PNN Article

I am currently volunteering for PNN, and my first assignment was to wrote a story about a Palestinian nonviolence protest I went to. Here it is:


Umm Salamuna / Al Masra nonviolent resistance in the southern Bethlehem streets

30.05.09 - 12:56
Bethlehem / Cassie X for PNN - Al Ma'sara, which lays to the south of Bethlehem, is a village on the frontline of land confiscation and settlement expansion. The village itself is the size of 22,000 dunams, with 20,000 dunams set to be confiscated for settlement construction. Farmers are losing their lands, and then they are forced to lose them for the construction of illegal settlements on their land which is their only source of income. That is why every Friday in Al Ma'sara and Umm Salmamuna they march. They march under the banner of nonviolence. This is my first protest here in Palestine, and I was impressed by the support of the international community displayed by protestors there from Germany, Holland, Norway, South Africa, France, Italy, the United States and Canada. I traveled in a cab towards the village with two women from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Deborah was a priest from South Africa who had come to Palestine on her three month sabbatical. "I came here because I saw the important role that the international community played in South Africa with the end of Apartheid," she explained. "This is my attempt in some way to pay that back, except the occupation here is much worse than I had expected." As we neared the village we came up to a flying checkpoint, which was a way for the soldiers to control protesters from getting to village on Fridays. We quite easily got through the first one, but then we pulled off the street and had to meet the protest part way because they had set up another one just down the road. As we were getting out of the cab one of the women said, "that's just not right." We stood under the difficult eye of the second checkpoint, until we heard the chanting and saw the crowd come around the corner with Palestinian flags waving. There was a young girl there who must have been about 12, and her father had been recently arrested at a similar protest a few weeks ago. He has been randomly pulled from the crowd and taken for no real reason. As the crowd came towards us we joined in. There were flags and posters reading, "No to the Occupation Flu" and "Jaffa my City." Our crowd of around 60 Palestinians and internationals approached a barbed wire barrier thrown across the road with some15-20 Israeli soldiers standing behind them. We marched straight up to the barrier, chanting, "The Wall must fall" and singing in Arabic. What struck me as we sang, made speeches, and took pictures of the soldiers, is that even though they had the guns, we at this moment had the power. There were speeches made in Arabic, English and French. There were speeches about peace, about how the Israelis cannot erase the Palestinians and the Palestinians cannot erase the Israelis; how the new Israeli government cannot change the law whenever they want. One of the protesters from the United States named Matthew was a US army veteran who had served on active duty in Iraq from August 2002 to August 2004. "When I was in Iraq, I questioned the mission and the rhetoric. I became aware quite early on that there were no WMD's in Iraq, and that Iraqi democracy and freedom had nothing to do about why we were there." Now an active anti-war protestor, Matthew, approached the barrier and the soldiers with a picture of himself in uniform. "My intention is to express to them that I know how they feel. I don't know what it is like to grow up in an Israeli militarized state, but I do know how it feels to be on the other side of the constant wire." He says that they usually acknowledge the fact that he has served. He hopes that him standing there will at least help those who are questing what they are doing. There were Israelis in the crowd who spoke to the soldiers in Hebrew. Two village women crawled over the barbed wire holding Palestinians flags and holding up their hands in a peace sign. Their weathered faces looked back upon the crowd and broke out into smiles of defiance. This was their land. Another protestor was engaged in an exchange with a soldier, after which he turned to the crowd and said in English, "The soldier says that this land is for him, but I say he is foreigner here. The colour of his skin is different from the land. My skin shows how I melt with this land."
As we concluded our protest the atmosphere was one of tension but also one of hopeful defiance. Next Friday they would be back, protesting as they have for years. As agents of nonviolent resistance, the moral power rested with them. I felt a new lightness as we walked back to our vehicles to head to Bethlehem City. Although there had been no direct results from this protest, I had seen the passion of a people who were not afraid of using their voices and they would continue to do so.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Beginnings...

Well, I've been in Bethlehem for one full day and I feel like I am still in transit to what my life will be like for the next three months.

It has been great to get to know my host family, and hopefullyI will get the chance to form a strong relationship with them. The one huge obsticale I am still facing is the fact that I don't know any Arabic, so hopefully as I learn it will become easier to communicate with them. My roomate Ilyana, who is from Russia, knows Classical Arabic (which is very different from colloquial Arabic), so she is able to speak with them a bit easier. I'm living in an apartment right across from a hotel, which is convient for when I get lost because I have no idea what my address is! My room and bathroom are really comfortable, though every morning so far I've had to squash a friendly bathroom cockroach. Though it's only ever one and only in the morning, and the ones here aren't nearly the size of what I encountered in China and Thailand!

There are 13 PSE participants for the first month, with our numbers doubling next month and some leaving after that. It will be strange to get to know people really well for a month or two months and then have to say goodbye and get to know a whole new group. At least my roomate Ilyana is here for the full three months as well. Most of the group are American, with my roomate being Russian, one guy from Chile, one girl from Switzerland and then me as the only Canadian (just like YWAM!). It's been really interesting to learn from the other participants what their background is and what has brought them here to Palestine. One of the Americans is actually an ex-soldier who served in Iraq in 2004, became disenchanted with the military and is now determined to work for peace through nonviolence and dialogue. It is going to be very interesting to talk with him about his experience then compared to now. The one thing he's said so far is that people are much friendlier when you are not pointing a gun in their face.

Tonight the 13 of us, along with our group "leaders" John Mark and Rafat who work for Middle East Fellowship and Holy Land Trust, and meeting for dinner and more socializing. Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Jerusalem, and this will be the first time I will cross the wall the way that Palestinians have to. Most tourists when they come to Bethlehem come on a bus, get off at the Church of the Navity, take pictures, and then get back on their bus and sail right through the checkpoint back to Jerusalem. Most tourists don't spend the night in the West Bank and never get a chance to interact with Palestinians. Palestinians, if they are on a bus or not, must get out and walk through the checkpoint. The security they face is much more indepth and even humiliating, and so this is what I will get to witness first hand tomorrow.

Monday is when the real program starts, and I get to settle into my routine. I will start my volunteer position, which is with Palestine News Network (PNN). I have no idea what I am doing yet, so I will probably try to blog tomorrow night and let you know. I will also start Arabic classes on monday, which I am very excited about! Although my host family is already expecting me to be fluent within a month! Pressure!

I probably haven't explained very well the program I am with or the organizations I am working with. Instead of me doing that here I will give the links for those who are interested in learning more.

Palestine News Network: http://english.pnn.ps/

Palestine Summer Encounter: http://www.palestinesummer.org/

Holy Land Trust: http://www.holylandtrust.org/

Middle East Fellowship: http://www.middleeastfellowship.org/

Hopefully I will post again monday. Until then, Peace.