of West Bank society seems to be under Israeli control: economically (they even use Shekels, Israel currency), border control, energy supply (water, electricity…)… Palestinians cannot even own factories as they have to buy their products from Israel. It looks like they are not under the Palestinians authorities but they are totally under Israeli control.

My feeling is that we are crushing these people who want to fight for their legitimate rights. There seem to be also a risk to see parts of West Bank becoming part of Israel (dream of a big Israel). Despite of this situation, I have met some people who still resists, real fighters who know the fight will be on education, on helping the younger generation to have and fulfill their dreams and have better opportunities in life. To meet these people was the highlight of my stay in Palestine: real people, from who we can learn a lot. Despite of seeing the worse from human beings, they still keep their heads up and still fight for their freedom.

Ce n'est qu'un au revoir, I'll be back...

One of the things that chocked me a lot during my stay was to see the Israeli soldiers looking for some people in Palestinians houses in the middle of the night (3am). They can be aggressive, as it happens quite often to see them forcing the doors if the people inside the house refuse to open it. The people living in the refugee camp also told me they can push or beat you to  get informations about the person they are looking for.

I have also notice how family is important and how they really stick to each other. I discussed this subject with some people and the answer was quite obvious: they feel they are left all alone to deal with the difficult situation, no real and strong Palestinian authorities, no real international community help… So the only entity left to face the situation is family. If something happens to you, your whole family will back you up.

I would like to thank all the people who took the time to talk to me, to arrange the visits of different cities, my host family and all the people in Jordan and Jerusalem who helped me through my journey. It was an amazing experience where I learnt more than I taught and I hope to be back soon (inshalla). I advise everyone to do it (to do any volunteer work in any country) as this is always good to see with your own eyes what is happening in the world rather than always rely on the media.

Freedom and peace for Palestine!