The message from Palestine spreads in Poland

Recently we have prepared a 2 hours long presentation which we had already showed three times, but there is a plan for more! We want to present it in other Polish cities, not only Warsaw.
The attached picture comes from one of the presentations in Warsaw that gathered around 70 people. It was held in Klub Podróżnik (Travelers’ Club).

Presentation about our volunteering in Palestine, Klub Podróżnik, 26.01.2012

Moreover, last Saturday Maciek was invited for a half an hour interview to a Polish radio (broadcasting nationally).  It is avail in streaming http://bi.gazeta.pl/im/1/11048/m11048091.mp3 (in Polish only). The editor, Pawel Sulik, liked it a lot and plans to invite us for a discussion with pro-israeli politicians/journalists. Before that he  posted a short comment about the interview on his blog Los Polandos.

The message is being spread!

Sandra gave birth!

Sandra, our domestic camel, gave birth to baby boy at 8.40 pm on 30-12-2011 !

An interview for Palestinian TV

During our stay in Jordan Valley we were interviewed by the Palestinian TV. The material was shot during daytime and nighttime building from mud-bricks. In the video you can see how the building sites look like and what is the purpose of volunteers’ work in this area.

Our statements were divided into parts. Maciek’s part starts around 5:40′. It was shot at night because in area C in which the building is located Palestinians are not allowed to construct.

Paulina’s part starts around 1:30′.

Epilogue

Today’s post ends our adventure in Palestine and so it is time to sum it up. What have we learned, what have we experienced? Has our opinion about the situation in the Middle East changed? Today we will allow ourselves to express personal, subjective opinion.

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For sure we would describe ourselves as friends of Palestinian people; after visiting they homeland and meeting them personally it would be hard to state otherwise. But does it make us enemies of the Israelis? Does one have to choose: either Israel or Palestine? Not neccessarily. Apart from being Palestinians’ allies we can say that we are Israelis’ friends too. We are friends of people, who live in this country, go to work, school, rise children, go to pubs at night, etc. – just live ordinary lives. However, we strongly criticise politics practised by the Israeli government. It is obvious that it harms Palestinians, but we state that it also doesn’t do much good to the people of Israel. They have to pay high taxes to support settlers (sometimes unemployed, whose only occupation is being present on the land confiscated from Palestine) and religious extremists (whose only occupation is reading Torah). Additionally, enormous costs are generated by maintenance of the army – used not only to protect the country, but also to occupy West Bank. As a result of these high costs Israelis’ standard of living is getting worse. Young people often can’t afford apartments and they don’t have any perspectives for that. We met a young couple, who didn’t study because they had to serve in the army. Now, because of lack of higher education they don’t earn much and spend all the money for living (and renting a flat). Although they are very keen on studying, most likely they will never be able to afford it, hence never get a better job and buy their own flat.

It is just one example but costs of Israel’s politics are a burden to every person living there. How does the government justify these expanses? “Security reasons” is a key-word that opens every door… Society that lives in constant fear is much easier to control. Although if security was really a priority, politics would be quite different: discontinuation of abuses in the West Bank and achieving peace with Palestine would be an objective. How could it be achieved is a topic for another chapter, or a book even, which we don’t feel competent to write. However, mutual Arab-Jewish respect of the rights, dignity, equality and democracy instead of violence would definitely play role there. Fair historical education and effort of understanding other side’s sufferings would also be important.
In contrast just let us remind a quote from David Ben-Gurion, former Israeli prime minister, who commented on Jewish pogrom in Germany in 1938 (known as Kristallnacht), as quoted in “Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs : From Peace to War” (1985) by Shabtai Teveth, p. 66:
“If I knew it was possible to save all [Jewish] children of Germany by their transfer to England and only half of them by transferring them to Eretz-Yisrael [Land of Israel], I would choose the latter—-because we are faced not only with the accounting of these [Jewish] children but also with the historical accounting of the Jewish People.”
We doubt that this way of thinking about human lives and politics has changed much since then.
So, does it make us uncritical pro-Palestinians? No, it doesn’t. Same as in case of Israel, we are friends of the people, but criticize the government, which in case of Palestinian Authority is corrupted, doesn’t represent its people and breaks human rights.

We find it also quite important to mention that the Israeli people are often unaware of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They support government’s politics most likely because of the ‘security reasons’, but we belive and hope that if they had better understanding of the situation, they would start to oppose. Already there are Israeli organisations who do it, like B’Tselem (http://www.btselem.org/) or Israeli Comitee Agains House Demolitions (http://www.icahd.org/).

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How can you help or get involved??

It seems the Palestinians are in a really difficult situation there, oppressed by Israel and their own authorities – so how can we help? How can you help?

1. Material help – not always a good solution
One way could be material help, one could think. Although it can be helpful, in this case it is not the most important thing. Because of corruption in the Palestinian Authority it is quite likely that money will not reach the official recipient at all, or will be spent by incompetent people. And there are things more important than money.

2. Being a conscious recipient of medial content, searching for information by our own

Most often what we see or read in popular media shows only part of the complex reality in the Middle East. Trying to deepen knowledge, dig out historical facts, read quotations from politicians from bot sides of the conflict, and asking people who lived in Gaza or West Bank can bring you closer to the real image of the situation there.

3. Spreading and sharing what you know about the situation in the region

It is crucial to spread the information about the real situation in the West Bank, since it is not shown in the media.

4. Boycott of Israeli products

Another way advised by some people is boycott of Israel and Israeli products or goods in order to achieve ending of apartheid, just as it was done in South Africa. After a series of political, economic, cultural, sport and academic boycotts of Republic of South Africa politics was changed there and apartheid came to an end in 1990.
Boycott supporters say that if awareness of Palestinian problem increases around the world and people start to put pressure on Israel by boycotting its products, finally this attitude will reach governments worldwide. The desirable consequence would be decrease in trading and dealing with Israel, which will have no other choice than to end the apartheid and respect human rights and international law, notoriously being broken nowadays. But first – as it was said – world has to know what is going on there. Details about boycott can be found for instance on the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) website: http://www.bdsmovement.net (tab: campaigns), or Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycotts_of_Israel. Main rule is very simple: don’t buy Israeli products (their bar code starts with 729) and don’t buy products of companies that gain profit from abuses committed in the West Bank (such as Veolia, Volvo, Alstom, Agrexo and so on). List of such companies can be found on web site mentioned above. A significant sigh of the boycott power is this year’s law passed by Israeli Knesset that makes the call for a boycott on Israel or Israeli settlements a civil wrong. The law was heavily criticized in Israel by both left-wing and Arab political parties. Israeli leftist and human rights organizations also criticized the law, and launched a public campaign against it as it was stated to violate basic democratic principles and freedom of speech.

5. Travelling to the West Bank, meeting Palestinian people

Since Palestinians cannot travel freely, we have to go to Palestine to get to know them. However, most of the tourists visiting the Holy Land never experience any signs of occupation and never get to know any Palestinians. They normally use common, commercial travel agencies. Why not to try alternative, conscious touring? You will be able to see how the real life in Palestine looks like. Obviously we didn’t have to use such travel agencies organizing ‘alternative tours’, but we heard about them and saw one in Jerusalem and one in Hebron. You can also search them in the Internet, for instance Alternative Tourism Group http://www.atg.ps/ or Alternative Tours http://www.alternativetours.ps/.

6. Supporting projects involving European and Palestinian youth

During our visit in Bethlehem Aida Refugee Camp we met a man coordinating work of the Leeja Youth Center (www.lajee.org). They organize many events to support local children and teens in the Refuge Camp, however they are also successful in realizing a brilliant idea (from our point of view) of introducing Palestinian youth to the people from other countries. How do they do it? For example they organize excursions of the Palestinian youths for invitation of foreign schools or other institutions or even private people and show performance of Dabkeh (traditional Palestinian dance) or exhibitions of photographs taken by the kids from the camp. They also organize Human Rights Workshops and simply make possible for international people to get to know Palestinians, and vice versa. Leeja Youth Center invites also foreigners to come to Bethlehem Refugee Camp to work with the local children.

Since Leeja Center does not have any cooperation with Poland yet, we are thinking about organizing the trip for at least 10 Palestinian children to Poland, for a week or two. The main goal would be to accommodate them in Polish families so both sides could learn something about each other. Isn’t it a great idea??

7. Go volunteering to the West Bank!

Yes, we know that it is not always easy but… it is worthy! We would warmly recommend this way of support, especially with one of organisations we proved to be reliable like International Solidarity Movement (ISM – http://palsolidarity.org), or Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS – http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org). This method is definitely most laborious, time and energy consuming but also very satisfactory, we assure!

We will miss you, Palestine!

Palestinian people – women

Although we visited a few Bedouin communities we almost have not seen women! They are not visible to us – shy and often don’t agree to be photographed. The extreme modesty in outfit and behavior is the best way to avoid haram (can be translated as ‘shame’), a word which shapes social interactions since early childhood. However, there are a few exceptions: Fatma and here mother who we met at the beginning of our trip – the two strong spirits, very open and eager to get to know newcomers;

With Fatma and her mother Miriam (in the background)

or two women in another community uncovering hijab (traditional hair cover) for a second just to show Paulina the golden earrings which normally can be seen by only closest family members. It happened a few times that Paulina was recalled by women or girls, and while Maciek was somewhere else they were chatting with her, offering food, exchanging bracelets and expressing appreciation for her blond hair. Paulina never missed an opportunity to approach Palestinian females because it was always very positive and pleasant experience. Sometimes it would be so great to speak and especially understand more Arabic! Maybe next time will be able to get know more Palestinian women, they have so magnetic personalities!

Maciek and Palestinian woman in front of her house

Palestinian woman we were renovating house for

Palestinian women lead different lives dependently where they live in. Those living in cities are more independent and their lifestyle is closer to European one. In Ramallah we saw women working, driving cars, walking alone in the streets, etc. However in the countryside we lived in, and especially among Bedouin communities, gender roles are much more polarized and conservative.

Women with completely covered bodies are rare in Palestine

Women are working in the field, taking care of animals (which is one of the most time consuming and tough activity here), producing cheese and raising many children (family consisting of 6 persons is considered as rather small; having 5, 6 or even 7 children is very common here). Being pregnant, giving birth and raising so many kids together with hard physical work in the field or with livestock plus living in severe conditions, without electricity and constant access to water – it is a real challenge! Not mentioning the lack of proper healthcare (the doctor visits Bedouin communities once per three weeks for three hours).

Woman working in an animal shelter

Woman whose house was just demolished - first one to fix it

Finally, it cannot be forgotten that Palestinian women still experience different forms of discrimination, starting from ban to enter the sheesha cafes, through control and abuse by men, finishing with even honor killings. If they marry a conservative man they also cannot work earning money. When we were hitch-hiking once we met three businessmen from Hebron (very nice and polite by the way) and one of them was very curious about Paulina’s occupation. When she said that she goes to work every day he was nodding his head with polite understanding and finally he stated: “our wives do not work”. I guess he meant “do not work to earn money” and did not mean house or field work.

There were unfortunately no Palestinian female volunteers among us. Since they are such strong and vigorous spirits local women could bring a lot of energy and good ideas into our group. We were told that in this particular case it is not that the women do not want to volunteer. The problem are our neighbors who would not accept Palestinian women working on, for example, fixing the roof of our house. Sad but true…

This monster will become a tough woman one day!

School bus bought!

Michał – our Polish friend donated a bus for Bedouin children living in the Jordan Valley!

Side sticker

Thanks to him children will get an opportunity to learn at schools and meet people other then from their small villages. It is a significant support of their right to education which until now was not provided neither by Palestinian Authority nor by NGOs.

Schoolbus

Hippie Wagon and us

Brrrrum

Thank you, Michał!

Refugee camps and ethnic cleansing

After 1948 war Palestinians from the lands conquered by Israel were left homeless and became refugees concentrated in a few refugee camps in Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron but also abroad in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Graffiti inside the camp

At the beginning refugees received help from United Nations (UN) such as tents and food supplies. In camps as the one we visited in Bethlehem UN built provisory houses (we saw one – it was 9 square meters big, families of 5 or 6 people were allocated there).

This used to be first shelters for refugees built by UN. It is 9 square meters big and was used by families of 5 or more people

People were also being convinced that their stay in camps is temporary. The common belief was at that time that UN will take responsibility for solving the situation and bringing refugees back to their homes. Weeks and months were passing but nothing was changing. People were living in poor conditions, in tents or these very small houses, with no water or electricity, supplied with food irregularly. After a few years it came out that UN rented the land for refugee camps for 99 years and refugees started to realize that their return home is less and less likely and their situation might last for long. They started to organize life, expand the houses, open schools, etc. Their living conditions were still dramatic, extremely high concentration of people, unemployment, dependence on external support, etc. And you know what? That hasn’t changed until today, although it is the third generation that lives in the camps! And the land stayed in Israeli hands… After years, especially in 1967 Israel captured even more territories, making more people homeless and rising number of refugees in camps up to one million.

Entry to the Aida refugee camp. A key is a symbol of the right to return. Often the only thing refugees were taking with them while fleeing were the keys to their homes which often do not exist anymore

We visited one of the camps in Bethlehem called Aida (in Arabic: ‘Return’). This camp is 60000 square meters big and holds 5000 refugees, which means that for one person there is only 12 square meters including streets!

Photo taken from the inside of the refugee camp separated from the Jewish settlement by the segregation wall

People who live here fled from 27 villages located in Jericho and Hebron surrounding.

27 villages were depopulated and the refugees live up to now in Aida refugee camp

This camp is one of three camps in Bethlehem neighborhood. There is only one kindergarten, two schools and one clinic with very few general doctors (someone counted that a visit should last one minute to serve all the patients). There are no open spaces for kids to play, the streets are so narrow that often there is no natural light coming into the houses.

Narrow street in the camp. Natural light does not reach windows forcing people to use electricity all day round

Nowadays houses are connected to electricity but the water supplies are very limited, refugees are allowed to fill their tanks only twice a month. We were given tea in plastic one-time-use cups to save water on dishwashing. UN shortened its help and if a refugee has a job he or she cannot be anymore supported what is against international laws. In 2002 the life of the refugees became a nightmare since the Israeli state started to build a separation wall around the camp.

Photo taken from the inside of the refugee camp separated from the Jewish settlement by the segregation wall

Segregation wall does not follow a straight line but instead isolates most important territories like Rachel's Tomb - a muslim holy place

People started to be regularly harassed and threatened. Israeli soldiers started to enter and search the houses, put inhabitants to jail (also children), beat or even shoot people and animals on the streets. Refugees started to be afraid to leave their houses, especially in the night. We were told by the camp inhabitant that at some point soldiers were being brought by couches to the camp for military training to learn how to take military actions against civilians.

Graffiti on the segregation wall and the watchtower

Our interlocutor mentioned a few cases of civilians being killed at their own houses (e.g. through the window). Up to now 27 people were killed only in Aida camp and hundreds were hurt from the hands of Israeli soldiers. We saw many bullet holes in houses or even school facade which was fired during the second Intifada!

Bullet marks on the wall on the roof terrace in the Lajee Center

Bullet holes mark many walls in the camp

School gate marked with bullet holes

The school building used to have windows on this side. After the firing the windows were sealed

We were said that many people in the camp, especially youths who were kids at that time, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder; we don’t believe they get any psychological help to deal with their memories and trauma. The best example can be a boy who was arrested for 2 months at the age of 13 and after being released he was afraid to go out of his room for the next two years… At this moment situation in the camp is calmer but people are still afraid of what can come the next day. They are still bothered by Israeli soldiers from observation towers around the camp. We were told that often people are verbally attacked in Arabic, sometimes through loudspeakers, soldiers throw trash or teargas on the people. One of the main streets of the camp became assigned to area C. When the pope was visiting the camp a few years ago, refugees wanted to welcome him on the podium built on this street but at the last moment they didn’t get permission to do it.

Palestinians were not allowed to welcome the Pope in this street which is located in Area C

People living in the refugee camps in Palestine are trapped in this situation. They cannot go back to their homeland; most of the houses they possessed were destroyed or are now populated with Israeli people. Already overcrowded camps will not be extended. Finally, these people cannot afford to buy land in Area A (which covers only few percent of the West Bank and is extremely expensive because of that) and in Areas B and C they will not get permission to build.

This hill still belongs to Palestinians but the houses on the top are Jewish settlements. Next year the segregation wall will cut off the hill

Our interlocutor was complaining that UN push the responsibility for refugees on the Palestinian Authority, and the Authority does not anything claiming it is responsibility of UN. People do not feel protected by the Palestinian police which serves rather to protect the settlers and when the Israeli army enters the camp’s street Palestinian one disappears in an eye blink. How to get out from this closed circle..? One of the persons who try to change the refugee camp’s reality is one of its inhabitants, who told us the story of the camp and is an leader in the Lajee Center which provides free services to the children from the camp (like playground, library, internet, picnics and trips outside the camp). If you would like to know more or support Lajee Center visit a website www.lajee.org.

Computer room in the Lajee Center

The numbers of Palestinians being forcibly displaced since 1948 is terrifying: by the end of 2008 seven million Palestinians were displaced persons (or their descendants) out of 10.5 Palestinians living worldwide. Forced displacement with no right to return (ethnic cleansing) is a basic human right violation. The process of displacement is still ongoing greatly due to support of the international Zionists organizations funding creation of new settlements and places which can be used only by the Jewish people.

The segregation wall building is ongoing

A road only for the settlers' use separated by the segregation wall

Palestinian refugees demand their right to return to their homes and properties. In numerous debates they have clarified that they don’t want to repeat Israeli mistake and build their existence on non-existence of other people. Their intention is to build a society with Israeli Jews based on democracy, equality and dignity. Displacements committed by Israel brake Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law (Hague Regulations, Fourth Geneva Convention), Law of Nations and International Criminal Law.

Double Occupation

Although Israeli repressions is the main factor that makes life extremely difficult here, we were told that Palestinians feel like under “Double Occupation” – one of which is obviously an Israeli one and the other is internal – Palestianian. This feeling is caused by inequality and injustice in the Palestinian society and abuses committed by Palestinians at power, who can’t resist corruption and nepotism and represent their own interest only. In Ramallah there is a lot of villas and residences belonging to government employees, who couldn’t document income needed to buy them. Since they send their children to schools abroad, they stop to care about Palestinian education system, etc.

One of the houses in villas district in Ramallah

At the same time lots of people suffer poverty (for example about 60% in theJordanValley), and international help intended for them is wasted on the way eaten by corruption and doesn’t reach them at all.

Palestinian Authority administrative who came to demolition site drove Audi A4...

Citizens feel abandoned they don’t confine in Palestinian Authority, that doesn’t seem to represent their interest. PA guards and soldiers can take actions against the Palestianians to protect the Israelis, but in case of riots with Israeli army they disappear from the streets leaving people on their own.

PA soldiers

Not to mention lack of the freedom of speech. Some people agreed to talk to us only anonymously, being afraid of loosing job or other consequences of public criticism of PA.

Repressions

During our stay in Palestine we learn a lot about the local situation and Palestinian-Israeli relation. Surprising is how few of these facts we encountered before in the Polish media. Picture that one gets here is a rather depressing. Palestinians are repressed by the Israeli government in many ways; all of them are justified by “security” reasons. However, we get an impression that Israel is doing its best to simply make life difficult her and it has little to do with security.

Below we list examples that we have either seen, heard or read about.

• We don’t know how many posts are there in the West Bank, but we haven’t seen any and heard that lack of post services is a severe problem here.
• Formal applications of Palestianian citizens wait in administrative units at least 30 days before they are processed.
• If a Palestinian living, say in Eastern Jerusalem has a relative in, say in Ramallah, he looses his permit of stay in Jerusalem. As if his family was obligated to host him elsewhere and Jerusalem should remain a Jewish city. That means that if a Palestinian man from Jerusalem marries Palestinian woman, she doesn’t get a permit to stay in Jerusalem, but he looses his.
• Israeli can access any area, even Palestinians like Ramallah any time, like in order to arrest an individual, etc.
• Palestinians can be arrested without a reason, it is a so called “Administrative Detention”, which before functioned under British Mandate. We personally met a Palestinian, who was held in prison for two years without a reason. Moreover Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are often not allowed to see their families for the whole sentence time, which might take years!
• Locking up children in prisons is not unusual.
• Palestinians need a special permit to enter various areas. They can’t travel wherever they want; West Bank is divided to regions between which one is not allowed to travel freely. Since they are not allowed to use some roads, sometimes they have to travel around on a much longer distance then a direct connection.
• Israelis paying to Palestinian teachers more then PA is able to pay for teaching Palestinian children. Obviously in that case a teacher is obligated to use Israeli books and their version of history is applied.
• Abusing cheap Palestinian labour has a long and notorious tradition in Israel. Palestianians working inIsraelwere not allowed to sleep there, so they had to travel back and forth every day, which could expand their working hours even to 17.
• List of human rights violations is very long….

I think this is how Palestinians have to feel…

These Israeli boys are really carrying machine guns! Recently young Palestinian was shot to death. Murderer was sentenced for 3 months in prison.

Boys from the neighborhood. Israeli settlers – bad company.

In the middle of the street in Hebron….

Palestinian people – men

Despite few Palestinian volunteers and taxi drivers we have met a few Bedouin men already who remaining still quite mysterious to us. Men are the ones who welcome us but most of them don’t speak English and don’t interact too much with internationals. The most religious ones cannot shake woman’s hand so Paulina stopped trying afraid of embarrassment. Volunteering girls can have their hair uncovered so Paulina is often more or less secretly observed with kind interest (however the rest of the body should be covered what Paulina was reminded of after working on the rooftop in too short T-shirt…).

Bedouin man

Our neighbor relaxing in the evening in front of the house

All the Palestinian volunteers working with us are men and it is worthy to add here that friendship signs between Arabic men are quietly different from these shown inEurope. They often hug and hold by hands. Palestinian guys that we met up to now are quite gentle and soft, completely not fulfilling the macho stereotype we knew before.

Holding by hands or embracing is a normal sign of friendship between Palestinian men

They also laugh a lot and are very cheerful. Moreover, we rarely saw them showing negative emotions about the Israelis; they surprisingly don’t speak of revenge and hatred, but peace instead. Nevertheless, every one of them has a lot of stories to share about injustice suffered from the Israeli authority. We wonder what fraction of Palestinian society reveals such an attitude, maybe only English speakers who meet up and discuss with international volunteers…?

Happy father with his son - Palestinian men are very involved in rising their children

An example for a contrary attitude might be a young Palestinian who visited us and shared a dramatic story of his family. Five relatives of him were killed by Israeli soldiers. But the other family member took revenge with the suicide bombing attack killing five Israelis, what our guest quite proudly admitted. Scary and shocking, but true story of many pointless deaths. Recently we were also hitchhiking and were given a lift by three businessmen fromHebron. One of them spoke English so we were chatting all the way in a really nice atmosphere. He shared with us his believe that not a single country (even Arabic) supportsPalestinewhat he expressed as follows: “Everyone against us, only God with us”. At some point he also told us that he was just released from jail for financial supporting of Hamas. These sad confessions were in a strong contradiction with his smiling face. It seemed like he had a lot of faith in his God.

Despite of the language barrier we understand with Palestinian men surprisingly well and we feel comfortable and relaxed among them!