Monday 24 December 2012

Palestine: Yallah bye.

I'm starting this blog a month since I left the West Bank with no real idea of how to summarise, conclude or make sense of my time in Palestine. Once more, I have been humbled by the steadfastness and solidity of the Palestinian people. Once more, I have felt helpless and angry in the face of the atrocities that the Israeli army, government and settlers commit on a daily basis.

And yet, and yet...somehow I feel more resilient and more prepared to face these injustices. In difficult situations I still compare and contrast with Israeli jail and count my blessings that I'm no longer there (despite being told that this feeling of relief would fade!)

More than anything, despite the hardships, I wish I was still in Palestine, standing with my friends and colleagues from Palestine, from Israel, from everywhere - habibis, I miss you all.

People still there tell me the situation is intensifying - attacks and kidnapping by settlers (naturally, backed up by the army), a boy killed on his 17th birthday - while I was still there, there were whispers (and some shouts) of 'intifada'.

An uprising by the Palestinian people is a difficult thing. They have little power. Every time they react against the Israeli occupation, it is they who are branded as the terrorists, rather than their occupiers with their guns, their political power, their propaganda machine. But, inshallah, Palestine's freedom will come, and soon. (I realise that my excessive use of 'inshallah' (god willing) is ridiculous considering that I am a godless heathen :p )

Now it is christmas eve. I am in Thailand, feeling guilty and useless (though the fact that it's raining a LOT assuages my guilt a little...)

I feel for Majd Obeid, who was arrested with me back in September and is still in prison. I feel for his family, and all the other families who have someone in prison.I feel for the hungerstrikers. I feel for all the Christian Palestinians in Gaza who didn't receive permission to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas (no one between the ages of 16 and 35 is even allowed to apply). I feel for all the families who will have to start 2013 learning to live without a loved one, because this was the year that they became a shaheed (martyr) of the occupation. I feel for those who are cold because their house was demolished or their electricity is controlled and limited by the Israelis. I feel for those whose neighbours are settlers who attack their young children. I feel for Palestine.

Palestine needs people of conscience, who will stand up for justice alongside the Palestinian people in their struggle. Find out more here.

Yallah bye Falasteen, and merry christmas.





P.S. I will most certainly be back.