I have other posts I want to get online, but this one has been on my mind since the film festival last night on the subject of activism.
First of all, the granola sitting next to me. I realize that you think you are in touch with the earth and that your sandals leave less of an impact on the planet and blah blah blah. I also know you are a journalist and not technically here as an activist, but this is Nablus, besides being culturally unusual around here, sandals are down right stupid in Nablus. I use mine around the flat of course, but I would never walk down the street here in sandals, even Cody from Duel Survival would wear shoes here. There streets are littered with broken glass and are just completely unsanitary and unsafe to wear shoes, not to mention wholly unpractical- Nablus eats shoes like Palestinians eat limes. Buy some damn shoes and close your feet up on the streets here. Everyone, including yourself will be appreciative.
As we were all milling about outside waiting for the doors to the film festival to open I over heard one young woman telling her "horror" story about getting through security. She was pissing and moaning about how she was held for an hour while they copied her passport, and strongly questioned her. How are you so flabbergasted about this?You told them that you were coming to an occupied country! Just what the f*** (sorry mom) did you expect to happen? for them to roll out the red carpet and release doves on your arrival? It's just another case of western superiority complex and shows a complete disregard for the Palestinian people. West Bank Arabs cannot leave and see their ancestral homes and homeland in Israel Proper, and they are stopped for hours at a time moving between cities in their own occupied territories even. Until last year it took our students at An-Najah three hours just to get through a checkpoint and were the subjects of far worse treatment then an american activists. Palestinians can be held indefinitely without trial in Israel Proper, but you are standing here bitching about how you had a challenging time coming into the country. These people have no grasp on reality.
Worst of all is that these people seem to think they are helping and are actually the hipsters of the protest movement, constantly jockeying for a place as the most "protesty human-loving humanitarian protestor" like there is a goddamn medal for it. They fly halfway around the world because they have some kind of entitlement (in this case the money to do so and a sense of entitlement to come speak of Palestinian's behalf. At the end of the movie a rather prestigious panel of community leaders from both the armed and unarmed resistance, the director of the film's NGO and the university's UNESCO chair were all sharing their thoughts and fielding questions. Leave it to some dumb Americans to spend the whole time talking about "israel is such a bully" in low voices instead actually listening to what is said. Considering so many activists for Palestine also carry some planetary global environmental concerns, it is absolutely idiotic that these girls would fly halfway around the world to "experience" Palestine and would just talk all the way through the presentation and even a large portion of the movie. Apparently foreigners can fight the occupation by TALKING ABOUT FACEBOOK for twenty minutes straight. It's actually kind of disgusting.
These people come to Palestine because they also feel they need to understand the plight of the people here. But instead of cultural immersion and getting to know a range of people they spend their whole time in Ramallah, an international city. Here they can get in a few hours of protesting during their day and then get drunk at night with other internationals and stroke their egos about how helpful they are to the Cause of Palestinians. They don't leave the city of Ramallah to get into the villages, where even though I detest protestors they would be welcomed and loved with such amazing hospitality. They are nothing different than confused young people trying to find their place in the world and experimenting with how to express themselves, like the 15 year old girl who dabbles in lesbianism. Instead of coming here to show solidarity for a two week protestcation, there are so many ways of actually being productive and helping Palestine. Encouraging a legislator to come here, holding a rally in their country of origin, or (gasp!) performing a significant act of civil disobedience at Washington DC like a sit-in or a hunger strike could do so much and show solidarity. Stay home and donate the money that it would have cost you to fly around the world to a respectable NGO like Project Hope, or Families of the Bereaved. You'll help the Planet and Palestine, because if you come here for a week or twenty years, it is not possible for a foreigner to truly understand the plight of these people. At any time we can leave, we have rights as internationals and we are not systematically targeted for abuse by settlers and the IDF, but the same cannot be said of Palestinians. We will never never know the implications of knowing that our parents and children, as well as ourselves will be born into an occupied country and the emotional and psychological devastation that goes with that. We can't and we almost shouldn't try under some pretenses, lest we leave assuming we have a thorough understanding and are actually just as ignorant as someone who has never seen Palestine.
If you want to help Palestine, find volunteer work with a respectable NGO. Learn a skill, a trade, fight the brain drain that actually has an enormous negative impact on Palestine. Bring your education here and share it with the Palestinians. Even with a Master's Degree you can find many teaching positions here at the university level. Do research and provide valuable information because as one person at work says "no one needs to show Palestinians how to throw stones, they can do that well enough themselves." We must build the infrastructure of Palestine almost even before demanding statehood because without it, the world will just be introduced to a newly minted failed state without the means to help it's own people. For Palestine to succeed attention must diverted from security, to the rest of the peace process, the natural resource allocation, cultural divides, and political discord. Hell come here and teach them about Robert's Rules of Order so that everyone can interact with western politics when necessary, and foster in young people a concept of government that functions smoothly.
So activists, go home and take your dirty dreadlocks and urban outfitter clothes with you, Palestine needs a better friend than you if the people are going to succeed. Go fight injustice in your own country because an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. Just as the holocaust could not have happened without the advent of colonial racism, the occupation and apathy of the world governments to take action against the Israeli occupation all have their own skeletons in their closets. Where is your love for the Native Americans, who are forced to still suffer humiliation and hold a place as second class citizens in our own country? It is not until we force countries to be accountable for their own sins that any of these countries will truly critique the actions of Israel with determination, but instead it is far easier for us to hide our own social suffering from view by pointing the finger at Israel. It's like the parent who secretly smokes cigarettes and then berates his child when he catches him doing the same. The problem is just as much us, if not more so, than Israel's. We are the enablers because we refuse to be held accountable for our own past. Only when we fully acknowledge the evil we have perpetrated and try to set that right, will we be able to stand before the world on a platform of moral superiority and dictate that evil must not be carried out against the less fortunate. Anything else is just posturing for the sake of posturing, Israel is not a Pariah, it is just a very astute student of the actions of so much of the developed world. Activism will not change that, the chants of developed world college students won't enact change. For every hour of protests in Palestine, we should do another two hours in our own country and follow that with a six hours of productive work to fight the sources and ideology of occupation. Get an education and share it with those who need it most in the areas that they need most. Teach the Palestinians to fish, don't just give them a Long John Silver's in Ramallah.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
A walk to savor
Both yesterday and today I missed my shuttle home. With my very sparse Arabic it was a little troubling the first time because Nick and my co-workers had left while I was out (more on that later) and I had never been really on my own in the country. Still, I figured, I didn't come here to hide from Palestine and decided to set out on foot. An-Najah National University has two campuses in Nablus and I work at the old campus which is further away from my place than the new campus but is on the same road. Knowing this I set off in the right direction unsure of how I would actually find the apartment. The heat is sweltering right now and the humidity is actually much higher than I expected, so I got quite a sweat going. It's important to mention that there are sidewalks in some places in Nablus, but they aren't very good and no one uses them. There is also no concept of rules of the road or traffic laws, but personally I think I prefer that to the US style of cars and roads and driving. I must have walked a least 1.5 to 2 miles before finally arriving at the new campus and called it quits and caught a taxi to Al Amriya, our apartment complex. I thanked the driver and walked down to our apartment complex to find out that we didn't have power and wouldn't get it back for a more hours. Welcome to the West Bank I suppose.
Today I actually chose to walk home because I pushed my work until a little past quitting time (3:30 here) and knowingly had missed the shuttle this time.So off I went in the direction of the new campus to catch a taxi there. I had brought my camera with me and decided to walk as far as the new campus again and take some pictures along the way. The terrain is very familiar yet foreign, like some alternate reality's version of the area around wenatchee. At a quick passing glance they seem very alike, but then you stop and look for a second and realize it's much rockier and has abundant shrubs and short, squat olive trees instead of apple orchards. I find it beautiful here and already have settled in quite comfortably, not entirely familiar with my new surroundings but eager to be apart of the land and people that is Palestine, the West Bank, and Nablus.
Pictures from the walk
Today I actually chose to walk home because I pushed my work until a little past quitting time (3:30 here) and knowingly had missed the shuttle this time.So off I went in the direction of the new campus to catch a taxi there. I had brought my camera with me and decided to walk as far as the new campus again and take some pictures along the way. The terrain is very familiar yet foreign, like some alternate reality's version of the area around wenatchee. At a quick passing glance they seem very alike, but then you stop and look for a second and realize it's much rockier and has abundant shrubs and short, squat olive trees instead of apple orchards. I find it beautiful here and already have settled in quite comfortably, not entirely familiar with my new surroundings but eager to be apart of the land and people that is Palestine, the West Bank, and Nablus.
work work work work
My Arabic is terrible. It's important to start here because of the ramifications it poses for my ability to integrate and communicate in Palestine. After being woken up at 4:30 by the call to prayer that is piped out from mosques across the city, I fell back into a partial sleep until I need to get ready for work and catch the shuttle at 7:30. The prayers are quite loud, but it reminds of the Cheney trains, loud and caucophonic, but something that I am sure will soon become background noise to me while living her I was able this morning to squeak out a few "sabah el kheer's" (good morning) to the individuals on my shuttle as I walked into my office at the university but still felt very foreign and out of place. I spent the first few hours reading Haaretz.com, a relatively decent Israeli newspaper, and checking my email. I had sent an email to my boss Kherieh asking what I should be doing since I hadn't received an assignment yet, but as of this time have yet to hear back. She is out on maternity leave right now though and my co-workers in the office seemed to have nothing for me to do or little concern with my presence in their space. Eventually I was asked to help the Public Relations office by editing a press release about a recent visit by a Dean from Lancaster and happily obliged. There were few grammatical mistakes, but the wording, while comprehensible was obviously not by that of a native English speaker. The person who came to drop off the press release was a young man named Tariq, a gentle and soft spoken individual who had graduated from the university with a degree in English. I mad minor edits in the whole document, mostly employing my innate thesaurus to replace repetitive terms and slicken up the document. I found one sentence especially challenging though, because while I understood what it meant, the wording was cumbersome and was difficult to re-write. I sat trying multiple versions of phrasing until Tariq suddenly appeared at the office and informed that they needed the document quickly for a presentation that was going to be happening this afternoon in the auditorium. I asked for five more minutes and he complied, during which time I finally decided upon a phrasing that seemed to reflect some of my regular work back in the states. By no means do I consider myself to be a wordsmith, but I do think I have a talent for smoothly transcribing ideas in a way that appeals to readings that really bring out the concept behind the paper. I think it is best described as "schmoozing on paper" and was greatly honed during my work with IFC, the Fraternity, and ASEWU. By no means am I an author but more like the scripting version of a car salesman with morals.
I called Tariq and told that it was done and he came by the office to pick it up and thanked me generously for my help. He seemed like a really nice individual and even invited me to the presentation that was going on that afternoon that I had been preparing the document for, and I happily accepted. I asked Yesmine, the person I have mostly been interacting with in the department, if I could attend the presentation and she said there was no point since it would be in Arabic and thus dashed my hopes of some form of stimulus in exchange for further office boredom. I really felt like an elementary school child trapped in a classroom who looks out the window longingly on a beautiful spring day. I would just stare out the window at the students sitting and walking all over the campus and so very much desiring to be a part of it all.
Nick came up from his office and was able to convince my co-workers to go with him to the presentation that I had been invited to. It turns out that the woman speaking was one of the few Israeli Arabs (Arabs that live in Israel Proper, not in Palestine) in the Knesset (Israeli legislature). I recommend reading about her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haneen_Zoabi to get a full picture of who she is. Even though she was speaking in Arabic, I was lucky enough to actually be seated by Tariq, who translated for Nick and I. The Arabic language has this way about it that seems so much more emotive and passionate than any english speaker could ever be. She spoke about the need for Palestinian infighting and gave me a much clearer first hand account of how Arabs and Palestinians view the occupation and how Israel is trying to completely erase the concept of their identity and culture. Villages that had existed for hundreds of years with Arab citizens were being renamed with Hebrew. It demonstrates how Israel truly does not seem interested in peace, but instead the complete eradication of the historical presence of Arabs on the holy land. She spoke of how the Nakba, when Israelis pushed Palestinians off their land and began the greatest diaspora of the modern age, is no longer taught in Israel. It would be like textbooks in america not mentioning how we took our land from Native Americans or the trail of tears. While it was sad to hear, the way she spoke incited a revolutionary spirit I think in everyone there, inspiring people to struggle, to preserve their culture, to embrace their heritage and never give in to Israeli oppression and occupation. I find that it is hard to talk about the plight of the Palestinians though because it is so complicated and the mass conception is crafted by such powerful rhetoric that now I truly see that you must be here to understand it. I was so thankful to have Tariq there to translate for me and afterwards he told me how much he enjoyed meeting me and that he would like to keep in touch. As soon as I get a phone here I'll have to track him down.
I called Tariq and told that it was done and he came by the office to pick it up and thanked me generously for my help. He seemed like a really nice individual and even invited me to the presentation that was going on that afternoon that I had been preparing the document for, and I happily accepted. I asked Yesmine, the person I have mostly been interacting with in the department, if I could attend the presentation and she said there was no point since it would be in Arabic and thus dashed my hopes of some form of stimulus in exchange for further office boredom. I really felt like an elementary school child trapped in a classroom who looks out the window longingly on a beautiful spring day. I would just stare out the window at the students sitting and walking all over the campus and so very much desiring to be a part of it all.
Nick came up from his office and was able to convince my co-workers to go with him to the presentation that I had been invited to. It turns out that the woman speaking was one of the few Israeli Arabs (Arabs that live in Israel Proper, not in Palestine) in the Knesset (Israeli legislature). I recommend reading about her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haneen_Zoabi to get a full picture of who she is. Even though she was speaking in Arabic, I was lucky enough to actually be seated by Tariq, who translated for Nick and I. The Arabic language has this way about it that seems so much more emotive and passionate than any english speaker could ever be. She spoke about the need for Palestinian infighting and gave me a much clearer first hand account of how Arabs and Palestinians view the occupation and how Israel is trying to completely erase the concept of their identity and culture. Villages that had existed for hundreds of years with Arab citizens were being renamed with Hebrew. It demonstrates how Israel truly does not seem interested in peace, but instead the complete eradication of the historical presence of Arabs on the holy land. She spoke of how the Nakba, when Israelis pushed Palestinians off their land and began the greatest diaspora of the modern age, is no longer taught in Israel. It would be like textbooks in america not mentioning how we took our land from Native Americans or the trail of tears. While it was sad to hear, the way she spoke incited a revolutionary spirit I think in everyone there, inspiring people to struggle, to preserve their culture, to embrace their heritage and never give in to Israeli oppression and occupation. I find that it is hard to talk about the plight of the Palestinians though because it is so complicated and the mass conception is crafted by such powerful rhetoric that now I truly see that you must be here to understand it. I was so thankful to have Tariq there to translate for me and afterwards he told me how much he enjoyed meeting me and that he would like to keep in touch. As soon as I get a phone here I'll have to track him down.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Planes, trains, and frankfurters
I flew out of spokane a few days ago (time seems to hold no meaning after entering four separate time zones in a matter of hours) to Denver International where I had a short layover before boarding a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is a lack of uniformity in airports in regards to amenities. Denver is a wonderful airport, with free WiFi across all terminals and a restaurant you can apparently smoke in. The smoking thing amazes me simply because the two airports I am most familiar with are the Honolulu International and of course, SeaTac. Until visiting my mom a few years ago through the ATL airport, I had no idea that there were smoking facilities in airports. The ones at Atlanta you can smell from a few hundred yards away because they lack any kind of quality ventilation system, yet I enjoyed eating dinner in the smoking-allowed restaurant in Denver because they pumped so much air in there the second hand smoke seemed to be non-existent. It was downright breezy in there.
Frankfurt was my first experience with an EU airport and I have to say I found it very unsatisfying. To begin with it lacked any kind of local ambiance. While SeaTac has excellent seafood and oozes with Northwest culture, so does Denver with Caribou coffee and nature-minded/outdoor adventure shops and displays. Frankfurt was just grey though. Grey carpet, concrete, and stainless steel covered everything. Apparently in Frankfurt they want their art kept in the museums in the historic area. Smoking rooms littered the walkways to the point that I nearly walked face first into the door of one when coming off a moving walkway. I don't know why I keep harping on smoking rooms in airports, they just seem so out of place to me. My real issue with the Frankfurt airport however was WiFi. Maybe it's because it's more common in America, but I was shocked to find not a single free hotspot in either the airport or Frankfurt during my layover. I finally ended up breaking down and paying 8 Euro's (thats like 12 bucks!) for an hour of WiFi simply so that I could check in with the people I care about and see if I had received any emails from An Najah. Considering that it's an international airport and a major European hub I would have expected a little courtesy in regards to at least having a small niche of WiFi. As I learned from my 10 hour layover in Frankfurt though, nothing is free in Europe or even available at reduced cost.
I'm hardly the type of person who wants everyone in the world to speak English and I do respect the linguistic differences I encounter around the world, but trying to get a train into Frankfurt was a nightmare. If I was catching a train from somewhere besides an international airport I would understand the use of only German on all signs, guides, tickets dispensaries, and announcements. No French? No English? Even America is getting on board with bilingual signs in English and Spanish. Once I had successfully purchased my ticket for the train to Frankfurt, I enjoyed a pleasant ride into town and emerged to find a bustling ancient city full of pedestrians and cyclists enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon. The saddest part about all of the trouble I had trying to catch a regional train is that somehow my three years of German in high school were able to get me around quite easily in airport security, as well as ordering food off a German menu, and conversing with vendors in the farmers market. By no means is my rusty German good, but I did alright. I was truly saddened to learn that the archeology museum was closed on mondays, but busied myself by walking around and finding historic buildings including the city hall, a monastery, and a chapel before heading down to the river. I kept snapping pictures but then I was reminded of a saying from someone very close to me had recently said, sometimes you should put the camera away and just enjoy the moment (that's poorly paraphrased). I tucked down a side alley and found myself at the doorway to the farmers market where I purchased some truffles, and an apple of whose variety was completely unknown to me but quite delicious. I would have purchased more things of all different sorts but I did not have a bag on me since I had left mine in storage at the airport. After walking around a bit more and just enjoying the new surroundings , I sat outside a cafe and enjoyed a beer with some Handkase mit Musik, a cheese and bread platter. The cheese was delicious and the bread was fresh, while the beer was crisp and the surroundings pleasant and peaceful. After a little more confusion with trains I headed back to the airport to gather my bags and await my departure to Tel Aviv for a few hours. If only that damn airport had outlets on the wall for my laptop!
Beer, bread and cheese. The cheese arrived in a bowl with olive oil and fennel seeds, but I would have to say that the butter that came with the bread was the best part. It was just so fresh, creamy and indulgent that it was almost a spreadable cheese unto itself!
Frankfurt was my first experience with an EU airport and I have to say I found it very unsatisfying. To begin with it lacked any kind of local ambiance. While SeaTac has excellent seafood and oozes with Northwest culture, so does Denver with Caribou coffee and nature-minded/outdoor adventure shops and displays. Frankfurt was just grey though. Grey carpet, concrete, and stainless steel covered everything. Apparently in Frankfurt they want their art kept in the museums in the historic area. Smoking rooms littered the walkways to the point that I nearly walked face first into the door of one when coming off a moving walkway. I don't know why I keep harping on smoking rooms in airports, they just seem so out of place to me. My real issue with the Frankfurt airport however was WiFi. Maybe it's because it's more common in America, but I was shocked to find not a single free hotspot in either the airport or Frankfurt during my layover. I finally ended up breaking down and paying 8 Euro's (thats like 12 bucks!) for an hour of WiFi simply so that I could check in with the people I care about and see if I had received any emails from An Najah. Considering that it's an international airport and a major European hub I would have expected a little courtesy in regards to at least having a small niche of WiFi. As I learned from my 10 hour layover in Frankfurt though, nothing is free in Europe or even available at reduced cost.
I'm hardly the type of person who wants everyone in the world to speak English and I do respect the linguistic differences I encounter around the world, but trying to get a train into Frankfurt was a nightmare. If I was catching a train from somewhere besides an international airport I would understand the use of only German on all signs, guides, tickets dispensaries, and announcements. No French? No English? Even America is getting on board with bilingual signs in English and Spanish. Once I had successfully purchased my ticket for the train to Frankfurt, I enjoyed a pleasant ride into town and emerged to find a bustling ancient city full of pedestrians and cyclists enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon. The saddest part about all of the trouble I had trying to catch a regional train is that somehow my three years of German in high school were able to get me around quite easily in airport security, as well as ordering food off a German menu, and conversing with vendors in the farmers market. By no means is my rusty German good, but I did alright. I was truly saddened to learn that the archeology museum was closed on mondays, but busied myself by walking around and finding historic buildings including the city hall, a monastery, and a chapel before heading down to the river. I kept snapping pictures but then I was reminded of a saying from someone very close to me had recently said, sometimes you should put the camera away and just enjoy the moment (that's poorly paraphrased). I tucked down a side alley and found myself at the doorway to the farmers market where I purchased some truffles, and an apple of whose variety was completely unknown to me but quite delicious. I would have purchased more things of all different sorts but I did not have a bag on me since I had left mine in storage at the airport. After walking around a bit more and just enjoying the new surroundings , I sat outside a cafe and enjoyed a beer with some Handkase mit Musik, a cheese and bread platter. The cheese was delicious and the bread was fresh, while the beer was crisp and the surroundings pleasant and peaceful. After a little more confusion with trains I headed back to the airport to gather my bags and await my departure to Tel Aviv for a few hours. If only that damn airport had outlets on the wall for my laptop!
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