brief update

Brief summary of human rights violations committed by the Israeli Military against Palestinians between June 25, 2006– -November 13, 2006 (from The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights):

• 434 Palestinians, including 82 children and 25 women, have been killed by Israeli Military.
• At least 1,456 Palestinians have been wounded by the Israeli Military’s gunfire.
• At least 315 air-to-surface missiles and hundreds of artillery shells have been fired at Palestinian civilian and military targets in the Gaza Strip.
• The electricity generation plant, providing 45% of the electricity of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed, and electricity networks and transmitters have been repeatedly attacked.
• The Israeli Military has continued to construct the illegal Annexation/Apartheid Wall inside the West Bank; destroying homes, confiscating land, uprooting olive trees, etc...
• Hundreds of donums of agricultural land and dozens of houses have been destroyed.
• Israeli settlers in breach of international humanitarian law continue to reside in the Occupied Territories and have launched a series of attacks against Palestinian civilians and property, especially related to preventing Palestinian farmers in cultivating their olive groves.
• Hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including 10 ministers and 31 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), including the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Secretary, have been arrested; few have been released.
• The Palestinian governmental compound in Nablus has been destroyed.
• 61 Palestinian houses have been destroyed by Israeli warplanes, and many more entire families have been forced to flee their homes.
• The Israeli Military has imposed a strict siege on both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, increasing restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians, including within Occupied East Jerusalem.
• The Israeli Military has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world (e.g. the Israeli Military has closed Rafah International Crossing Point since the 25th of June, 2006, even though they do not directly control it).

Back in the USA

I am back in the USA – no doubt - the transition is difficult. And although I feel it is important for me to use this blog/space to write about what I experienced directly in Palestine, I feel it is imperative to note that the US government has just used its veto power to block a UN Security Council draft resolution, sponsored by the Gulf state of Qatar, which sought to condemn recent Israeli brutality against Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip. Please read this article about the USA’s humanitarian negligence and abuse that our government has committed in its blind support of Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A32EA5C-7462-4EA0-B642-9363F23A9E79.htm

Back to Palestine – today’s entry will be about the tense and divided city in the southern West Bank - Hebron (Al-Khalil)…

The municipality of Hebron has 150,000 inhabitants, making it the largest city in the West Bank after annexed East Jerusalem. The tomb of Abraham and his wife Sarah, along with Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are all within the mosque known as Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi, or Haram al-Khalil. It should be noted that in Arabic, Abraham is referred to as Al-Khalil, which translates as ‘friend’ or ‘beloved’ – suggesting that Abraham was the friend/beloved of God. Because of the universality of Abraham’s significance across the three monotheistic faiths, the tombs within the Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Moslems alike. Undoubtedly, Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi is the most venerated (and the oldest) monument in the city, linked to the biblical account of the coming of the revered prophet to the region.

The city of Hebron today is divided into two sectors, after an agreement on the withdrawal of the Israeli army on January 1997. Sector H1 (80% of the municipality of Hebron) is under Palestinian autonomy; sector H2 (20%) is under Israeli control. In the sector H2, which includes most of the Old City (and Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi), there lives 40,000 Palestinians and 500 Israeli settlers/colonizers, most of them are American Jews from Brooklyn, but also from France. Because of the presence of these 500 settlers, Israel has placed 4,000 soldiers to protect them, along with various checkpoints and movement restrictions throughout H2. This settlement of foreign Jews in Hebron, and the displacement of native Palestinians from the Old City dates back to the beginning of Zionism at the turn of the 20th century, but officially began after the 1967 war, when the Rabbi Moshe Levinger, head of the National Religious Party, pioneered colonization in the city by renting out the Park Hotel, then increased settlement into the city center.

Palestinian families have been driven out of their homes due to aggression by settlers and the army. Tensions in the city were rising and rising, and various bouts of violence occurred. Currently, with the divide of the city into two sectors, the Palestinians who live in H2 experience ongoing harassment, violations of their human rights, in addition to brutal acts of vandalism. Since 1996, because of this tension within the city center, and because of the harassment that even journalists face from militant Israeli settlers, there have been teams of international observers (such as TIPH – the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, http://www.tiph.org/, or the CPT – Christian Peacemakers Team) placed in the Old City to record all army and settler acts of harassments, including aggressions they themselves have experienced as internationals.

When I was in Hebron, I visited the CPT to learn more about their work. They are a Christian organization from North America whose primary role is to document the situation on the ground, and to accompany Palestinians living life under constant abuse from Israeli settlers and soldiers. CPTers regularly intervene and accompany, for example, Palestinian children on their way to school (Israeli settlers even recently caused the hospitalizations of a CPTer - breaking his ribs and puncturing his lungs).

When we tried to visit Al-Haram al-Ibrahimi, but since it is in H2 (the sector of Hebron under Israeli control) we were denied entrance from certain checkpoints within the city center, and we had to walk directly through the Old City to reach a check point the Israeli soldiers would permit us to enter. Finally, after going through metal detectors, bag and body searches, and witnessing soldiers physically abuse two local Palestinians who were trying to pass the checkpoint (the soldiers would not let me take pictures or video tape)… after this, we made it into the Haram, is should be noted that there is a Jewish (Israeli) side, and a Palestinian side…We were in the Palestinian sector of the mosque, which was breath-taking, peaceful, and omnipotent. We did notice the bullet marks in the stone across the front wall of the mosque, evidence of ‘The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre.’ Early in the month of February 25, 1994, in the holy month of Ramadan, as hundreds of Palestinians were praying in the Haram al-Ibrahimi, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a settler and a member of Kach party, wearing Israeli military uniform, burst into the mosque and opened fire at worshippers prostrated in prayer: 29 men and young boys were killed (mostly shot in the back) and almost 200 wounded.




Demonstrations broke out all over the West Bank and the Gaza strip, while the Israeli army killed 12 more Palestinians gathered near the Hebron hospital, wounding other Palestinian victims there and in other parts of Palestine. A curfew was imposed on the city; neighborhoods around the Haram were closed down and declared ‘security zones.’ As for the Jewish settlers in the center of Hebron, they had full freedom of movement. For nine months, Palestinians were forbidden to go to the Haram. In addition, Israel divided the mosque into Jewish and Palestinian sectors, like it is today. Part of this division separated the tombs of Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah… two were placed in the Jewish side, and two in the Palestinian side. The Tombs of Abraham and Sarah were placed in separate rooms that you can only see through a window, that is neither in the Jewish nor the Palestinian side. In short, the act of violence, or ‘terrorism’ that Dr. Goldstein committed, only rewarded Jewish Israeli settlers in Hebron, while further restricted, killed, and abused the rights of indigenous Palestinians. This is a very frequent trend in Israeli actions, that when settlers become aggressive, Palestinians pay the price not only from being the victims of the aggression, but being the victims of Israeli increased militarization of the regions experiencing increased tension because of the colonization by settlers.

I know this entry provided a lot of background information, but unfortunately understanding Hebron, and much of the Israel-Palestine conflict, is understanding the history and the context.



As we left the Haram, we walked through the Old City and experienced more of the dynamics between settlers and local Palestinians. The settlers live on the top stories of the buildings in the Old City, while Palestinians live on the ground floors where they work in the souq – or market place. As you walk through the souq, and you look up, you see a netting and wire that Palestinians created to protect themselves from garbage, bricks, stones, and sometimes even feces or urine that Settlers from above often through down onto Palestinians below. This is a method of trying to push the Palestinians out of the neighborhood, which the settlers have truly succeeded in doing. Walking through the souq (market) was very depressing. Most shops were closed. Israeli flags hung high at the top of buildings, and most Palestinians were driven out of the area because of fear. Palestinians that have stayed, overcome constant abuse and aggression from settlers. The vandalism and graffiti was horrible as well – such as ‘Gas the Arabs’, or ‘Fatima beware – we will rape all Arab women.’ Anyway…. The stories of hatred and aggression that go along with the colonization of Hebron are some of the most sickening in all of Palestine, and this entry is truly insufficient in illustrating the horrific dynamics of the city. Now that I am back in the USA, I would be happy to answer any direct questions or discuss this issue in more depth.



Salaam,

Zaitoon

Declaration of Human Rights

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948)
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country

Bethlehem to Balata Camp in Nablus, usually would take about one hour or an hour in a half it there were no restrictions to movement within the borders of Palestine. But, after moving through eight check-points, some permanent ‘terminals as they are called (imagine you are in an airport – with metal detectors, body searches, document checks, etc. – but add humiliation, discrimination, hour long detours, frequent rejections, permits); and others were ‘flying’ checkpoints (checkpoints that suddenly appear out of no where).

There are endless stories about the denial of the human right of freedom of movement in Palestine. Something that many Palestinians have shared with me, is this disbelief, that a woman who is pregnant in an ambulance are often denied at the checkpoints; or children on their way to school; or that an elderly man or woman, getting up at three in the morning to walk four hours on a mountain path to get to work because of necessary detours due to ‘road closures’ by Israel; after finally reaching the checkpoint, an Israeli soldier, no more than 19 years old, denies this humble elder the right to pass. The elder asks for a reason. The solider boy says, “Your identity card was denied. You can not pass today. Go home.” Humiliation of this elder cuts deep in the cultural heart and way of being for many Palestinians. The elder looks deep into the blue eyes of the young Israeli soldier. The soldier turns away, and jokes with another solider at the checkpoint. The elder remains standing in front of the glass at the booth. The young soldier turns back around to find the elder still there. The soldier waves the elder away, like one would do to a stray dog on a city street.

The elder finds a stone in which to rest. Perhaps he finds shade under an ancient olive tree. This elder, before making the four hour journey home, finds the strength and the peace to recite a prayer to Allah.

The elder then falls into daydream…remembering a time in Palestine, when taking a break after a tiring walk, was welcomed with the sweet sound of “Ahe-lan Wa Sahe-lan” (‘You are most welcome’ in Arabic), and accompanied by tea with mint and sugar, or perhaps dark roasted coffee blended with the fragrance of cardamom pods. Instead, he met distance, sniper towers, walls, and a colonial and Apartheid relationship between a feign boy with the power of the forth largest military in the world, and the support of the most powerful nation in the world…. The elder, on the other hand, stood against this force, with the shade of an olive tree, and a prayer for Allah.

On 3 November 2006, the Israeli Occupation Forces killed a Palestinian child and wounded his brother in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. I arrived in the region of Nablus on the following day. In the Balata camp, there are approximately 25,000 refugees living in a _ kilometer squared. Most of the refugees in Balata came from Yaffa, the city on the Mediterranean coast that is now part of Israel.

I slept the night on the floor of a community center with youth leaders who resist and overcome the conditions they are living in every day, every moment, and with each breath… I was amazed by the warmth, passion, knowledge, and wisdom of the young people I met in Balata. Their ability to harvest hope and create beauty, to draw profound strength out of their every day lives…. their every day WAR… this was truly inspiring…No doubt… I was left humbled by the youth of Balata. Most of all, by their friendship and their love that they opened and shared with me. “Asalaamoo-A-Lekum…” The leaders greeted everyone they passed the streets, as they guided me around the refugee camp…. pointing out the demolished buildings, the bullet holes across the houses, or perhaps simply stopping into a corner store to hear the shop keeper’s story of living 17 years in prison, never being told what was his crime. “Balata is like one big family,” the youth leaders said to me many times, very proud of the solidarity they created between one-another.

Balata camp lives under constant invasions from Israeli troops. Often, several times a week. Usually in the evenings. The cultural and community center in which I stayed the night was itself attacked three times in the past few years. Most of the youth I became friends with and shared stories, moments of heart, laughter, joy, tears, and love… most of them had various bullet wounds to show me, along with other injuries, body disfigurements, or scarings of the soul….

One of the youth leaders in Balata (a 22 years old male) was a medical relief volunteer, who shared with me how he learned to become ‘strong.’ As he described, he became truly ‘strong’ when he was 16 years old, and began his volunteering as a medical relief assistant. Some buildings in the camp where being bombed by the tanks and pullets were flying everywhere. One of the buildings in Balata collapsed, and once the live ammunition subsided, this 16 year old youth leader, along with many other relief workers in the camp began searching for survivors in the collapsed building. In searching for survivors, this youth leader shared with me that his heart was racing, that he was terrified, and that he had to manage his fear to properly use the large machinery and tools needed for cutting into the building’s debris. A few minutes later, this youth leader discovered underneath the debris, the head of one of the camp members, without his body anywhere near in sight. When he came across this head, he fainted. About twenty minutes later one of the relief workers found him, woke him up, and urged him to hold tight to all of his strength because in these circumstances, he could end up dead very quickly if he faints easily. This was his ‘training’ session, I guess. In any case, now 22 years old, this youth leader is a well known and a well respected emergency medical relief volunteer, who has saved many lives putting his own life on the line. You can see pictures of this leader on the website: http://www.balatacamp.net/website/balata.htm, then go to photograph library, then Medical Relief Workers. You can see the individual I have told you about holding a child in the first photo – this child was shot, and the youth leader entered the line of fire to rescue the child. I think it should be noted here, that there is no work in the camp, and most people I spoke with were unemployed, and those that were ‘employed’, had not been paid in nine months. With that said, this youth leader /medical relief worker was and is a volunteer - he is unemployed and cannot go to university to reach his dream to become a doctor because he has no high school diploma and studied very little during high school because the camp was so often undersiege and his school closed. Because of living in WAR. Once again, it is important to remember, that as American tax-payers, this war is funded by our money, and this violence is committed, if not in our name, it is undoubtedly committed in our silence.

2nd Entry from Palestine

"Because I am not a spinner of wool

But am every day

Under warrants for arrest

And my house threatened

By police raids

Searches

'Cleaning up' operations

Because I am unable

To buy any paper

I will write all that happens to me

I will carve all my secrets

On an olive tree..."

Tawfiq Zayyad, An extract from "Bury Your Dead and Rise Up".



Truly, I am at a loss. I apologize for not updating this blog earlier. What can I write? How can I unfold this journey's cloth, unfold these shadows of the leaves of olive trees..... how to just barely paint a picture of Palestine for your witness. I guess beginning with thanking god, allah, and the multitudes for blessing me with this journey...it is most honestly re-aligning my vision of the world, of myself, of my family, of my community, of my roots, of the trees, of the footsteps that Palestinians living under occupation dance each day and night for peace, justice, and dreams of hope and freedom. True freedom fighters. Because Palestinians are living in a cage. Israel, with the help of the world, is holding one of the most blessed and beautiful birds of the world locked in a cage, telling the world that it is rabid, evil, and a terrorist. The truth is that this bird has no limits to its flight. This bird, the world calls Palestine.

What can I write? Shall I begin with my arrival at the Israeli airport... even though now it feels quite meaningless in comparison to the rest of this trip. My plane landed at 3:15 PM in Tel Aviv, Israel. At 4:30 AM, I walked out of the sliding glass doors of the airport, and caught a shuttle bus to Jerusalem. Ay-wah, I was held for 13 hours, because I am of Palestinian decent. No, see now I am falling into the trap... let me re-frame this statement - lets call a spade a spade - I was held 13 hours because of the discriminatory and racist policies of the 'state' of Israel. I will share the details later, when I return to the USA, I will share the details of many more experiences - I don't have the time or energy now to do so - in fact, this is my third attempt to write an entry, the past two nights, the electricity went out and I lost most of my entry. In any case, though, once I finally made it out of the Israeli airport, 13 hours after arriving, my first impression was that Palestine and Israel were so incredibly different -that they were so horrifically separated. What I mean by this is that Israel and Palestine felt as though they were continents, cultures, and realities apart, that there exists expansive oceans in between. Yet, ironically, they are separated, not by distance, oceans, or mountains (on the contrary, they are totally spacially interconnected), but they are separated by injustice - just as polarized as the poetics of Justice and Oppression.

It was sunrise when I finally made it to the Bethlehem checkpoint (now 16 hours after my plane landed). Once again, I had to be interrogated, and to walk through three sets of revolving gates, and cross through the Annexation Wall.... I say annexation, because truly the only purpose of the wall is to annex more land/resources/settlements into Israel. It has nothing to do with security - I will explain this more in entries to come when I have the energy, time, and courage to go through the details with you.

Anyway, now, just barely leaving the airport, in my heart, I was beginning to understand more what an Apartheid state looks like. And this was just my first day - looking back - my entry experience was nothing to even mention, and it feels wrong to fill various paragraphs with these details. My moments to come were filled with experiences such as harvesting olives with farmers who had not been to their olive trees for seven years because of violent attacks by the Israeli settlers/colonizers. To understand what this means to a Palestinian, you must understand the landscape, the culture, the economy, the spirituality, the family legacies, the suffering, the work, the reverence for the land, and the infinite integrity and truth that the olive harvest represents in the life of the Palestinian farmer. The olive harvest is compared with Eid, or Christmas, Easter, or Passover. Shocking, this past week, I have begun to witness the brutality of the occupation with my own eyes, over and over again with each new circumstance and unraveling of the day and night. Also, I immediately connected and fell in love with my relatives and every person I meet here - this has been a blessing. I have truly been able to enjoy their warmth and story-telling, and I have turned to them for comfort and nurturing, which they have given me more than anyone can ask for. Not to forget the many delicious and inspiring 'meals of resistance' we have shared (like zsacki waraq dawali!!).

In the spirit of wrapping up this entry, I feel the need to express that truly, it is the details of the situations Palestinians are living in on a daily basis that paints the most honest and candid portrait of the occupation. It is very difficult to use 'frame of reference', to 'visualize' or to 'imagine' the situation, because it is so horrifically unique. No doubt, oppression occurs across the world, and in each one of our communities, and has been present in humanity since the beginning of suffering....Yet to understand the situations of the Palestinians, one must use alot of imagination, mixed with opening your ears and eyes to new understandings because this situation truly is NEW to this world... and we must educate ourselves and our communities to better understand how it impacts our Palestinian brothers and sisters living under the combining forces of 1) hyper-technological military occupation, 2) colonization, and 3) apartheid.

As an Israeli activist shared with me last Friday (11/03/06 ) after we witnessed Palestinians being brutally beaten by the Israeli army at a checkpoint, the only slightly comparable circumstance in her lived-experience was the Nazi Regime. We discussed how Gaza truly is the largest concentration camp the world has ever seen - and imagine if the world would have labeled Jews who resisted with force the Jewish Holocaust as 'terrorists'.

No doubt, we need to re-consider and re-construct how we understand the situation of Palestine. For example - I ask you to think about what you experience in your heart and minds when you learn that for the sixth consecutive day, the Israeli army has continued their land incursion on the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip. The number of victims has increased to at least 35 killed, including 21 civilians that include 7 children, 2 women, and 2 paramedics. Combine this with the fact that over the last 2 months, Israel has killed over 300 people in Gaza alone, nearly half of them were children. My own experiences here in the West Bank touch on this type of violence, yet no where near the level in Gaza. On Friday (11/03/06), after witnessing the Israeli army violently abuse peace demonstrators at the Al-Khader checkpoint near Beit-Jala, when we returned to Bethlehem, we were shocked to see that the village was under siege by the Israeli forces, which demolished a home and killed a 16 year old boy and the elderly woman living in the home who decided that she was not leaving her house – telling the world that her death was worth not becoming a refugee once again. Saturday in Bethlehem, there was a day of mourning for Friday's victims - all shops were closed and the city was frozen in terror. Yes, terrorized by Israel. US funded and sponsored terrorism. The funeral in Bethlehem for the martyrs was powerful, where at least 3,000 gathered in the main square of the city, and women screamed and shouted, men cried, and the town of Christ's birth mourned. This is the situation on the ground. I have seen so much with my own two eyes over the past week, I don't know where to start. And this is just a blink - only one week - when Palestinians face continual, daily, and generations... legacies of suffering, conflict, abuse, displacement - WAR. Yes, this is WAR. Not WAR on terrorism, but WAR on Palestinian families, Palestinian land, Palestinian olive trees... War on a culture, a people, and a way of life - this is why it is called ethnic-cleansing.

As I mentioned above, I would like to document my experiences in detail - taking specific situations so you can better accompany me in his delegation... as if you were by my side. I don't have the energy right now, most likely because each experience is a new experience, and going over previous days is very tiring... and it takes away from me being able to be present... Notice how I haven't even mentioned today? In fact, I feel that I really haven't mentioned anything... perhaps I can't. I am not ready. I won't. I need to go to sleep.

I don't know what else to say. How to write tears. I feel crippled by searching for ineffable words. I guess, as the first entry coming out of Palestine, I ask you to search your imagination and try to put your self in the place of another... "The Other"... Imagine the fourth largest military in the world...One of the most technologically advanced militaries, and a society that is easily the most militarized nation in the world. Imagine this state colonizing your country, and operating an official Apartheid in your country - erecting walls, building fences, by-pass roads, checkpoints, all of this after confiscating your land, your house....maybe even building the wall right through your land... cutting you off from your capital in which you depended on for commerce. Imagine this country receiving billions of dollars in foreign aid from the USA and other nations and private organizations to fund the occupation and the colonies. Imagine this country controls so many aspects of your life; you need a permit to move your body, even only a few kilometers, often to reach your own land to harvest your own citrus groves. Imagine that after this country illegally confiscates your land and olive trees - the land that you depend on for your family and your community's livelihood - then, this 'State', your occupier, floods the market with agricultural products from other nations, like Greece or Italy, neglecting the fact that you can and want to produce your own olive oil! Instead, you are forced to move to a refugee camp and work in a factory stamping the products - MADE IN ISRAEL. With this, your occupier, and the whole world, reminding you that as a Palestinian - You Do Not Exist. Imagine that this 'state' is younger than your olive trees that generations of your family have nurtured with all the love and dedication of human integrity. Imagine that when you show your papers in defense of your land, the colonizer shows you the Old Testament, saying that these are 'his papers' and laughs at your documents which demonstrate how your land truly belongs to your family, your community. Imagine that the colonizers re-route the water you depend on, or confiscate the wells surrounding your village. Imagine that these 'settlers' live in colonies which look like an upper middleclass suburb in the south eastern USA. Imagine these colonies have up-rooted your trees and put them on display in their colonies as decorative landscaping. Imagine this 'State' pretends to be the 'only real democracy in the middle east' and selling itself like a victim, when it daily denies millions of your people their basic human rights, when it violently cripples your body, your family life, your community, and your country... Imagine that this is not only contemporary traumas they are inflicting, but imagine that this same 'State' caused the biggest refugee problem of our time. Imagine you were born in a village which now is in this young 'state' where Western Jews from all over the world can freely move into, just for being Jewish, when you yourself cannot go a few kilometers, to return to your land. Imagine Imagine Imagine.... because unless you have opened your eyes alongside indigenous Palestinians struggling to live each day under occupation, unless you have listened to cries from a refugee camp under siege, unless you have witnessed the impact of a Western Jewish settler throwing stones at a Palestinian child who is harvesting olives on the same land in which he was born, unless you have stood beneath the Wall on the Palestinian side... unless you have touched sick olive trees that have been poisoned by settlers, out of the hope that the indigenous Palestinian farmers will have no harvest and will be forced to move, yet again, after already being a refugee... Imagine, being a refugee again and again. This is why some Palestinians choose to die rather than to be a refugee again... like the elderly woman in Bethlehem this past Friday, who died under the Israeli bull-dozer... this is the sacrifice... this is non-violent resistance…. Not moving… staying put… sitting strong… even if the brutally of Israel makes the choice to take your life.

It is important to remember, during this time, that what Palestinians are experiencing is not only this blink in time... the current day must be placed in its historical context... for Palestinians, this is a re-conquest, a continual colonization of Palestine. We are reminded that recently, it was the 89th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 in which Britain promised Zionists a "home" on land owned by the indigenous people of Palestine .

We should also remember, that this contemporary colonization that the Palestinians are experiencing on a daily basis, and the horror that I am witnessing, is something that is completely congruent with the original vision of the Zionist movement, dating back to Theodor Herzl, one of the founders of modern political Zionism. For example, during the turn of the 20th century, Herzl wrote a letter asking for support of the Zionist plan/programme to Cecil Rhodes (the arch-colonialist who ran Southern Africa like his personal business and managed to name a country - Rhodesia- after himself) and in this letter, Herzl said:

"Please send me a text saying you have examined my programme and approve it. You will ask yourself why I address myself to you, Mr. Rhodes. It is because my programme is a colonial one."

This is where I find myself today. And please know that I am safe. I am filled with hope and freedom, gifts that Palestinians share with me each time I look into their beautiful eyes, or each time they share the strength and security of their smiles, inviting me into their home for some tea or coffee, or to stay the night... to eat Maclube, asking me "please eat, my son... please drink, my son." I feel so safe in Palestine. Safer than I felt a lot of my life. People take care of you here, in an honest way. I feel so nurtured after staying a night with a local family, playing with children, being a part of the beauty of the Palestinian family. As many Palestinians will tell you, that "the best thing about Palestine, is the social life and the love between neighbors. We are most proud of our hospitality." This is their treasure. Along with olive oil, known as "the green gold". These are the treasures of Palestine, as a farmer, whose house I had the pleasure to stay in for the past two nights said, "My tracker is the Palestinian F-16". Yes, I am safe. Even though I am terrified 'by' Israel. Horrified by a society built on colonization, racism, deception, and the legacies of suffering - wait a second that sounds just like the USA! Actually, as the farm I mentioned above said in a conversation with me last night, he believes that USA supports Israel so much in their policies because Israel has the same values and programs of the USA, a nation that was built on the Native American Holocaust, and centuries of slavery. Of course they supported the birth of Israel, and are continuing their support to a nation that has proved it will follow America's suit... Israel is following the colonial, imperial, racists trends of many by conquering indigenous cultures and building a 'state' based on which seems to be following suit.

Lastly, by far, my greatest comfort has been in the thousands of year-old olive trees. I have spent many days in their arms. This is the safest place I have ever been in my whole life - besides my mother's womb. This county, this culture, and these survivors and courageous freedom fighters... are the spirit of ancient olive trees...are their hearts and their souls.... this ancient and wise society has the beauty of faith that guides the world's deepest pain into sustainable harmony, and the Palestinians living under occupation are living that journey, because they are forced to, by a militant Israel that is absurdly unsustainable and completely connected with American policies, with the neglect of Europe, and with the silence of all of us.

Good night, Layla Zaide...

-Zaitoon

P.S. I will do my best to have my next entry be a detailed description of a situation I encounter here in Palestine, rather than the unraveling of my heart.... a heart that is learning how to sing... a tongue that is searching for a voice... a love that is beginning to understand the meaning of freedom…peace be with you...

First Entry

Imagining – you ask
I
Imagined
My grandmother’s house
perched above the roots of time
undisturbed
olive green vistas
hung gently
under crescent moon
the silhouette of promise
lingering
warm in the night





This stanza is from Jinan May Coutler’s “Poem to Jerusalem”… and, I chose to begin my delegation to Palestine with this poem because, the author herself is half Palestinian half English… and so, seeing that I am myself a multicultural individual from Palestinian, Latino, and European-American heritage… Jinan’s poetry truly resonates and profoundly intersects with my journeying this Fall of 2006…

My whole life…I have imagined the homeland of my grandparents and my many Palestinian relatives… ancestors, and legends… soon, I will witness the homeland with my own eyes…si dios quere, en cha’allah…

I want to take this moment to thank ‘everyone’ with all my heart for your support, and for those of you who contributed financially, I wanted to thank you for your generosity – and I ask you to rest assured that the funds will be distributed in the spirit of solidarity to grass-roots peace and justice promoting Palestinian initiatives.

With that said, I’d like to welcome you all to this blog that will trace my footsteps from the USA to deep within the West Bank as I participate in the Palestinian Olive Harvest of 2006 as a member of an international solidarity delegation to the West Bank. We will be in Palestine from late October until mid-November.

The Olive Harvest has taken place in Palestine for thousands of years. It is a central aspect of Palestinian cultural life, and olives are a primary economic support for Palestinians. Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000 (i.e. the second Palestinian popular uprising against the Israeli occupation), things in Palestine have really deteriorated because of Israeli government policies of human rights violations, land confiscations, curfews and closures of towns and cities, and repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers/colonizers. And, of course, there is also the building of the Apartheid Wall throughout the West Bank. The olive industry, which is the economic backbone of Palestine, has been decimated in these years by the land confiscations, the uprooting of olive trees by the Israeli army, and Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in their olive groves during the harvest.

Internationals come to Palestine during Olive Harvest to pick olives with Palestinians in solidarity. And, even more importantly, internationals come to accompany Palestinians farmers and families to their fields. The presence of internationals often helps protect Palestinians from the violence of the armed Israeli settlers who harass, intimidate, and physically hurt Palestinians as they access their fields and harvest their crop. The goal of the solidarity delegation is to get as many people out there as possible this fall picking olives, especially in areas that are close to Israeli settlements as these are the areas where Palestinian farmers face the greatest danger. The details of this process will be documented here as I post updates on this blog over the next several weeks.

In addition to my delegation work in the Olive Harvest, I will also be connecting with grass-roots Palestinian organizations and initiatives that aim at promoting justice, peace, health, empowerment and wellness within the Occupied Territories. I will post updates of my experiences with these initiatives as well.

Also, part of the goal of this trip for me is to reconnect with my Palestinian relatives whom I have never had the chance to meet, yet I have heard a lot about. This process, undoubtedly, will be ineffable, and it will be difficult to explain what it will feel like to share and embrace relatives and lives and history I have only known in stories.

In any case, this entry can be envisioned as my ‘departure entry’, because I am departing from the USA very soon and my next entry will be posted from upon Palestinian soil!!!

Lastly, I want to ask anyone who would like to post comments to feel free to do so, but please address me as Zaitoon, and give no other name or identifying information to respect my confidentiality. Thank you for accompanying me in my delegation with the spirit of justice, peace, solidarity, and reconnection, from America to the heart of the Arab World – Palestine…

Salaam,

Zaitoon