once again, the image that sticks most with me upon my immanent departure from palestine is that of the harshly oppressed person smiling, laughing and offering me tea.
palestinians, it seems, are one of the most oppressed peoples on earth. the afflictions which ail them come not only from grinding poverty or sickness; unlike much of the majority world, most palestinians (at least in the west bank) have enough to eat and have limited access to health care. the oppression they endure exists on another level entirely; colonization and military occupation and all that accompanies them make life for palestinians different from most in the world, and quite difficult, to say the least.
on my way here two weeks ago i felt a bit depressed. i wondered what tragedies i would encounter, how many fatherless children, how many homeless families, made refugees two, three, even four times through wars, ethnic cleansing campaigns and now collective punishments. how many mothers without children; they are killed by the army or imprisoned for years in harsh conditions for throwing stones. resistance here is fertile, though, and prison sentences do not deter most from hailing the occasional stone or bottle filled with white paint at a beligerent military jeep.
leaving here, after two short weeks of work, play and thought, i feel as if i have been uplifted by the palestinian people. their strength, their hope, their attitude: 'this is our life', iman said through a smile, and handed me a cup of tea. this is palestine, i think.
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two weeks ago when i drove for the first time in two years along the narrow road leading to ramallah from jerusalem i was shocked by the change in the scenery. the wall, an apartheid structure which is sucking more life out of an already helpless population of farmers and merchants, streches the length of the road, separating confiscated land in jerusalem from the rest of the west bank. the sight hurt my eyes and gave me a headache; watching it out of the corner of my eye made me tense, irritated. an eyesore, it was only the first of many changes the landscape has endured in the past two years.
inshallah, when i return (when?) the landscape will not be further scarred. i will try to remember what it looks like now.
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