Friday, April 14, 2017
Yesterday was a really emotional day for me - not like any other. I'm going to try to go through the day from beginning to end to try to understand why I got so emotional. I may end up not publishing this post.
Elizabeth (German friend who lives in the apartment with me and is the person I spend the most time with) and I wanted to go to Bethlehem for the day. We always spend a lot of time with Ja'far, who was the volunteer who always went to class with me on Sundays and Tuesdays, and Saad, his best friend. (We went to the Samaratin passover with them and we go to concerts and just generally hang out with them.) They offered to go to Bethlehem with us. We were thrilled to have them come because they are fun to be with and it's always easier to go places when you have Palestinians who know their way around and also can ask for directions better than we can. Saad arranged for a taxi to pick us up in the morning and stay with us the whole time in Bethlehem and then bring us back home for 100 shekels ($27) each.
So, Saad and Ja'far were in front of our house at 9 AM (not allowed to enter a girls' house, of course) and then Ali picked us up on the street in front of our house. The drive to Bethlehem took maybe 90 minutes. We thought it would be cold and rainy (Why is the weather forecast for Palestinian cities never correct?), so we had our coats, but it was warm and sunny. It was good to have the taxi to leave our coats in. First, we went to the Church of the Nativity. It was kind of crowded. Yesterday was Holy Thursday. This year both the Orthodox and the western Easter are on the same day. Ja'far and Saad asked if we wanted to pray. We sat down in pews. Then, after a few minutes, Ja'far asked why were just sitting. He really doesn't understand Christianity at all. The church still has the same scaffolding up that I saw the last time. I didn't take any photos because nothing looked different from two years ago. I said to Ja'far, "How long does it take to do renovations? That same scaffolding was here two years ago." He said they are doing the renovations on Palestinian time.
Then we just went to walk through the market area in the center of town. There are tons of little souvenir shops with Christian stuff. We went to a store that had postcards. I bought 17 postcards. i will send about four. The others are to keep. I might make a collage. Here are photos of a few of them.
Then, we went to see the graffiti on the Separation Wall. In Arabic it is called the apartheid wall and that is unquestionably what it is. The graffiti is very cool. People are very artistic and witty. We took photos of ourselves in front of it. Elizabeth has a photo of herself praying in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, so I took a photo of her praying in front of this wall. Maybe it shows our different personalities in that I asked her to take a photo of me trying to jump over it.
Then, we went for lunch to a place that had really delicious barbecue chicken - with, of course, the little dishes of hummus, baba ghanoush, and other salads. Ali, our driver, was always with us. I think he was actually a friend of Saad's. (He is a professional taxi driver, though) Elizabeth took this photo. It has: Ja'far, Ali, Saad and me.
You can see the food better here:
There is a famous hotel at the wall. It's by Banksy, a famous graffiti artist, and it just opened last month. Elizabeth and I wanted to see it, but the Palestinians had never heard of it. We asked several people on the street, but they didn't know about it. Here is a link to news article about the hotel. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/banksy-opens-bethlehem-barrier-wall-hotel.
We drove around a lot trying to find the hotel. Finally, Elizabeth (because she has data on her phone - I have mine turned off here) looked up the address and put it in Google maps. It turned out it is right at the end of the street where we took the first photos of the wall.
Next to the hotel, is a store where you can buy paint to add your own graffiti to the wall and then a gift shop. Here is a photo of the entrance. I didn't get the name over the top, "Walled Off Hotel."
And the place to buy paints:
So, you can see that, so far, this was a fun, laughing day. The hotel lobby has other reminders of life under occupation.
Fake surveillance cameras in the lobby:
The hotel has a museum. It costs 15 shekels for internationals and is free for Palestinians. I commented later that they didn't ask for ID. Ja'far said, "We look like Arabs." (Actually, Saad doesn't) But, later I thought that they wouldn't want to ask Palestinians for their IDs in a place like that. If you don't understand how Palestinians feel about being asked for ID, read my previous post on the Samaritan passover. Below you can see a graffiti image of an Israeli soldier asking the donkey entering Bethlehem for his ID.
Anyway, we went into the museum. It is hard for me to describe accurately because I got so emotional but I will try to tell what I remember. The first thing I remember seeing was a box that shows a suitcase and asks "If you had 30 minutes before your home was demolished, what would you save?" Please read ALL of the description on the plaque below and look at the 2 photos.
In the first room, there were plaques about the occupation:
In this room, there were also examples of bullets and other military materials. They had a film that Elizabeth and Ja'far watched. I started to feel really sick in this room. I was afraid I would pass out or vomit, so I went into the next room without seeing even half of what was in there.
In the next room, there was a phone. Sometimes, when the IDF is going to bomb a house, they call the home to tell the people that they have five minutes to get out. (The IDF often doesn't wait the 5 minutes after the phone call.) The sign over the phone explains about the IDF calls and says that you can answer the phone when it rings. The woman in the museum told me to go ahead and answer the phone. I didn't want to because I knew I was already too emotional, but I did. It's an actual recording. It was in English. Maybe the say it in Arabic after. I don't know. It was chilling. After that I walked around that room a little. The others came in to look at things and I just started to cry. Ja'far put his arm around me and said, "It's okay. I got emotional in the other room, too." Later, Elizabeth told me that he cried when they were watching the film. It's so unlike Ja'far. He's always a jokester. Or, if not, he will say defiant things about the occupation - never sensitive things. Saad is the super-sensitive one and he was okay. I tried to stay in the museum, but couldn't stop crying, so I left and went to the gift shop.
I still am not able to get over it all emotionally. My stomach is in knots as I am typing this and tears are running down my face as I type this - and it's the following day. I don't understand why Bethlehem hit me so hard. I walked through the checkpoint and showed my passport in Hebron. I read all the history in the Arafat museum in Ramallah. Those things made me sad and angry, but nothing has hit me like this. Maybe because I know it's close to when I will go home. I will need to find something happy to do today. (It's Good Friday! Ha Ha!)
One last photo: The US government provides Israel with BILLIONS of dollars in WEAPONS. By giving weapons, we are not only giving them the means to brutally oppress Palestinians, we are also sending the message that the solution is through killing people.
Yesterday was a really emotional day for me - not like any other. I'm going to try to go through the day from beginning to end to try to understand why I got so emotional. I may end up not publishing this post.
Elizabeth (German friend who lives in the apartment with me and is the person I spend the most time with) and I wanted to go to Bethlehem for the day. We always spend a lot of time with Ja'far, who was the volunteer who always went to class with me on Sundays and Tuesdays, and Saad, his best friend. (We went to the Samaratin passover with them and we go to concerts and just generally hang out with them.) They offered to go to Bethlehem with us. We were thrilled to have them come because they are fun to be with and it's always easier to go places when you have Palestinians who know their way around and also can ask for directions better than we can. Saad arranged for a taxi to pick us up in the morning and stay with us the whole time in Bethlehem and then bring us back home for 100 shekels ($27) each.
So, Saad and Ja'far were in front of our house at 9 AM (not allowed to enter a girls' house, of course) and then Ali picked us up on the street in front of our house. The drive to Bethlehem took maybe 90 minutes. We thought it would be cold and rainy (Why is the weather forecast for Palestinian cities never correct?), so we had our coats, but it was warm and sunny. It was good to have the taxi to leave our coats in. First, we went to the Church of the Nativity. It was kind of crowded. Yesterday was Holy Thursday. This year both the Orthodox and the western Easter are on the same day. Ja'far and Saad asked if we wanted to pray. We sat down in pews. Then, after a few minutes, Ja'far asked why were just sitting. He really doesn't understand Christianity at all. The church still has the same scaffolding up that I saw the last time. I didn't take any photos because nothing looked different from two years ago. I said to Ja'far, "How long does it take to do renovations? That same scaffolding was here two years ago." He said they are doing the renovations on Palestinian time.
Then we just went to walk through the market area in the center of town. There are tons of little souvenir shops with Christian stuff. We went to a store that had postcards. I bought 17 postcards. i will send about four. The others are to keep. I might make a collage. Here are photos of a few of them.
Then, we went to see the graffiti on the Separation Wall. In Arabic it is called the apartheid wall and that is unquestionably what it is. The graffiti is very cool. People are very artistic and witty. We took photos of ourselves in front of it. Elizabeth has a photo of herself praying in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, so I took a photo of her praying in front of this wall. Maybe it shows our different personalities in that I asked her to take a photo of me trying to jump over it.
Then, we went for lunch to a place that had really delicious barbecue chicken - with, of course, the little dishes of hummus, baba ghanoush, and other salads. Ali, our driver, was always with us. I think he was actually a friend of Saad's. (He is a professional taxi driver, though) Elizabeth took this photo. It has: Ja'far, Ali, Saad and me.
You can see the food better here:
There is a famous hotel at the wall. It's by Banksy, a famous graffiti artist, and it just opened last month. Elizabeth and I wanted to see it, but the Palestinians had never heard of it. We asked several people on the street, but they didn't know about it. Here is a link to news article about the hotel. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/banksy-opens-bethlehem-barrier-wall-hotel.
We drove around a lot trying to find the hotel. Finally, Elizabeth (because she has data on her phone - I have mine turned off here) looked up the address and put it in Google maps. It turned out it is right at the end of the street where we took the first photos of the wall.
Next to the hotel, is a store where you can buy paint to add your own graffiti to the wall and then a gift shop. Here is a photo of the entrance. I didn't get the name over the top, "Walled Off Hotel."
And the place to buy paints:
So, you can see that, so far, this was a fun, laughing day. The hotel lobby has other reminders of life under occupation.
Fake surveillance cameras in the lobby:
A statue in the middle of tear gas.
The hotel has a museum. It costs 15 shekels for internationals and is free for Palestinians. I commented later that they didn't ask for ID. Ja'far said, "We look like Arabs." (Actually, Saad doesn't) But, later I thought that they wouldn't want to ask Palestinians for their IDs in a place like that. If you don't understand how Palestinians feel about being asked for ID, read my previous post on the Samaritan passover. Below you can see a graffiti image of an Israeli soldier asking the donkey entering Bethlehem for his ID.
Anyway, we went into the museum. It is hard for me to describe accurately because I got so emotional but I will try to tell what I remember. The first thing I remember seeing was a box that shows a suitcase and asks "If you had 30 minutes before your home was demolished, what would you save?" Please read ALL of the description on the plaque below and look at the 2 photos.
In the first room, there were plaques about the occupation:
In this room, there were also examples of bullets and other military materials. They had a film that Elizabeth and Ja'far watched. I started to feel really sick in this room. I was afraid I would pass out or vomit, so I went into the next room without seeing even half of what was in there.
In the next room, there was a phone. Sometimes, when the IDF is going to bomb a house, they call the home to tell the people that they have five minutes to get out. (The IDF often doesn't wait the 5 minutes after the phone call.) The sign over the phone explains about the IDF calls and says that you can answer the phone when it rings. The woman in the museum told me to go ahead and answer the phone. I didn't want to because I knew I was already too emotional, but I did. It's an actual recording. It was in English. Maybe the say it in Arabic after. I don't know. It was chilling. After that I walked around that room a little. The others came in to look at things and I just started to cry. Ja'far put his arm around me and said, "It's okay. I got emotional in the other room, too." Later, Elizabeth told me that he cried when they were watching the film. It's so unlike Ja'far. He's always a jokester. Or, if not, he will say defiant things about the occupation - never sensitive things. Saad is the super-sensitive one and he was okay. I tried to stay in the museum, but couldn't stop crying, so I left and went to the gift shop.
I still am not able to get over it all emotionally. My stomach is in knots as I am typing this and tears are running down my face as I type this - and it's the following day. I don't understand why Bethlehem hit me so hard. I walked through the checkpoint and showed my passport in Hebron. I read all the history in the Arafat museum in Ramallah. Those things made me sad and angry, but nothing has hit me like this. Maybe because I know it's close to when I will go home. I will need to find something happy to do today. (It's Good Friday! Ha Ha!)
One last photo: The US government provides Israel with BILLIONS of dollars in WEAPONS. By giving weapons, we are not only giving them the means to brutally oppress Palestinians, we are also sending the message that the solution is through killing people.
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