a few things that upset me

My friend had to go to Jordan today.  Though I have crossed the bridge from the west bank to Jordan many many times, exiting “Israel”, paying a ridiculous exit fee on the way out each time, looking at, soldiers who I consider kids, men and women probably no more than 19 years of age, working in border security carrying guns bigger than they are, I’ve never exited through the Palestinian side.  My foreigner privilege allows me to exit the bridge, by taking  a bus to the foreigner side.  It’s a process that takes a few hours but it's not that big of a deal. Palestinians are separated completely, in completely separate buses and they must go through the ‘palestinian’ side to exit the West Bank and enter Jordan.

So my friend had to go to Jordan today (not a foreigner, a Palestinian).  The soldier looked at his ID.  He didn’t like it.  It was too old.  So he tore it up, and told him, that he has to go back, get another one reissued and then come back.  6 hours later. 

On the day of the Nakba, the clashes at Qalandia were inevitable.  However we saw some new things that we didn’t before, in addition to surrounding Arab countries also responding to the significance of this day.  New kinds of bullets.  My friend looked at the five or so bullets on the ground at Qalandia checkpoint  and got mad at the kid next to her, telling him to stop collecting rubber bullets and to stop playing with them (kids do that).  He looked at her puzzled replying that he didn’t.  The kid told her, no it’s not me, the soldiers are using new kinds of bullets.  ‘ O really?’  she still didn’t believe him.  Another gentleman passed by her to tell her, that it’s true, the kid’s not lying.  They have a new kind of bullet, they throw it, not directly at someone, but they just throw it, and when it hits a hard surface, 5 or 6 bullets shoot out as soon as it hits something, in different directions. 

Thank you state of the arts technology and US tax dollars.

On the day of the Nakba, something else caught people by surprise.  Undercover Israeli policemen in civil suit, one disguised as a Palestinian woman, to ‘catch’ protestors. 

In 2008, a reporting cited an undercover unit like this executing four Palestinian fighters.  At the time of the killing these men were in their cars waiting for their dinners, unarmed.

 “It was the moral equivalent of a team of Palestinians, disguised as Israelis, driving an Israeli car into Tel Aviv and gunning down four off-duty Israeli soldiers”

- (http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/photo-gun-toting-israeli-soldier-disguised-palestinian-woman)

What makes me upset is this.  In which other country would it be ok if you showed up and 'security'  just ripped your passport, instead of respectfully turning you around because something was wrong with your paperwork?  I guess these are the "simple" nuances of living under occupation, when you are the one occupied facing those who are the occupiers, the 'simple' things that you have to put up with. 

What also makes me upset is the twisted reporting of events.  Palestinians being regarded as unruly barbaric people ‘mourning’ the independence of Israel.  The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, those who are still in refugee camps across the Arab world ignored.  What also makes me upset is how the terrorisers are considered the victims and the victims the terrorists.  I’m not sure how an official military unit arresting children, intimidating civil population whether by force or by a lack of liberty, impeding on all their rights and violently traumatizing them daily through humiliation or weapons, are not considered terrorists.  But an angry teenager throwing a stone from the ground by definition, somehow, is a terrorist. 

Ramallah, May 15th, 2011

I was strictly warned yesterday by several people to stay close to the premises of my home.  living so close to the town center, around 12 in the afternoon, i heard massive thumping and drum playing and the heavy sounds of marches from my apartment.  im hearing this after hearing ambulance sirens going in and out of the city, people at qalandiya checkpoint being tear gassed and all, ambulances going back and forth from the checkpoint to the city and back. soldiers in civil suit were also attacking those protesting at the checkpoint.  all of this is described of course as 'light clashes'. as of 11 in the morning there were 3 head injuries of men who had tear gas canisters thrown at their heads.  one woman had gone into shock from the tear gas and had to be helped by medics.

Not being able to resist the urge of stepping into what i'm hearing from my window, seeing pictures online of what is happening literally outside my window, i took my camera and left out the door.  What I saw was an ecstatic energy of kids young and old, adults young and old, waves of flags and banners, music, food, and a stage filled with singers and dabkeh dancers rhythmically stomping their feet to the exuberant beats of traditional Palestinian music , young men piled onto vans, yelling into the bullhorn and making the crowd around the town center cheer, sing along and clap, and young school children scouts march with their drums and musical instruments around the center, with one cheek face painted with the triangular red cutting into the black, white and green stripe.  The Palestinian flag.

An enormous make shift key stood upright near the "Manara", the town center, a circular area marked by 5 lion statues , each lion facing an offshoot street from the center.  The old fashioned key, picturized in all sizes, is a symbol for the right to return, for those who were displaced in the catastrophic events of 1948.

I saw a child sitting peacefully on the shoulders of his father (i'm assuming father) facing the stage in front of him, holding a small key in his hand, a palestinian bannered flag wrapped around his neck, with a t-shirt that said 1948 in the back.  Teenagers littered the tops of buildings, waving massive flags.  When the dabkah music started, they would also dance along.

I am pleasantly surprised and impressed by how events have been organized within Ramallah.  What's happening at the checkpoints between soldiers and civilians is a different story.  Yesterday, 17 year old Milad Said Ayyash, was killed in East Jerusalem by live ammunition, which according to witnesses, came from a settlement private guard.  The funeral procession of the boy, hundreds of Palestinians marching towards Al-Aqsa mosque, was attacked by tear gas.

Within the city, away from soldiers, what I see is a commemoration and a spirit that says that the Nakba is not a memory that has been abandoned. Nor is it something that will be forgotten.