What I am doing now:
For the past few days, I have begun my work here volunteering with an organization in the West Bank (Palestine) called the International Women’s Peace Service (www.iwps.info). We (there are 6 women now, from the US, Switzerland, South Africa, and Australia) live here in a house in a small village and basically, support Palestinian-led non-violent resistance against military occupation by Israel.
I am learning a lot from the other international and Israeli (they do exist!) activists and all the extremely friendly Palestinians that have talked with me and invited me to their homes for tea. I am trying to understand the reality of life in an occupied country – having to have your i.d. checked by an 18-year-old in an army uniform every time you want to travel somewhere, watching your 200-year-old olive trees be torn out of the soil to make space for a wall separating your country from theirs, or gazing out your front door into a giant cement wall built around your home. It is all so ridiculously illogical to me, but hopefully I can convey this ridiculousness to others so it can change.
I definitely can’t say for all of Israel, but it seems like many Israelis have a deep fear instilled into them – that they or their families will be the next victims of a suicide bomb, that “Arabs” hate them, that “Arabs” want Israel to be destroyed, that “Arabs” are the enemy. This sort of fear can only lead to an “us against them” feeling and a society that permits oppression and violence all in the name of “security.” Sorry for the excessive quotes but this requires such exaggeration.
