Thursday, March 26, 2009
Back Safe
I have now returned to the US safe and sound, and I am looking forward to reconnecting with everyone after I've recovered from a little jet lag.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Good-bye Palestine
This will almost certainly be my last post from Palestine for this trip. I want to reiterate how thankful I am to have had this opportunity! I have learned much about the situation here, other cultures, and myself.
Palestinian society is a broken society. Some of the dysfunction stems from Israel's brutal occupation, but some of the hurt also comes from problems almost universal in Arab culture. Part of the dysfunction in the Arab world may be a result of Western colonial influence for more than a century, but I believe Arabs also need to take some responsibility, pause from placing blame, and work together to resolve these issues.
I carry home with me some scars and brokenness from living here for a year. My pain for this culture is nothing compared to what people experience here who do not have the luxury to leave. I return to the US less idealistic than when I left and less hopeful for the situation in the Middle East. After what I've witnessed, I have a little less faith in the ability of humans to do some good.
Sometimes we must criticize the things we love. This is true for me and Palestine, and it is true for me and Judaism as well. I do not mention my frustrations with Palestinians out of a desire to do damage; rather, I critique in hopes that one day things will change for the better. If I were silent in the face of injustice or oppression, wherever it exists, especially with those I love, I would only be hurting the cause. We do no good, only damage, by keeping silent when those we love do harm.
For all of my frustrations in Palestine, I leave believing as strongly as ever that the Israeli Occupation of Palestine must end, for the benefit of both Israelis and Palestinians. I believe strong than ever in the Palestinian right to live in freedom and security, exercising self-determination. The fight here is for humans rights and freedoms--to be seen as human--just as much as it is a fight for anything else.
Please continue to keep this land and peoples in your prayers. There is a word from the Prophet Jeremiah in the Jewish Scriptures: "Pray for the peace of Babylon, for in their peace, you will have peace." These words are almost unprecedented in Jewish Scriptures because they ask Jews to pray for the peace of their enemies. Today, I think we, both in the US and Israel, should pray for the peace of the Middle East, for our peace is directly tied to the peace here. Prayer is empty, however, unless it is backed up by action: we cannot pray for peace while profiteering from the wars in the Middle East. We must stop our support of these wars that terrorize the people of Palestine and the Middle East, and instead, seek a real, just peace.
Palestinian society is a broken society. Some of the dysfunction stems from Israel's brutal occupation, but some of the hurt also comes from problems almost universal in Arab culture. Part of the dysfunction in the Arab world may be a result of Western colonial influence for more than a century, but I believe Arabs also need to take some responsibility, pause from placing blame, and work together to resolve these issues.
I carry home with me some scars and brokenness from living here for a year. My pain for this culture is nothing compared to what people experience here who do not have the luxury to leave. I return to the US less idealistic than when I left and less hopeful for the situation in the Middle East. After what I've witnessed, I have a little less faith in the ability of humans to do some good.
Sometimes we must criticize the things we love. This is true for me and Palestine, and it is true for me and Judaism as well. I do not mention my frustrations with Palestinians out of a desire to do damage; rather, I critique in hopes that one day things will change for the better. If I were silent in the face of injustice or oppression, wherever it exists, especially with those I love, I would only be hurting the cause. We do no good, only damage, by keeping silent when those we love do harm.
For all of my frustrations in Palestine, I leave believing as strongly as ever that the Israeli Occupation of Palestine must end, for the benefit of both Israelis and Palestinians. I believe strong than ever in the Palestinian right to live in freedom and security, exercising self-determination. The fight here is for humans rights and freedoms--to be seen as human--just as much as it is a fight for anything else.
Please continue to keep this land and peoples in your prayers. There is a word from the Prophet Jeremiah in the Jewish Scriptures: "Pray for the peace of Babylon, for in their peace, you will have peace." These words are almost unprecedented in Jewish Scriptures because they ask Jews to pray for the peace of their enemies. Today, I think we, both in the US and Israel, should pray for the peace of the Middle East, for our peace is directly tied to the peace here. Prayer is empty, however, unless it is backed up by action: we cannot pray for peace while profiteering from the wars in the Middle East. We must stop our support of these wars that terrorize the people of Palestine and the Middle East, and instead, seek a real, just peace.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Funds; Classes; Injury; Right of Return, etc.
NOTICE: AS OF APRIL 1, 2009, UNIVERSITY FRIENDS MEETING WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO RECEIVE DONATIONS FOR MY WORK IN PALESTINE. Please do not send UFM donations after this date. If you wish to make further donations after April 1, please contact me directly.
In this post: Finished classes in Hebron; friend's brother almost kidnapped; activist critically wounded; reflection on history of right of return; Thank You! for a great learning experience in Palestine.
This week I finished teaching my English classes in Hebron. The students were sad to see me leave: they threw a party, gave gifts, asked me when I'm coming back, and continue to express that they want more Englishes classes if/when I return. My return to the US is bitter-sweet for me: I am anxious to reconnect with family and friends, but I also will miss Palestine and the friends I've made here.
Last week, when I arrived at work, my co-worker, a girl born and raised in the States but whose family comes from Hebron, was very upset, shaking and confused. She told me unknown men in Hebron had just tried to kidnap her 8 y.o. brother. The only reason the boy wasn't successfully taken was that the neighbors heard the boy screaming and saw his arms and legs dangling out of the get-away car. It sounds as if at least some of the perpetrators were caught, but my co-worker's wealthy father believes the man responsible for the crime was someone who owed him money. Locals of Hebron did not express much faith in their police force to get to the bottom of this crime, and they said kidnappings like this are all too common there.
Last week also brought other sad news, as an activist from the US was critically injured at a protest in Ni'lin. As readers might recall, Ni'lin was the main protest I frequented last summer, and the violence there, from both sides, is one of the reasons why I left the protests. Tristan, from CA, was struck in the head by tear gas canister fired by Israeli soldiers. His injury and its seriousness are particularly personal to me because last summer I was slightly wounded by a tear gas canister that hit me in the neck; if the weapon had stuck me a few inches higher, I could have suffered the same fate Tristan has. If you watch the video taken right after the tragedy (see: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36435) you will notice that Tristan was hit in the city of Ni'lin itself--this is well away from where most protests take place (in the fields outside of the town), and it shows just how indiscriminately Israeli forces fire lethal weapons in civilians areas, even when the threat posed by the protesters are, at the very worst, rock-throwers (this is not to diminish the serious injuries rocks can cause, however: they can be just as lethal as a tear gas canister. The rocks are thrown at combat soldiers who wear body armor; the rocks are difficult to aim). I can personally attest that the soldiers fire the tear gas to injure people--they shoot the canisters right into a crowd, meaning to hit people; this is in contrast to how tear gas is supposed to be used, where the gas is fired next to crowds, to force them to disperse.
Please keep Tristan and his family in your prayers. He was rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery to remove part of his brain, and doctors are unsure if and how fully he will recover. His injury highlights how dangerous the protests here can be; for me, I was not willing to continue to take the risk at the protests, so long as some Palestinians continued to throw rocks and use low-intensity violence and hatred to combat the occupation.
Tristan's injury occurred almost to-the-day of the anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death in Gaza. Please read about Tristan's story here, then take action for him. Also, please see the news section below for info on Rachel Corrie and events to commemorate her sacrifice.
I have a friend who was just denied participating in Israel Birthright, a program that gives young Jews living outside Israel the chance to visit Israel for free. Birthright Israel is a program that seeks to indoctrinate young minds to be right-wing, pro-Israel, and the trip is full of propaganda, never attempting to show the participants the other side (Palestinians or Palestine). My friend's story reminded me of the reasons why I strongly dislike any notion of a "birthright": that people should receive special favors or treatment merely because they were born to a particular family, race, religion, etc. While young Jews who have never visited Israel can obtain a free trip here, most Palestinians who were born and raised in this land have no chance whatsoever of making the 20 minute drive to Jerusalem to pray at their holy mosque, much less get a free trip to their homeland (i.e., homes that were destroyed in 1948 to make room for Jews to return). The whole idea of some people being allowed, encouraged to return to a place, simply because they were born into a particular religion, while others born into a different religion are kept out, this idea really grates on me. Many of the Jews who return have much less of a claim to the land than people who have already been living here for centuries. I am not discounting the right of Jewish people to live in this land; I just don't believe that should happen at the expense of other people: Jews are encouraged to immigrate, even given free places to live, while non-Jews are discriminated against and actively forced to leave.
Many of the reasons for why Jews are encouraged to return to Israel center around the myth that all the Jews were expelled from Israel in 70 AD. A careful reading of history will show that Jews were expelled only from Jerusalem, not all of the Holy Land in 70 AD. To my knowledge, there never was a time when Jews were expelled from all of the Holy Land. I was surprised some months ago to even find this admitted (that Jews were only expelled from Jerusalem in 70 AD) in an Israeli national museum (Tower of David) in Jerusalem. The Holy Land has always had people living in it, and always had people of Jewish ancestry living in it. Some of the Jews remained religiously Jewish, while others converted to Christianity, or later to Islam. That so many Jews do live outside of the Holy Land is a testament to the scattering of Jews, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to the inherent evangelistic nature of the religion (Judaism being one of the great evangelical faiths). So, ironically, many of those Jews who now can freely "return" to Israel never came from this place (at least biologically) to begin with, and many of the people (Palestinians) being forced from the land may, in fact, have closer biological ties to Judaism (although perhaps having converted to Christianity or Islam). The whole situation is even more complicated when one considers that modern Judaism only represents 1-2 of the original 12 tribes of Israel--the other 10-11 tribes were assimilated into various empires before the time of Jesus (and thus, perhaps a majority of the people living here could originally hail, in some way, from on of these 10-11 Israelite tribes).
All of this is to say that the situation here can be incredibly complex. However, the solutions can also be made easier when our starting point is a respect for each person's freedom, dignity, and right to live here in peace, regardless of race, creed, or religion. This starting point is in stark contrast to Zionism's starting point: that only Jews have a right to live in this land.
My time here in Palestine is quickly coming to an end. I hope to make at least one more post before I return to the US. Please continue to keep this region in your mind and prayers, even after I leave. Although I will not be making news updates from this region like before, I want to encourage everyone to stay up to date with the happenings in the Holy Land, as events here have enormous consequences for the rest of the world. I will, of course, be making announcements and occasional other posts of this blog when I return to the US, so please stay tuned . . .
Wish me a safe return. I plan to start making presentations approximately one month after I return to the States (before I speak formally, I want to reflect on all I have seen here).
My time in Palestine has been a tremendous learning experience for me, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have lived here. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, checked in with me, followed the blog, prayed for me, and given in so many different ways. I hope some people have learned a little from my learning experiences in Palestine.
Peace&Love
News from the region you might have missed:
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36290
To avoid the high costs of the Israeli gov.'t and military demolishing his home, this man hired his friend to demolish his family home.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069303.html
In a rare slip, the US actually names Israel as a nuclear power (it is Israeli and US policy to not comment on whether Israel has nukes).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069308.html
The US says it won't recognize a Palestinian gov.'t without the currently appointed (not elected) prime minister Fayyad remaining as PM, despite who the Palestinian people actually elect. Here's to more of the same US policy of propping up unelected officials against the will of the people.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069314.html
The US is putting more pressure on Israel over the issue of settlements.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069750.html
Israeli rights group says Israel should stop mining W Bank rock quarries, that the action is raping the land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewF7AXn3dg
A very important video to watch from AFSC on the map of the W Bank and how Israeli actions are severely limiting movement and making a 2 state solution impossible.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123672847973688515.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070041.html
Charles Freeman, nominated by Obama to the Security withdraws from the post citing a smear campaign by pro-Israel groups in the US of anyone who says anything critical of US policy toward Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070318.html
US officials assure Israel the US won't cut military aid, regardless of Israel's actions.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070450.html
After all the hype at the conference, the truth comes out: US aid to Gaza comes with the string that Hamas must recognize Israel. Is this political money or aid money, is it meant to help ordinary citizens or twist politicians arms?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090311/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_usa
The US complains about Israel's policy of not allowing toilet paper into Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36398
Gaza's sewage, which has already caused massive damage and drowned multiple people in the past, is now visible from space.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36417
Diabetes increased by 27.5 % in the W Bank in 2008
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36441
Israeli court temporarily halts demolition of Jerusalem school.
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1895
http://www.rachelswords.org/rachels-emails/
Some actions and reading to commemorate the anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death in Gaza.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36472
Israeli settler Leiberman to become foreign minister in new Israeli gov.'t. A little history on this guy.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ehrenreich15-2009mar15,0,6684861.story
A great article in the LA Times from a Jewish writer who explains that Zionism is the main problem in the Middle East.
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=1941
A good article on the power of words from the US. Instead of naming Israeli actions as illegal (which they are under all intl law), Condi Rice and now Clinton have started calling Israel's actions "unhelpful"--even the US used to describe the same actions as illegal.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36495
Israeli crew attempts to demolish part of Pal house they say was built without permits. More of the same idea of legalizing ethnic cleansing.
http://www.closedzone.com/
See the animation from the lead animator of "Waltzing with Bashir" on the situation in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070628.html
Israeli book that questions the origins of the modern Jewish people wins French prize.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072040.html
Soldiers in Gaza dispute IDF's account of legal warfare there.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Finding Quiet; Pointing Guns; Politics, etc.
In this post: Finding Quiet in a ghetto; a culture of lies; Pointing Guns at me; the Sexes part II; Clinton in Israel & Palestine; news, etc.
It is difficult to find places of quiet or solitude here. The almost constant noise is even worse in places like Gaza or Cairo, I'm told, and I can't imagine remaining sane in those places. Foreigners are popular here, and even if the locals don't like your gov.'t or politics, they are fascinated with you. You are something different. Children constantly follow you around, adults ask you endless questions. The only word I can find to describe it is "desperation." Desperation to mean something, to be recognized, to find a connection outside a miserable and mundane life. The desperation is more pronounced in the refugee camps. This attention, while flattering and stimulating, is also exhausting. Sometimes, I scheme for a place to retreat and not be recognized or "bothered," but anonymity in such a small, family-oriented place is impossible. Sometimes, I make up excuses for why I can't visit with people or why I need to go home. Don't get me wrong, I socialize plenty here, but I would never have alone time if I did not find excuses to retreat.
The excuses I give perhaps mirror the all too prevalent lies told in this culture. One international volunteer wondered if the culture of lying here stems from the excuses Pal's must have ready at any given time for the military checkpoints. I'm not sure why insincerity is so common in Palestine (and perhaps the Arab world), but it is something that bothers me. Everything is about appearance. I can do whatever I want behind closed doors, but I must always guard my public image and honor.
Speaking of checkpoints, last night, as I returned from teaching classes in Hebron, my taxi driver pulled to the side of the road to let off another person in the car. The place where we stopped is on the main highway, but Al-Aroub refugee camp borders that part of the road. After the passenger shut the car door, I noticed two Israeli soldiers pointing their rifles at us, and I saw through the darkness the red lasers crossing through our windshield. I don't like guns being pointed at me, and I really dislike seeing a red laser dot on my chest. My first reaction was to duck below the dashboard, but that seemed useless. My next thought was that these were probably just bored teenage soldiers. One of the soldiers walked up to my car window and said to the driver, "Don't stop here," and he motioned for us to move on, which we did. Later, relating the story to his family, my driver said, "The soldiers were going to give us trouble, but when they saw a foreigner in the front seat, they just told us to move on." I don't know what is happening at Al-Aroub camp, but for the last month, every night (not during the daytime), I have seen soldiers and large military vehicles moving around, and as we've driven by the camp, I've seen flares shot into the sky to give a few seconds of light.
This last week in my English classes, there continued to be a few difficult discussions. One girl said she wanted to discuss the topic of traditional marriage vs. love. As an introduction, she described how traditionally, the parents chose who you would marry in the culture, regardless of love; however, now there is an idea that two people who marry should love each other. Each student in the class was asked to state if s/he believed in traditional or more modern forms of marriage and to say why. Again, there were major differences between the women and men in the class, with all the women saying they believed in love, and most the men saying they supported more traditional forms or marriage and love. After a little discussion, one of the male students stated: "Women are emotional and only think from the heart. If we let them have their way, one day she might love me, and the next day, she might love someone else. Women need men because men are more rational and think from their head." It is my practice in most classes to summarize what a student says after s/he is finished talking so that the students can hear their ideas expressed in good English. It was very difficult for me to summarize this student's remarks without commenting. One of the female students eventually said, "Palestine is not a democratic, equal society. There are different rules and customs for men and women." Thankfully, the students didn't ask me for my opinion this time, but I did say at the end of the discussion that we should be able to have different opinions and still respect one another and our right to disagree. I also asked the students about an observation I've made here, that premarital sex is against Islam, but there are different cultural norms for men and women. If a women has sex before marriage, it is very strongly condemned, and her life could even be in danger; if a man has premarital sex, he is only slightly chastised, if at all, and sometimes it is celebrated. All of the students, including the men, admitted that this is what happens in this culture.
Before we judge to quickly Palestinian ideas about the sexes, though, I should note that these very ideas and words were quite prevalent in the West not too long ago. I can find literature written by men from the West expressing the same sentiment that men are the rational creatures and women the emotional, and while these beliefs are not often expressed in the West anymore, they still do exist. We want other cultures to adopt our Western "improvements" quickly, and when they don't, we wonder what's wrong with them. We forget that it took our culture at least two centuries to come to where we are, and we're still not perfect. Hopefully this culture in the Middle East won't take as long to change, but if it does, it will merely be following a similar time period for social change as the West has followed.
Hilary Clinton visited Israel and Palestine this last week, and it occurred to me that I have been closer to both Obama and Clinton while living in Palestine than I probably ever will be while living in the US. This country is so small, I was literally only a few miles away from where these powerful politicians were making their statements and photo-ops. The summit in Egypt a few days ago was another exercise in the hypocrisy of the region and world leaders: pledging millions of dollars in aid to people while knowing that the money would never reach the people it's intended to aid. How is the billions of dollars supposed to reach Gaza while Israel maintains its economic and military blockade? The West has a long history of throwing money at issues (which can look generous on the surface and make us feel better), while not doing a thing to alleviate the actual problem. The US likes to give Israel weapons, encourage them in their wars, and then pay for the damage Israel does. Clinton said while she was here, The crux of the problem is the rockets coming from Gaza. Sometimes, I wonder how so many stupid people manage to get into office. The real problem is Israel's torturing of over a million innocent civilians, starving them, bombing them, traumatizing them. If the blockade stopped, the rockets would stop. You can't encage people and treat them like animals, then wonder why they respond like animals. Opening Gaza's borders does not mean, necessarily, that "terrorists" could roam freely out of Gaza, but what it does mean is that humanitarian aid could freely flow in. Even Hamas has said that if Israel just left Gaza alone (allowed supplies to reach Gaza, ended the military actions in Gaza, etc.) that Hamas would declare a long-term cease-fire with Israel.
Clinton also stated while she was here that the US recognizes the Palestinian Authority as the sole and rightful representative of the Palestinian people. Excuse me? Is the US going to continue propping up unelected gov.ts in this region. The Pal. people elected Hamas, not the PA to gov.'t, and the Pal president's term expired two months ago, so the whole gov.'t is essentially illegal, according to Pal law. Unfortunately, it looks as though Clinton is saying essentially the same things as her predecessor, Rice, and that the US gov.'t will continue its practices of propping up unelected gov.'ts and dictators in this region. Then, the US wonders why the common people here get angry at the US, protest, and try to overthrow their gov.'ts.
Meanwhile, the violence is continueing in and around Gaza, and it is possible the all-out war will resume again soon. And, yesterday, there was another incident of a bulldozer smashing cars in Jerusalem. The bulldozer driver's family (he was shot and killed at the scene) says that it was a traffic accident, and Israel calls it a terrorist act (despite the lack of evidence that it was pre-planned or organized with a group: normally, we call an act like this (if it is deliberate) a crime, not terrorism).
New for the region you might have missed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/world/middleeast/06froman.html?_r=1&emI
A NY Times article on a Jewish Rabbi I'm acquainted with you maintains contacts with both Hamas and the Israeli gov.'t.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068033.html
Israeli Peace group says the gov.'t is planning to build 73,000 new settler homes in the W Bank. This would hugely increase the amount of settlers living illegally in Palestine.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36214
The Palestine Authority seems to be halting peace talks with Israel over Israel's plan to demolish Pal homes in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068828.html
The head of a Palestinian rights group who received a prestigious European award for human rights is banned by Israel from traveling to receive the award.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068953.html
A proposal in the US congress would make the money Clinton pledged to rebuild Gaza dependent on Gaza halting rocket fire and releasing an Israeli prisoner. Since when do we make humanitarian relief contingent on political results? This is punishing the civilians in Gaza for the actions of the gov.'t and militants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7924199.stm
A new report says that Palestinian health is declining due to, among other things, Israeli restrictions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7926413.stm
Israel "wantonly" destroyed homes in Gaza, according to this report. For example, soldiers destroyed homes and buildings that were already under their control and posed no threat to them. If this is true, it would constitute a war crime.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068989.html
Pots of urine, feces in the refrigerator - how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067563.html
See end of this article for Israel leader designate's ideas about how not to give Palestine its freedom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068546.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7922750.stm
See Clinton's words about how demolishing Pal homes is "unhelpful" to the peace process. While at least saying something against the actions is helpful, she should try calling it what it is: illegal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069195.html
Outgoing Israeli leader says no peace with Palestinians without dividing Jerusalem. Is this insight or racial discrimination?
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36262
Israel says it is going to harshly respond to rocket fire from Gaza . . . again!
It is difficult to find places of quiet or solitude here. The almost constant noise is even worse in places like Gaza or Cairo, I'm told, and I can't imagine remaining sane in those places. Foreigners are popular here, and even if the locals don't like your gov.'t or politics, they are fascinated with you. You are something different. Children constantly follow you around, adults ask you endless questions. The only word I can find to describe it is "desperation." Desperation to mean something, to be recognized, to find a connection outside a miserable and mundane life. The desperation is more pronounced in the refugee camps. This attention, while flattering and stimulating, is also exhausting. Sometimes, I scheme for a place to retreat and not be recognized or "bothered," but anonymity in such a small, family-oriented place is impossible. Sometimes, I make up excuses for why I can't visit with people or why I need to go home. Don't get me wrong, I socialize plenty here, but I would never have alone time if I did not find excuses to retreat.
The excuses I give perhaps mirror the all too prevalent lies told in this culture. One international volunteer wondered if the culture of lying here stems from the excuses Pal's must have ready at any given time for the military checkpoints. I'm not sure why insincerity is so common in Palestine (and perhaps the Arab world), but it is something that bothers me. Everything is about appearance. I can do whatever I want behind closed doors, but I must always guard my public image and honor.
Speaking of checkpoints, last night, as I returned from teaching classes in Hebron, my taxi driver pulled to the side of the road to let off another person in the car. The place where we stopped is on the main highway, but Al-Aroub refugee camp borders that part of the road. After the passenger shut the car door, I noticed two Israeli soldiers pointing their rifles at us, and I saw through the darkness the red lasers crossing through our windshield. I don't like guns being pointed at me, and I really dislike seeing a red laser dot on my chest. My first reaction was to duck below the dashboard, but that seemed useless. My next thought was that these were probably just bored teenage soldiers. One of the soldiers walked up to my car window and said to the driver, "Don't stop here," and he motioned for us to move on, which we did. Later, relating the story to his family, my driver said, "The soldiers were going to give us trouble, but when they saw a foreigner in the front seat, they just told us to move on." I don't know what is happening at Al-Aroub camp, but for the last month, every night (not during the daytime), I have seen soldiers and large military vehicles moving around, and as we've driven by the camp, I've seen flares shot into the sky to give a few seconds of light.
This last week in my English classes, there continued to be a few difficult discussions. One girl said she wanted to discuss the topic of traditional marriage vs. love. As an introduction, she described how traditionally, the parents chose who you would marry in the culture, regardless of love; however, now there is an idea that two people who marry should love each other. Each student in the class was asked to state if s/he believed in traditional or more modern forms of marriage and to say why. Again, there were major differences between the women and men in the class, with all the women saying they believed in love, and most the men saying they supported more traditional forms or marriage and love. After a little discussion, one of the male students stated: "Women are emotional and only think from the heart. If we let them have their way, one day she might love me, and the next day, she might love someone else. Women need men because men are more rational and think from their head." It is my practice in most classes to summarize what a student says after s/he is finished talking so that the students can hear their ideas expressed in good English. It was very difficult for me to summarize this student's remarks without commenting. One of the female students eventually said, "Palestine is not a democratic, equal society. There are different rules and customs for men and women." Thankfully, the students didn't ask me for my opinion this time, but I did say at the end of the discussion that we should be able to have different opinions and still respect one another and our right to disagree. I also asked the students about an observation I've made here, that premarital sex is against Islam, but there are different cultural norms for men and women. If a women has sex before marriage, it is very strongly condemned, and her life could even be in danger; if a man has premarital sex, he is only slightly chastised, if at all, and sometimes it is celebrated. All of the students, including the men, admitted that this is what happens in this culture.
Before we judge to quickly Palestinian ideas about the sexes, though, I should note that these very ideas and words were quite prevalent in the West not too long ago. I can find literature written by men from the West expressing the same sentiment that men are the rational creatures and women the emotional, and while these beliefs are not often expressed in the West anymore, they still do exist. We want other cultures to adopt our Western "improvements" quickly, and when they don't, we wonder what's wrong with them. We forget that it took our culture at least two centuries to come to where we are, and we're still not perfect. Hopefully this culture in the Middle East won't take as long to change, but if it does, it will merely be following a similar time period for social change as the West has followed.
Hilary Clinton visited Israel and Palestine this last week, and it occurred to me that I have been closer to both Obama and Clinton while living in Palestine than I probably ever will be while living in the US. This country is so small, I was literally only a few miles away from where these powerful politicians were making their statements and photo-ops. The summit in Egypt a few days ago was another exercise in the hypocrisy of the region and world leaders: pledging millions of dollars in aid to people while knowing that the money would never reach the people it's intended to aid. How is the billions of dollars supposed to reach Gaza while Israel maintains its economic and military blockade? The West has a long history of throwing money at issues (which can look generous on the surface and make us feel better), while not doing a thing to alleviate the actual problem. The US likes to give Israel weapons, encourage them in their wars, and then pay for the damage Israel does. Clinton said while she was here, The crux of the problem is the rockets coming from Gaza. Sometimes, I wonder how so many stupid people manage to get into office. The real problem is Israel's torturing of over a million innocent civilians, starving them, bombing them, traumatizing them. If the blockade stopped, the rockets would stop. You can't encage people and treat them like animals, then wonder why they respond like animals. Opening Gaza's borders does not mean, necessarily, that "terrorists" could roam freely out of Gaza, but what it does mean is that humanitarian aid could freely flow in. Even Hamas has said that if Israel just left Gaza alone (allowed supplies to reach Gaza, ended the military actions in Gaza, etc.) that Hamas would declare a long-term cease-fire with Israel.
Clinton also stated while she was here that the US recognizes the Palestinian Authority as the sole and rightful representative of the Palestinian people. Excuse me? Is the US going to continue propping up unelected gov.ts in this region. The Pal. people elected Hamas, not the PA to gov.'t, and the Pal president's term expired two months ago, so the whole gov.'t is essentially illegal, according to Pal law. Unfortunately, it looks as though Clinton is saying essentially the same things as her predecessor, Rice, and that the US gov.'t will continue its practices of propping up unelected gov.'ts and dictators in this region. Then, the US wonders why the common people here get angry at the US, protest, and try to overthrow their gov.'ts.
Meanwhile, the violence is continueing in and around Gaza, and it is possible the all-out war will resume again soon. And, yesterday, there was another incident of a bulldozer smashing cars in Jerusalem. The bulldozer driver's family (he was shot and killed at the scene) says that it was a traffic accident, and Israel calls it a terrorist act (despite the lack of evidence that it was pre-planned or organized with a group: normally, we call an act like this (if it is deliberate) a crime, not terrorism).
New for the region you might have missed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/world/middleeast/06froman.html?_r=1&emI
A NY Times article on a Jewish Rabbi I'm acquainted with you maintains contacts with both Hamas and the Israeli gov.'t.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068033.html
Israeli Peace group says the gov.'t is planning to build 73,000 new settler homes in the W Bank. This would hugely increase the amount of settlers living illegally in Palestine.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36214
The Palestine Authority seems to be halting peace talks with Israel over Israel's plan to demolish Pal homes in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068828.html
The head of a Palestinian rights group who received a prestigious European award for human rights is banned by Israel from traveling to receive the award.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068953.html
A proposal in the US congress would make the money Clinton pledged to rebuild Gaza dependent on Gaza halting rocket fire and releasing an Israeli prisoner. Since when do we make humanitarian relief contingent on political results? This is punishing the civilians in Gaza for the actions of the gov.'t and militants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7924199.stm
A new report says that Palestinian health is declining due to, among other things, Israeli restrictions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7926413.stm
Israel "wantonly" destroyed homes in Gaza, according to this report. For example, soldiers destroyed homes and buildings that were already under their control and posed no threat to them. If this is true, it would constitute a war crime.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068989.html
Pots of urine, feces in the refrigerator - how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067563.html
See end of this article for Israel leader designate's ideas about how not to give Palestine its freedom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068546.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7922750.stm
See Clinton's words about how demolishing Pal homes is "unhelpful" to the peace process. While at least saying something against the actions is helpful, she should try calling it what it is: illegal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069195.html
Outgoing Israeli leader says no peace with Palestinians without dividing Jerusalem. Is this insight or racial discrimination?
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36262
Israel says it is going to harshly respond to rocket fire from Gaza . . . again!