How does one describe a week in Palestine? "Interesting" and "an experience" might be the usual platitudes you could apply to a week where the badness and the goodness of humanity live shoulder to shoulder. As for me, I'm still trying to sort all the emotions and feelings – maybe this is something I shouldn't try to do as I'm sure it would tie me up in knots for a long time. Perhaps I just have to go with my gut feeling, or maybe you can help me to decide….
Our goal of renovating some disused land around the old girls dormitory in Birzeit, near to Ramallah, was achieved. We raised around $8,000 before we left Dubai and with it we created a beautiful Hakura (Garden). We did everything we said we would do and more – we bought plants, furniture, tools and materials. We spent days clearing the land, sanding wood, painting and planting. We created a seated area close to the main entrance that didn't exist before. The day the furniture arrived it was in use – we'd go down for our morning coffee, or try to find somewhere to sit at lunch time and we'd find that there was no room because it was in use. We planted fruit trees in the Bayara (orchard) – a pomelier, a cherry, lemon, pear and apple trees; we created a safe haven for tortoises – many have cracked shells where children use them for target practice for stone throwing, so we created a mini hospital; we enlisted locals who have promised to keep watering the plants so that they grow in properly; the local electricity company donated 6 old cable reels that we turned into tables and planters; Sahar painstakingly created a lovely rockery; the engineer we worked with, Mahmood, donated much of the labour that without we could not have done what we did – paths were laid, walls built, holes in rocky ground dug for planting.
All this was done in and amongst the children at the music camp rehearsing and practicing. The day I arrived Sana showed me around the land and we walked past the jazz band practicing – you can't help but stop and dance. The Jazz band performed in two concerts outside the music camp – they were that good! During the day, everywhere you went you could hear music. You come down for breakfast and the blind kid that plays the violin for the Oriental music group is warming up his fingers on the piano. At lunch time the clarinetists from the wind instrument group are busking the theme tunes from the Godfather or Mission Impossible. And in the evening, after the kids have given their daily concert, they are still jamming together until the early hours of the morning. From the morning trumpet fanfare from 8 year old Sari at 6am until 2am the following morning when they are still strumming guitars, there is music.
On the last day of the first camp we had the pleasure of watching the children perform at the Ramallah Cultural Palace. The culmination of a week's hard work and blistered fingers was a wonderful celebration of how much they had achieved for themselves in this intensive music camp. Several children graduated with their music certificates during the week. It left a lump in our throats as we watched them all play beautifully in a professional concert setting. After the kids left, we shared stories with the teachers and jammed our way through the evening. There is something amazing about being the company of musicians. They can make music out of anything – all you need is your voice and something to hit. "Will you play us your music tonight" and "Yalla, yalla…..Habibi" was stuck in my head for days to come and I think they will be tunes that always bring back happy thoughts.
Once our work was largely completed we took the opportunity to explore where we were and we visited Birzeit University where we heard about the Right 2 Education Campaign (http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/). Palestinian students are regularly targeted by the Israeli military – University campuses being the traditional hot bed of political activity that they are. The newly elected leader of the University Student Council is arrested every year. When a student takes this role he knows that it is likely to result in at least 6 months in gaol, possibly without access to legal counsel, visits from family, deprived of contact, with the possibility of having his stay extended by another 6 months. There was a road block outside Birzeit University for several years earlier this decade, stopping students from getting to the campus. A 15 minute journey from Ramallah, where most students live, could take several hours. Some teachers resorted to giving lectures next to the road block. People would desert their cars by the road block and walk the 10 – 15 minutes up the road to the campus, that is if they were allowed past by the soldiers. Palestine used to be a nation with 95% literacy. In the current climate an education is considered a privilege rather than the rite of passage we take for granted. Palestine is being de-skilled by the Occupation: The young cut off from an education.
Because we were careful how we spent the money we raised, and because of donations like the cost of labour and the cable reels, we found that we were under budget by around $1,300 at the end of the time in the garden. On our return from a day trip to Bethlehem and Hebron we were trying to decide what to do with the remaining money – we were very conscious that we had a responsibility to everyone that contributed to the $8,000, whether it was 5 or 5,000 dirhams donated, and we wanted to ensure that the money would go somewhere that we thought everyone would agree with. It was voiced by some before and during our trip that what we did in Palestine during this project was a luxury, that there are very needy people in Palestine who do not have ready access to healthcare, education and other basic needs – food, clean water etc. I'll come back to this. Those people are right in a way but there is more to it than that. In the end, the cause we were looking for found us.
On our last day of gardening, as we were busy painting the remaining few tables and stools, a local lady walked through the gates of the camp. Sana spotted her and approached her to see where she needed to go. She started quite normally, explaining how she's from Nablus; her husband has diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney failure and is laying in the house and traveling to hospital three times a week for dialysis. She stayed together whilst explaining that her and her young daughters had not eaten for three days. She fell apart and broke down when she explained that her 15 year old son has rheumatic fever which has resulted in a widened heart valve and has been receiving regular injections of penicillin to treat the illness. He needed another injection, which cost around 2,500 Shekels (approximately 2,750 dirhams, $750 or £375) to help him recover. He was turning black on a daily basis and having seizures and she had become so desperate that she had decided to get in a taxi and get to wherever she could to approach people for money. She didn't know where she was. She was on her way to Ramallah when she'd just asked the taxi to stop and got out. She'd left her kids with the neighbour and her dignity at home and come begging for money. We gave her the money for the injection, a promise that we would be in touch with the Red Crescent, and some change for her to return home by taxi. She came in the gate desperate and left with relief and a smile on her face.
Sana's husband Ali has stayed in Palestine for a project of his own (he's an eye surgeon specialising in the treatment of eye complications resulting from diabetes and is setting up a mobile eye clinic to provide outreach care to places that fall through the gaps of aid agencies already working in Palestine). We've given the left over money to him and asked him to give money to other cases like the local lady and her family – in great enough amounts that the money is helpful and not diluted, directly to the people that need it rather than through an organisation.
But I don't want people to think the rest of the money has not gone to a good cause – it has! It's not until you go there that you see the daily grind that the Occupation is on the people of Palestine. You have to apply to the Israeli authorities to repair a broken window, or fix a damaged sewage pipe (and you can smell where the broken sewage pipes are!). As families grow bigger you have to apply to extend your home. Often permission is denied and if you go ahead without approval the work done is taken down – bulldozed, blown up, smashed. We traveled to Bethlehem and were stopped by an ad-hoc Israeli army road block. There were three soldiers with guns who looked over the mini-van, and one in the field behind. You even question the language you use – I have never used words like "exciting" in such a negative context, but it was exciting for us….and then you realise that people live through this exercise of intimidation on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day.
We spent an afternoon in Hebron and visited the mosque over the Cave of the Patriarchs (where Abraham buried his wife Sarah). We had to go through three security checks to walk the kilometre from the car park to the mosque. The guide asked me to go through first as I clearly look European – everyone else has foreign passports but look Arabic. On our way back, when I had gone through the security points first, people came through saying "did you see that?". A boy was thrown up against the wall and punched, out of my sight, for doing nothing more than crossing through a security point. He crosses this check point regularly. He is beaten regularly. His friend was shot in the foot that morning for nothing. The Palestinian citizens of the old part of Hebron are gradually being forced out of their homes through intimidation and violence. 600 settlers live in the old part of town above shops. The Palestinians have assembled wire mesh above the streets to stop the rubbish, spit and waste water thrown out of windows by settlers falling directly on their heads. They are taunted. Some people don't know how much longer they can put up with staying there. Many have already moved their families out. Most of the shops have closed and it's like a ghost town. There are 25,000 Israeli soldiers protecting 600 Jewish Settlers from 160,000 unarmed Palestinians. We saw five of the Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets of Hebron. It is a strange feeling to look up from a conversation with a friend to realise that the man in green with a terrified look on his face is in fact a young soldier pointing a gun at your face. It's hard to know how to react the first time it ever happens to you – it actually takes longer than you would think to realise what is happening, because it's so alien. It's not something I ever need to go through again, but then I don't live there.
So the money and support donated by friends and colleagues has gone to a good cause, and I refer to the words of Abou Yacoub, our generous host at the music camp, to explain why. Abou Yacoub said that what we did in the garden at that camp was "reinvigorate a culture that has been lost". Adults and children would wander around the garden and realise that it's quite easy to do in their own homes. The team would go scavenging for other people's rubbish, our treasure, and create something artistic out of it. People in Palestine need something to escape from the daily grind of Occupation, a release from the tension. That might be music, dance, painting, gardening or any other creative activity. What the money raised and the team of volunteers did was give a little glimmer of hope, a little release, that enables them to carry on in a time of difficulty. It's a morale boost, an invigoration of the psyche or a good old-fashioned kick up the backside. Whatever it is, it helps, they told us it does. It came from their mouths. So thank you to everyone, from them.
My personal goal of seeing something of the situation for myself was achieved in Palestine, in addition to those for the garden. I’ve been aware since moving to Dubai and seeing the media reporting here that western media can often be skewed. I don’t know if it’s for political advantage, because of heavy influence from people who have something to incentivise with, or whether it’s just poor journalism. The outcome is that the language we hear and the pictures we see are often without context of the situation as written in the history books. I’ve learnt infinitely more about the world since leaving the UK than I think I would had I stayed and learning more fuels the desire to learn more – the cycle is perpetual. So I'll be going back to see more, talk to people more, learn more. I do hope you'll come and join me next time.
Our goal of renovating some disused land around the old girls dormitory in Birzeit, near to Ramallah, was achieved. We raised around $8,000 before we left Dubai and with it we created a beautiful Hakura (Garden). We did everything we said we would do and more – we bought plants, furniture, tools and materials. We spent days clearing the land, sanding wood, painting and planting. We created a seated area close to the main entrance that didn't exist before. The day the furniture arrived it was in use – we'd go down for our morning coffee, or try to find somewhere to sit at lunch time and we'd find that there was no room because it was in use. We planted fruit trees in the Bayara (orchard) – a pomelier, a cherry, lemon, pear and apple trees; we created a safe haven for tortoises – many have cracked shells where children use them for target practice for stone throwing, so we created a mini hospital; we enlisted locals who have promised to keep watering the plants so that they grow in properly; the local electricity company donated 6 old cable reels that we turned into tables and planters; Sahar painstakingly created a lovely rockery; the engineer we worked with, Mahmood, donated much of the labour that without we could not have done what we did – paths were laid, walls built, holes in rocky ground dug for planting.
All this was done in and amongst the children at the music camp rehearsing and practicing. The day I arrived Sana showed me around the land and we walked past the jazz band practicing – you can't help but stop and dance. The Jazz band performed in two concerts outside the music camp – they were that good! During the day, everywhere you went you could hear music. You come down for breakfast and the blind kid that plays the violin for the Oriental music group is warming up his fingers on the piano. At lunch time the clarinetists from the wind instrument group are busking the theme tunes from the Godfather or Mission Impossible. And in the evening, after the kids have given their daily concert, they are still jamming together until the early hours of the morning. From the morning trumpet fanfare from 8 year old Sari at 6am until 2am the following morning when they are still strumming guitars, there is music.
On the last day of the first camp we had the pleasure of watching the children perform at the Ramallah Cultural Palace. The culmination of a week's hard work and blistered fingers was a wonderful celebration of how much they had achieved for themselves in this intensive music camp. Several children graduated with their music certificates during the week. It left a lump in our throats as we watched them all play beautifully in a professional concert setting. After the kids left, we shared stories with the teachers and jammed our way through the evening. There is something amazing about being the company of musicians. They can make music out of anything – all you need is your voice and something to hit. "Will you play us your music tonight" and "Yalla, yalla…..Habibi" was stuck in my head for days to come and I think they will be tunes that always bring back happy thoughts.
Once our work was largely completed we took the opportunity to explore where we were and we visited Birzeit University where we heard about the Right 2 Education Campaign (http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/). Palestinian students are regularly targeted by the Israeli military – University campuses being the traditional hot bed of political activity that they are. The newly elected leader of the University Student Council is arrested every year. When a student takes this role he knows that it is likely to result in at least 6 months in gaol, possibly without access to legal counsel, visits from family, deprived of contact, with the possibility of having his stay extended by another 6 months. There was a road block outside Birzeit University for several years earlier this decade, stopping students from getting to the campus. A 15 minute journey from Ramallah, where most students live, could take several hours. Some teachers resorted to giving lectures next to the road block. People would desert their cars by the road block and walk the 10 – 15 minutes up the road to the campus, that is if they were allowed past by the soldiers. Palestine used to be a nation with 95% literacy. In the current climate an education is considered a privilege rather than the rite of passage we take for granted. Palestine is being de-skilled by the Occupation: The young cut off from an education.
Because we were careful how we spent the money we raised, and because of donations like the cost of labour and the cable reels, we found that we were under budget by around $1,300 at the end of the time in the garden. On our return from a day trip to Bethlehem and Hebron we were trying to decide what to do with the remaining money – we were very conscious that we had a responsibility to everyone that contributed to the $8,000, whether it was 5 or 5,000 dirhams donated, and we wanted to ensure that the money would go somewhere that we thought everyone would agree with. It was voiced by some before and during our trip that what we did in Palestine during this project was a luxury, that there are very needy people in Palestine who do not have ready access to healthcare, education and other basic needs – food, clean water etc. I'll come back to this. Those people are right in a way but there is more to it than that. In the end, the cause we were looking for found us.
On our last day of gardening, as we were busy painting the remaining few tables and stools, a local lady walked through the gates of the camp. Sana spotted her and approached her to see where she needed to go. She started quite normally, explaining how she's from Nablus; her husband has diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney failure and is laying in the house and traveling to hospital three times a week for dialysis. She stayed together whilst explaining that her and her young daughters had not eaten for three days. She fell apart and broke down when she explained that her 15 year old son has rheumatic fever which has resulted in a widened heart valve and has been receiving regular injections of penicillin to treat the illness. He needed another injection, which cost around 2,500 Shekels (approximately 2,750 dirhams, $750 or £375) to help him recover. He was turning black on a daily basis and having seizures and she had become so desperate that she had decided to get in a taxi and get to wherever she could to approach people for money. She didn't know where she was. She was on her way to Ramallah when she'd just asked the taxi to stop and got out. She'd left her kids with the neighbour and her dignity at home and come begging for money. We gave her the money for the injection, a promise that we would be in touch with the Red Crescent, and some change for her to return home by taxi. She came in the gate desperate and left with relief and a smile on her face.
Sana's husband Ali has stayed in Palestine for a project of his own (he's an eye surgeon specialising in the treatment of eye complications resulting from diabetes and is setting up a mobile eye clinic to provide outreach care to places that fall through the gaps of aid agencies already working in Palestine). We've given the left over money to him and asked him to give money to other cases like the local lady and her family – in great enough amounts that the money is helpful and not diluted, directly to the people that need it rather than through an organisation.
But I don't want people to think the rest of the money has not gone to a good cause – it has! It's not until you go there that you see the daily grind that the Occupation is on the people of Palestine. You have to apply to the Israeli authorities to repair a broken window, or fix a damaged sewage pipe (and you can smell where the broken sewage pipes are!). As families grow bigger you have to apply to extend your home. Often permission is denied and if you go ahead without approval the work done is taken down – bulldozed, blown up, smashed. We traveled to Bethlehem and were stopped by an ad-hoc Israeli army road block. There were three soldiers with guns who looked over the mini-van, and one in the field behind. You even question the language you use – I have never used words like "exciting" in such a negative context, but it was exciting for us….and then you realise that people live through this exercise of intimidation on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day.
We spent an afternoon in Hebron and visited the mosque over the Cave of the Patriarchs (where Abraham buried his wife Sarah). We had to go through three security checks to walk the kilometre from the car park to the mosque. The guide asked me to go through first as I clearly look European – everyone else has foreign passports but look Arabic. On our way back, when I had gone through the security points first, people came through saying "did you see that?". A boy was thrown up against the wall and punched, out of my sight, for doing nothing more than crossing through a security point. He crosses this check point regularly. He is beaten regularly. His friend was shot in the foot that morning for nothing. The Palestinian citizens of the old part of Hebron are gradually being forced out of their homes through intimidation and violence. 600 settlers live in the old part of town above shops. The Palestinians have assembled wire mesh above the streets to stop the rubbish, spit and waste water thrown out of windows by settlers falling directly on their heads. They are taunted. Some people don't know how much longer they can put up with staying there. Many have already moved their families out. Most of the shops have closed and it's like a ghost town. There are 25,000 Israeli soldiers protecting 600 Jewish Settlers from 160,000 unarmed Palestinians. We saw five of the Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets of Hebron. It is a strange feeling to look up from a conversation with a friend to realise that the man in green with a terrified look on his face is in fact a young soldier pointing a gun at your face. It's hard to know how to react the first time it ever happens to you – it actually takes longer than you would think to realise what is happening, because it's so alien. It's not something I ever need to go through again, but then I don't live there.
So the money and support donated by friends and colleagues has gone to a good cause, and I refer to the words of Abou Yacoub, our generous host at the music camp, to explain why. Abou Yacoub said that what we did in the garden at that camp was "reinvigorate a culture that has been lost". Adults and children would wander around the garden and realise that it's quite easy to do in their own homes. The team would go scavenging for other people's rubbish, our treasure, and create something artistic out of it. People in Palestine need something to escape from the daily grind of Occupation, a release from the tension. That might be music, dance, painting, gardening or any other creative activity. What the money raised and the team of volunteers did was give a little glimmer of hope, a little release, that enables them to carry on in a time of difficulty. It's a morale boost, an invigoration of the psyche or a good old-fashioned kick up the backside. Whatever it is, it helps, they told us it does. It came from their mouths. So thank you to everyone, from them.
My personal goal of seeing something of the situation for myself was achieved in Palestine, in addition to those for the garden. I’ve been aware since moving to Dubai and seeing the media reporting here that western media can often be skewed. I don’t know if it’s for political advantage, because of heavy influence from people who have something to incentivise with, or whether it’s just poor journalism. The outcome is that the language we hear and the pictures we see are often without context of the situation as written in the history books. I’ve learnt infinitely more about the world since leaving the UK than I think I would had I stayed and learning more fuels the desire to learn more – the cycle is perpetual. So I'll be going back to see more, talk to people more, learn more. I do hope you'll come and join me next time.
