Bio: Chris is a local musician and activist.

July 23, 2006 - What is Happening? and Raad, the Traffic Cop
July 20, 2006 - 58 Years of the Same and What I'm Hearing
July 19, 2006 - Issa and Working with the ISM
July 17, 2006 - Collective Punishment in Beirut

Sunday, July 23, 2006 - What is Happening?

Yes, can someone tell me what is happening?  I don't think anyone can say really, but I think maybe we can FEEL what is going on.  I can feel that we are lost, that we have gone wrong.  The occupation is in every breath we take.  It's in the coffee – in the cardamom and in the grinds that get in my mouth while I'm trying to get one last delicious sip.  The occupation is in the broken screen in the window of my hotel room.  It's in the ants that found my breakfast plate and were crawling all over it by the dozens. It's in the fountains of beautiful but broken Ramallah Park that have been snuffed out.  No water flows.  It's in the beautiful and gracious warmth and humor that constantly greets me, behind which a desperate cry can be heard begging for the madmen to stop.

The occupation is in Abdullah, the English teacher, who sells bracelets on the street during the day. He also works overnight shifts as a security guard at the Bank of Palestine, where a white van once pulled up with masked men inside and he ran into the bank to hide while he heard the gunshots ring out.  Yesterday, he had to gather his bracelets and other souvenirs in a hurry and flee into the neighboring town of Al-Rabi because five IDF jeeps pulled into town – and that, too, means run for your life.  Does he want to live like this?  Does he have a choice?

Yes, this occupation wears people down, makes them feel helpless, desperate and forgotten.  And aren't they?  What can they do to shake it off?  We wake up every morning and decide whether or not we're going to think about the occupation.  And, often, we decide to think about it later, maybe another day.  The Palestinians don't have that luxury.  As soon as they open their eyes, there it is, staring them right in the face, and promising to stick around for the rest of the day, whether they want it to or not.

 
Raad, the Traffic Cop

The traffic cop in Al-Minara Circle has no rivals.  He does a 360-degree spin and thrusts his hands out to the left and right, stopping all pedestrians, and then he waves both hands furiously for the cars to move.  He spins again and throws his hands out toward the cars, motioning for them to stop.  Then he spins once more and waves the pedestrians into motion.

I can't believe what I'm seeing.  Thirty seconds ago I was getting grouchy about something and now I am suddenly awestruck and excited. What on earth am I seeing?!? One car tries to sneak by him. He spins his way from one lane to the other and lays his arm across the windshield, as if hugging the car gently but firmly.  This man is the most inspiring person I've come across in a long time.  I'm not sure what it is.  Just that I love him because he is dancing through his job. He's got a gun. He's a cop. He's directing traffic. He's got authority.  But he dances and he winks and he waves and smiles at people constantly.  He's dancing.  Have you ever seen a cop dance while he does his job?
 
I walk up to him and I tell him I love him.  He asks me where I'm from and what my name is.  He tells me his name is Raad and that he's from Birzeit.  I hug him and shake his hand.  He smiles.  I have never hugged a cop before and I have never seen an on-duty policeman dance and smile while doing his job.  Raad the Cop teaches me something important.  He shows me that it's both necessary and feasible to do one's job and to never compromise one's humanness.  A most beautiful lesson and I am once again thrilled to be alive.

Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 58 Years of the Same

Issa says:  Open your eyes.  It’s not about Israel vs. Palestine.  It’s about justice vs. injustice, truth vs. lies.  Oslo was a false solution.  The Palestinians are one people, living under two authorities.  The problem is policy, not Israeli people.

Issa says:  Let me live on this land.  I have not stolen it.

  
What I’m Hearing

OK, so I know I’ve been talking a lot about how Palestinians just want to live in peace and they’re not angry and that it’s all sounding a bit hokey.  (Whaddaya mean they’re not angry?!?)

Well, here’s what I can say to clarify:

I’ve focused my writing on some of the most admirable and inspiring people;  they are often people who have the depth of mind to be worried for the Jews, too, though the atrocities are being committed in the name of the Jews.


People really are repeating over and over that they:

a) don’t hate Jews
b) want to live in peace
c) like Americans
d) want justice

Whether or not it is hard to believe, this is what I’m hearing more than anything.  Perhaps, if this is difficult to grasp, we might ask ourselves what that says about us.  Yes, their point of view is astounding to me;  that is why I am calling attention to it.

Of course they are very frustrated and angry, and although they don’t usually cheer over Hezbollah’s actions, they do see them as only equal to Israel’s actions, perhaps even a bit more justified.

Let me be plain: Palestinians are just human beings.  They’re just as flawed as everyone else.  No better or worse.  I have emphasized what I think are the lessons they seem to have learned in the last 60 years, lessons that they can now teach us.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - Issa

So far, it has been a whirlwind trip through the West Bank and Jerusalem.  Given the history of US military support for Israel and its active undermining of Palestinian self-determination, it’s been a heartening surprise to find that everywhere we've gone, we've been greeted with a very warm welcome from the Palestinians.  I think we've been conditioned to be afraid of Palestinians and to think that they hate Americans. People here ask “Where you from?”  We say the United States. They say, “Welcome!“

One example of this refreshing and hard-to-believe perspective is a very special man I met a few days ago in the village of Hares.  Issa is a wheelchair-bound peace activist, aged 39.  He was shot by Israeli soldiers on May 15, 2001. Unarmed, he was trying to get women and children into their houses, because soldiers were approaching, when a bullet entered his spine.  Two soldiers stood above him, yelling at him to get up as he lay on the ground, thinking he was dying.  His parents and brothers tried to approach him.  Issa begged the soldiers to let his family help him. The soldiers prevented them, throwing stun grenades and firing into the air.  When he came to in the hospital, he was greeted with the message that he would probably be paralyzed for life.  The astonishing thing about Issa is that he is not angry with the soldiers, and he does not want revenge.  He actually pities them.  He has written an open letter to them, hoping he can meet them some day, and make peace.

Also, he says his ties with Israelis have been strengthened, not weakened, by the incident.  He doesn’t have hatred for anyone, except the politicians on both sides who drag us into their wars and make us victims of their power struggles.  Issa does not believe in armed struggle.  He believes that we are all holy – all human beings. We don’t have any right to kill anyone.

I wonder if many of us would respond as Issa has.

Issa believes – as many do – that Hezbollah and Saddam Hussein have both used the Palestinian situation as an excuse for their violence.  The only way to stop them from being able to use Palestine as an excuse is to find a real solution.  He thinks that Gaza is being bombed as a form of collective punishment, for electing Hamas.  People voted for Hamas, not because they love Hamas, but because the Fatah party had been ineffective.  Now, bombing Gaza only hurts the average person.  Hamas is not being hurt by this bombing at all.

What is the highest hope of the people of Hares? I asked.  “To live peacefully – with the Israelis – and to have a better future for our children.”


Working with the International Solidarity Movement

Working in the ISM Media Office, I helped Neta do some research on a crackpot named Lee Kaplan who is trying to get international peace workers denied entry to Israel, claiming we are in cahoots with terrorists, etc.  Neta is funny and cool and constantly communicating and making things happen. The printer kept jamming and everyone seemed pretty annoyed with it.  (The world is stressed about conflagration in the Middle East and we’re dealing with paper jams!)

Also, I talked to a guy who has been doing a lot of demonstrating with Palestinians and Israelis against The Apartheid Wall aka The Separation Barrier aka The Wall that Grabs Land aka The Wall that has been condemned by the International Criminal Court. (The "Security Fence" is what the Israeli government likes to call it). He showed some scars he'd gotten from beatings by Israeli soldiers, and a huge burn on his arm from the hot metal part of a sound grenade.  The IDF uses sound grenades and teargas, plus they shoot rubber-coated bullets at peaceful demonstrators.  They do this regularly.

Monday, July 17, 2006 - Collective Punishment in Beirut

The vibe on the street in Ramallah is sad and frustrated.  The people are very concerned about what is happening in Lebanon.  They only want to live in peace, and they wonder why Israel is never punished for their crimes, yet there is an earthquake when Israeli soldier is kidnapped.  Why is Arab blood not as expensive?  There was just a demonstration here, showing solidarity with the Lebanese people who are being collectively punished for the acts of Hezbollah.  Why do they bomb and kill civilians for something they haven't done?  Where is the justice in that?  This is what people ask.

The UK Beirut evacuation is set to begin tomorrow, which makes me wonder: What do they know?  Is just going to get worse?