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.