Last Trip in the West Bank

I went to my last protest to the wall building in the south. The soldiers had set up a road block, knowing that we were coming, so we had to kind of off road to get to where we were going. Eventually we made it, i have found that with the determination of the palestinians that go tot this protest, there is absolutely no point in making road blocks. This is their land, they know the ins and outs, and nothing is going to stop them from being there. when we got there the people had gotten the biggest palestinian flag i have ever seen and they walked right up to the barbed wire fence and just held it there. This was one of those things that instills hope. Such a big symbol of freedom is really powerful. I really enjoyed this protest, everyone came out and it was just nice to see all of your friends each holding a piece of the same flag. Each taking a part in the same solidarity. I tell you that these protests are fun, and in a way it is because you get to socialize with all the palestinians and really show your dedication to the cause with your friends. Its also fun in the sense that it gives you a nice warm feeling of internationals and palestinians getting together and organizing to do something instead of just complaining. It gives a hopeful feeling that although this will not probably impact anything of the building of the wall there, the people are learning non violent resistance to the occupation and applying it. If they have enough hope to go though all of that, its a reason to have hope yourself. On the other hand i am not going to lie to you. When we first get out of that car and start walking towards those soldiers, my heart is beating out of my chest. Everyone feels this way, its not anyone in particular, i think thats why it becomes such a bonding thing. Nothing will bring people closer than knowing they are both on the other side of the fence from the people with guns haha. Solidarity.

The last weekend trip took us up north all they way to cessaria, nazareth, the sea of galilee, and haifa. Truthfully we did so much and i was so exhausted i dont know if i can remember everything but it was still an interesting trip. The beaches were beautiful, especially cessaria-i think i am forced to take back what i said about tel aviv as it turned out to be even more beautiful. This trip, like the one before to jericho and the dead sea, was more sight seeing and religious pilgrimage oriented. I suppose after the first hebron trip, that was just what they had decided for us. I was glad to see the sited, but it wasnt the reason i had come to live in the west bank. I was sad that we didnt meat with any groups like we had met with icahd in jerusalem or anything. This was a tour i could have gotten by anyone. I think i am just getting frustrated because i have to leave so soon, and i just wanted to get in every possible thing i could and understand the most in the time i was here, and so despite the historical significance and beauty of these places i was somewhat disappointed. I could have gone to these places on my own at some distant time in the future on some tour, i didnt need to be with a political group to do something that had no politics in it. Again i am reminded by everyone that to fully understand the politics, you must understand the religions and the history. Still i stray from this viewpoint. As ive probably said earlier, i think this whole palestinian question needs to get as far from religious philosophical debates as possible and right down to human rights. Still i know that even if its just an excuse, these things are the things that drive everything here.

Some things i found really interesting on this trip. Nazareth is a part of israel, and the people there are 'israeli' but they are all palestinians. Its not under occupation, they, unlike even jerusalemites, get citizenship and have their own palestinian governor. That was very strange because, for some reason, i thought all the palestinians had been pushed out and that in israel you wouldnt find these all arabic speaking places like this. it was just strange because it was another imaginary border separating a bunch of things that are all the same from one another. I guess in a best case scenario, this is what the one state solution would look like, which up until now seemed completley impossible just because of all the racism. The israelis have their own problems between arab 'mizrahi' jews and european jews. I figured if they could not even tolerate other jews with darker skin, how could they ever tolerate palestinians, but here they seemed to be living in relaive peace in nazareth, though i should mention that they are looked down upon by other palestinians because many of them serve in the military, and are often harder on people than the jews to earn their status in israel. they are a special group, and they exchange the peace they enjoy for the peace of other palestinians, which causes some peolpe to see them as sell outs. nonetheless it was interesting to see some palestinians enjoying almost all the rights of the jews in israel. i went to the most well preserved crusader castle, where jesus walked on water, where he turned the bread and fish into enough to feed everyone, where he turned water into wine, and where mary was told she would conceive. This last one had to be the coolest church i have ever been to. They had pictures of mary and jesus sent from every country in the world, and it was just so interesting how the picture changes to fit the culture. for example the chinese mary looked completley chinese, the mexican mary was mexican and so on. It was really cool to see all these countries adaptations of the same image to reflect their own cultures and i liked it alot because when you put them all together like that, it dosent seem like were all so differant after all.

one of the most interesting things i saw there was actually a television program about reporters in gaza. Reporters are pretty much the only people allowed in and out of gaza nowadays and the program was showing how the israeli soldiers were sending a pretty clear message that although they have to allow the press in, it would come at a price. there was tons of footage of press waving white flags and just getting shot right in the face by soldiers for no reason but to send this message. i wished more people could see programs like this here because i think people feel like the international community is invincible, and particularly because many of these people come from countries that have very good relationships with israel. its of course powerful to see what is happening to the palestinians, but i know much of the international community has already decided that theyre all terrorists and somehow deserve those atrocities. Perhaps it would be more resonating to see some people from their own countries with helmets and jackets with 'press' spelled out as big as it could waving white flags, obviously innocent, and realize that we are all the victims in this struggle.