aswat, the children and checkpoint news

i am now back in al-quds (jerusalem) after waking early to travel on the region's holy day for both muslims and jews. everything in israel stops at about 1 on fridays and doesn't resume until sundown the following day. our journey this morning, which usually takes hours and hours due to massive disturbances at checkpoints and long waits in insane traffic jams that the checkpoints cause, was quick and simple. i think there is still election fever in the air because not one soldier seriously questioned my travelling partner (also american) and i about our presence in occupied territory.

on monday i will do an interview with the ONLY (yes, ONLY) 'out' palestinian queer activist. she heads up an organization called aswat, and has chosen to meet my comrade and i in haifa at the beginning of next week. i am thrilled that i have this opportunity, and will update this blog about the experience accordingly.

yesterday was quite busy for me. in the morning i met for the first time with about 30 4 and 5 year old children at the nursery school in balata camp. i led them in various stretches, movements and coordination games, and they seemed thrilled to be able to play with someone other than their normal teacher, especially thrilled that i am a strange foreigner who talks funny and looks very funny. the nursery school is run by about ten women, takes in about 150 children, runs five days a week and costs little to nothing for poor families. the rest of the cost is subsidized by higher rates for wealthier families and a bit of fundraising is done as well.

after playtime i went to the wealthier neighborhood of nablus to help my friend muhammad do some workshops with teenagers. we made art, and the 13 year old boys enthusiastically recounted to me their recent encounters with soldiers. some had been shot, most had brothers in prison, and a few had been arrested and imprisoned at such a young age themselves. the policy of imprisoning those under the age of 16, of course, contravenes the fourth geneva convention on the rights of protected persons, but is not uncommon here.

finally, at three yesterday i met with my film workshop composed of three young women. we shot some interviews and i showed them how to capture the video into the computer and perform some simple edits. after briefly discussing how to make titles, they had composed a short film and were extremely satisfied with their work. i cannot believe how fast these young women, who speak barely any english, are learning how to shoot and edit video on equipment that is programmed entirely in english. i could not even begin to do this if my editing program were in arabic. it is truly astonishing.

finally, a word on yesterday's checkpoint fiasco. apparently two american tourists were arrested at kalandia, the first checkpoint into the west bank outside of al-quds and generally the easiest to pass, for taking photos. a few of my friends, one german and one austrian, were passing through and witnessed the arrests. they promptly called maksoum watch, an israeli organization made up of women who take shifts at checkpoints monitoring the behavior of soldiers. they then document what they see and post updates on the web and to media. maksoum watch was not at kalandia that day because a few of their members had been arrested and beaten on that very morning. these are usually middle-aged to elderly women; they were beaten by soldiers old enough to be their sons or grandchildren! luckily these soldiers were not at kalandia today when i passed, and so i am here in jerusalem, safe and sound, to write about it.