Taking History to the Street

I am walking. 24 of us.100. A thousand. Six million.  We are silent. We are lined up like cattle.  We are walking to where they will strip us of who we are.  We are loaded into cars.  We are marched through the city at gunpoint. We are standing against the wall. Our naked bodies are thrown into the ditch.  We are carrying the dead on our backs.  We are waving flags.  We are chanting.  We are drumming. We are Jews, Christians, Muslims.  We are Palestinians, Israelis.  We are walking through history.

The sky is dark.  I cannot tell where one history ends and the other begins. 

She followed the road leading to Givat Shaul until the memories began flooding back. Standing on the ledge overlooking the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in view of the Jewish Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, the tales of her grandmother came to her. "See right there," she pointed.  "That was my father's stone quarry, and there's the grain mill, the apple trees….."    

In 1949, the Jerusalem neighborhood Givat Shaul Bet was built on Deir Yassin's land, now Har Nof, an Orthodox area. Construction of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center began in 1951 using village houses. A Jewish cemetery lies to the north. To the south, a valley and on the other side of the valley, Yad Vashem."

I am walking in a memorial for Deir Yassin.  Young boys are following our steps. They are laying stones on our path, blocking our return.

It is the day before Holocaust Memorial Day.  I visit Yad Vashem.  I copy down the words.  I write them in bold so I will never forget.

As I emerge, the land spreads out before me. 

A country is not just what it does – it is also what it tolerates.

"They beat on the door.  They entered the house.  They asked me about my husband.  I told them my husband is working.  They entered the room and asked 'Who's sleeping here?'  I told them "This is my son" and they pushed the covers away and held the gun to his head. He was one year and a half years old." 

The higher national committee in support of prisoners said that the occupation forces had detained more than 1400..… 225 of the detainees were children less than 18 years old…the soldiers were increasingly detaining children less than 12 years old……

"They are our misfortune."   "The poisoning of the people will not end, as long as they are not removed from our midst."

'Between ourselves, it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal of being an independent people with them in this country.'

April 4, 2010.  Plans to evict residents and build a settlement in Sheikh Jarrah advance. Tuesday,  Simon the Righteous Estate Company inc. submitted a request to evict two more families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.  The settlers are demanding in the statement of claim that the Palestinians be removed from the neighborhood because they "bother their Jewish neighbors."

They're assigned segregated living areas.

"Little bit at first, it was hard, a big change.  People used to come and go.  They could move easily.  But now, they don't.  Now, it is like a big prison. You walk – the same circle, the same circle, always.  Always you feel it.  And we are human beings.  We are not like a zoo where you put the animals inside."

'The Wall is a symbol of a philosophy that seeks a state as ethnically pure as possible.'

They're treacherous. They are labeled as foreigners and traitors to the nation.  They conspire to destroy all of western culture. . 

'Racist rhetoric and measures are now part of the mainstream…..'

Everyone here is not allowed to interact with them.  They must carry Identity Cards.

"Most of my relatives live outside in other countries.  They do not have the document to come back here. If they were not here at the time of the census in 1967, they are not allowed to return."

They are humiliated.

"At the checkpoint, they treat us in a bad way.  They look at us. Who are you?  As if you're nothing.  They don't even think of what you are: a human being."

They were turned overnight into refugees.  They left as refugees in terrible distress, trying to reach any possible destination.

"I witnessed the shocking sight of masses of people feeling, a disastrous traffic, walking, fleeing, on foot, with wheelbarrows, fully packed cars."

He could not help but see how the throng of people thickened with every step.  People were pouring from the side streets into the main street….. men, women and children, empty-handed or carrying a few small possessions, crying or being floated along in a paralyzed silence in the midst of the clamor and confusion.

"God, what's going on here!  Panic.  Mass exodus.  The city waits fearfully for the anticipated arrival of the troops… A neighbour is telling us that we have to leave.  To go where?  … To flee… as far as possible from the danger."

History is lost in the shuffle.  I am trying to unknot the thread.

Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned.

Israeli Textbooks to Drop 'Nakba':  The Israeli education ministry is to drop from Arabic language textbooks a term describing the creation of the state as "the catastrophe." "Nakba" has been used with Israeli-Arab pupils since 2007. "Including the term in the official curriculum of the Arab sector was a mistake that will not repeat itself in the new curriculum currently being revised."

March 17, 2010:  The Knesset voted yesterday in favor of Israel Beitenu's "Nakba Bill", which authorizes the finance minister to hold funds from institutions or groups who question the nature of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, or who mark the Palestinian Nakba on Israel's Independence Day.  The bill still needs to pass 2 votes in the parliament for it to become a state law.

"Whoever flees from history, history will catch up with him."

History is overtaking me.

Upon their conquest, they terrorized and repressed them.

I watched the soldiers look over the jewelry of the old women and young girls and brutally snatch it from them. I saw the soldier kick an old woman with his foot and how the old woman, her face bleeding, fell on her back.  I saw him thrust the barrel of his rifle at her chest.  One shot rang out…

They fell into the ditch, their hands and faces sunk in the mud, collapsed in a dense, confused and bloody heap.  Blood ran underneath their bodies, combining with the water from the stream flowing towards the south.

They took special measures against them, they intended to isolate them from their surroundings, steal their property…

Mas'ha, the village, was a quiet farming community.  But the fence cut the village from its lands. The farmers were promised the gates would open.  But this promise was abandoned, and the farmers could not get to their lands, nor the shepherds to their sheep.

. 

They ordered them … They imposed terror, humiliation and abuse

They ordered us to raise our hands in the air and cross them. When one of the soldiers saw that my mother wanted to put me in front of her so her shadow would protect me from the sun, he dragged me from her hands and ordered me to stand on one leg with my arms crossed above my head in the middle of the dusty street.

I have never been so humiliated in my life as when I looked through the gate and saw the happy, smiling faces of passersby laughing at our misfortune.

Through it all the sound of their loud laughter reached my ears….

Despoiling them was an integral part of the policy.  Property and possessions of people who had been part of this country's economic and cultural life for 100s of years were plundered.

"What are they going to do now?"

"They're going to blow up the houses."

"Our houses?"  "Our houses."  "Why?"  "Because I…"

"Because of you?"  "Because I'm innocent."

He, at one time, had a restaurant.  The military demolished it.  Then he had chicken coops for several thousand chickens.  The army demolished them. .So he started a flower nursery in his garden. The army demolished it while building the fence and wall on his property.  Now his family stand to lose all their lands.

With their rise to power, they progressively began banishing them from economic life and established confiscation of their property into law.

Butchers raided by police in Jerusalem.  Five Palestinians sustained bruising Sunday morning after Israeli special forces allegedly stormed a butcher shop in the Old City, detaining five employees. A large Israeli police force was reported to have stormed the shop, firing pepper spray, assaulting customers and owners.

They applied these policies of dispossession and theft to the occupied territories.

Israel seizes 16 dunums in Jenin: Israeli occupation authorities issued a decision Saturday to confiscate 16 dunums from Jalma village, north of Jenin, to expand the military checkpoint…

They confiscated all types of property – homes, real estate, factories, businesses, and artistic and cultural treasures …  The local population took control of their homes and property.

"You can choose a blue house, a green house, whichever house you want.  The people have fled.  Which house would you like to live in?" (Asked of a Russian immigrant to Haifa, 1949) 

They incarcerated them in severely overcrowded ghettos, behind fences and walls.  They cut them off from their surroundings.

"After the Intifada, everything was closed.  There is no connection or communication with Israel and we can't go around the West bank either.  The Wall is all around our house.  Only in the front of the house, we can enter.  We are closed from all directions.  It's closed economically, the society, everything is closed."

Mass Expulsions. 

IDF order will enable mass deportation from the West Bank : A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.  When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.
.

…cut them off from their sources of livelihood, and condemned them to a life of humiliation.  It became forbidden to enter… forbidden, forbidden, forbidden.  You had to report where you are going…

They stripped them of their civil rights.

The Israeli army attacked a sit-in at the entrance to Beit Ummar Saturday, with organizers saying protesters were beat…..Palestine Solidarity Project spokesman said the "sit-in was organized because of Israel's continued imposing of oppressive procedures on the town, including blocking the entrance and preventing farmers from reaching their lands." 

JERUSALEM. Apr. 5 2010. ­ Leaders of some of Israel's most prominent human rights groups say they are working in an increasingly hostile environment and coming under attack for actions their critics say endanger the country. The pressure on these groups has tightened as the country's leaders have battled to defend Israel against accusations of war crimes…...

They were prohibited from entering restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, music halls, swimming pools, bathing beaches, museums, libraries, exhibitions, palaces, historical sites, sports events, races, parks, nature recreation camps

 "My dream is: I hope my children may see the sea one day."

"I have such shame for my country."

All of us, dying here amidst the icy arctic indifference of the nations, are forgotten by the world and by life.

The committee appealed to international organizations to pressure Israel and to apply the fourth Geneva Convention.

I am walking through history, cutting the wire fence that keeps us apart. 

'After the battle, they took elderly men and women and youths, including 4 of my cousins and a nephew. They took them all. Women who had on them gold and money were stripped of their gold. After the men removed their dead and wounded, they took them to the quarry and sprayed them all with bullets. …'

 Where were you when your brother's blood cried out to God?

"The law (under which they are being imprisoned) is immoral… And we are obligated to actively resist it."

'They ordered all our family to line up against the wall….'

At the end of the street

"My mother always taught me that God created all of us in the same image…"

at the beginning of silence.

*

Passages from: Israel Occupation Archive, Dina Elmuti, Deir Yassin's inextinguishable fire; Zochrot, Deir Yassin Remembered; www.maannews.net;  Neta Golan againstwall@lists.riseup.net;  Haaretz, justjerusalem@gmail;  M. Warschawski, Alternative Information Center;  Reham Alhelsi, A Voice from Palestine, BBC News;  Amira Hass-West Bank, IDF, Israel News; Paltelegraph.com; Isabel Kershner,  New York Times.

Italicized passages from Ghassan Kanafani, Returning to Haifa, Paper from Ramleh,

He Was a Child that Day, Sulliman's Friend Learns Many Things.

Passages in quotes from interviews with Bethlehem women, April 2010

In bold: words from Yad Vashem.

.

Permits, Passes, Passover

Permits, Passes, Passover

"They kept us locked up for 2 days.  It was like a prison cell. It was closed, with metal windows, bunk beds with just a mattress. No cover. I put my sweater over my son to keep him warm.  He was 8 years old at the time. My son was born in Germany.  My husband and I went to university in Germany and we stayed because in Palestine we couldn't find work. I was carrying our German passports when my son and I were locked up.  They said we couldn't pass because I was Palestinian.  After 2 days, they sent us back to Germany."  (Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv)

"I used to go every Friday with my husband and my son.  Every Friday we went and prayed there at noon.  Now we can't pray there anymore."  (Al Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem)

"After the construction, we couldn't build, expand or add anything to our home. For anything we wanted to build, we needed a permit and Israel won't grant you a permit as everything you do is a threat to their security."  (Route 60 at "Area C")

"I was granted a permit to enter Jerusalem for the Easter holidays.  So were my children.  But my husband was not. In the morning, my family and I

attended the Greek Orthodox service at the Nativity Church in Bethlehem.

In the afternoon, my children and I stood in line at the Checkpoint to enter Jerusalem so we could join the procession from Mt.Olive.  It is very beautiful. But they closed the checkpoint and we were not able to pass." (Palm Sunday, Bethlehem, Checkpoint 300)

"Israel will close off the West Bank from Midnight Sunday until midnight April 6 for the duration of Passover holiday, the Israeli military spokesman announced Sunday morning…..

The closure is in keeping with the Israeli practice of sealing off the West Bank ahead of Jewish festivals, fearing militants might try to launch attacks to disrupt the festivities."        Haaretz

We see them:

Palestinians, Israelis and internationals are making their way through an opening in the car gate.  They're carrying white flags and Palestinian flags and chanting. 

I am standing in line with hundreds of Palestinians waiting to pass through the checkpoint -- people who are granted a permit only once a year, if that.  Suddenly, these people are prohibited from passing through the checkpoint. (Palm Sunday, Bethlehem, Checkpoint 300)

We hear that the protestors are met with the military on the Jerusalem side.  Palestinians are beaten and many people are hauled off to jail…

I receive an e-m invitation sent out to Activists Against the Wall:

"Are there folks on this list (locals or internationals, Jews or from other religious traditions) who would like to be at a Seder this year but don't have a Seder to go to where they'd feel comfortable?
 
 I'm doing a semi-traditional Seder with my friends focusing on the values of social justice, diversity & inclusion, gender equality, animal rights etc..
 
Will be happy to have people join. The Seder will take place in North Tel Aviv.  Pick-ups can be arranged. Will make an effort to accommodate special needs (dietary, etc.)   Esther

Dear Esther,  I so much appreciate your invitation to a  semi-traditional Passover Seder.  I'm a Jewish American and am working in Bethlehem.. Knowing the reality here in the West  Bank, it is very difficult for me to allow myself to attend a Passover  Seder in Israel - I am more than reluctant to phone relatives  I have in Israel-- as I am not supposed to say anything about "Palestinians"  to them. However,  I also miss being with family back home  and the family Seders I've been part of since childhood.   I would need to work out details about coming to you from here.....

The next day, we get to Jerusalem by taking Bus 21 from Beit Jala.

That bus has been forbidden for use by internationals; but today, they let us on, probably because Checkpoint 300 is closed. 

There are 5 of us in Esther's small apartment: 2 young German guys with whom I work, a Russian couple, myself and Esther. 

There is an orange and an olive on the Seder plate..... 

The second day of Passover, we walk on the boardwalk by the sea.  Performers, balloons, kids on roller blades, bikes, kites flying, families strolling, so many strollers, many pregnant women, the fresh sea air, people at boardwalk cafes, sipping, licking, tasting, laughing... -- all that freedom.  (Boardwalk, Tel Aviv, March, 2010)

It washes over me -- like a tidal wave... 

"Love and Justice in Times of War Haggadah." 

Thank you, Esther, for this bridge allowing passage between two worlds.

Jane

You begin to take it for granted.....

You begin to take it for granted... that there is an 8-meter high wall next to you, surrounding you. "This is a confined land that we inhabit and that inhabits us.  A confined land, not big enough for a short meeting between a prophet and a general…" (Mahmoud Darwish, "A Shameful Land")  You begin to take it for granted… that there is an Apartheid Wall snaking through the countryside, carving out destinies. ("A huge metal snake coils around us, swallowing up the little walls that separate our bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room.  A snake that does not move in a straight line, to avoid resembling us as we look straight on."  Mahmoud Darwish, "The wall").  You begin to take it for granted… that your brother is in jail. "He's in prison because he was working illegally in Jerusalem and got caught.  But his family speaks to him every day on the phone.  It's normal.  He'll be out in 7 months."  You begin to take it for granted… the head-aches, the anxiety, the depression; you are relieved to talk about your feelings at your lifelong learning class for women in Ethics and Psychology. You begin to take it for granted that you dress up and smile and wear makeup and heels and make light of things that are heavy, that you don't want to hear about heavy things anymore. You begin to take it for granted that people leave … ("My uncle and his family moved to Canada and now they are in the Emirates of Dubai."  "I have a sister in Pennsylvania."  "My daughter lives with her husband in Germany." "My brother ran away to Greece.") You begin to take it for granted that they can never return.  ("My husband's brother and his family live next to us but it is on the other side of the Wall and we need a permit to see them so we never see them.") You begin to take it for granted that no one comes to help you defend your land anymore—because there have been too many "after's,"  there is always an "after." ("After the Oslo agreement, they began constructing Route 60 from Jerusalem…After, they dynamited… After, you weren't compensated for your land and the damages to your house.  After, they put you in Area C where you can't build anything or change anything because you're a threat to their security. After, they won't grant you a permit.  After, this road is used by Israeli settlers.  After, you are a threat to the soldiers at the checkpoints, to the settlements. "Because we live in a very critical road. This road is used by Israeli settlers–who go to Hebron, Har Gilo… and by the Israeli army who are stationed at the checkpoints..." After, "they closed all the roads to downtown Beit Jala, isolating us completely from our friends and these checkpoints covered all the roads and you could not enter your home for 4 yrs." After, people died in their homes who tried to run away from the shelling. After, the plan for the Wall was to go from Route 60 to reach the border of the houses and confiscate the surrounding land.  After, "the Wall would be 5 meters from our home and would confiscate from all 3 sides – so we would be trapped in a box."  After, "we weren't notified by the Israeli government or any soldier.  If you're lucky you're find this paper telling you that they will be taking the land and you have 2 weeks to file for an appeal…"  After, you hear gossip that they will be building a new settlement behind you…..) You begin to take it for granted that it will always be like this.  That there are no jobs as there used to be and that you are at your wits end to figure out how to support your family.  You begin to take it for granted that you must pass through turnstiles and checkpoints, that you must leave at 6 in the morning to get to Birzeit University or line up at 5 at Checkpoint 300 because you are one of the fortunate ones to get legal work in Jerusalem.  You begin to take it for granted that everything that seems normal is not normal.  You begin to take it for granted that…  "They have special schools for special needs because the children cannot function as they used to – special needs for slow learners and hyperactivity  -- They couldn't control their urination –they would become aggressive to other kids." You begin to take it for granted that the land that was once yours has eroded, that it is sealed in concrete, that the life that was once yours has been taken away from you.  You begin to take it for granted that to resist seems hopeless.  You begin to hope and you try not to take "hope" for granted.

 

"What will they take next?"  Yes, that's the general understanding... "What will they take next?"  Yet underneath lies the fear "And how?"  "And when?" 

    So.... they live with it.  You live with it. 

 

You begin to take it for granted.

 

"And he said: 'But indifference is a philosophy

It's one aspect of hope.'"  (Mahmoud Dharwish, "The indifferent one")

 

(from talks with Raneen, Nora, Taha, Christie, Jala, Claire, Rania, Johnny amidst

 countless other voices)

 

                                                                                                             Jane

A Play, A Verse, A Stone

I am watching a play…

First row, theatre in the round: "Confinement" – It is so well choreographed, I hardly need to understand the Arabic. People are closed up in a glass bottle…It becomes harder and harder to breathe… They go through a series of contortions trying desperately to solve their problem. 1

Front Row, Center. We listen to the Beethoven concerto with cello, viola, violin and piano. The pianist swoons over the music. The audience is gallantly dressed. I watch the fingers of the string players deftly touching the strings and bowing their instruments. 2

Hundreds of Palestinian men and boys are bowing to Mecca. How quietly they bow and kneel together on the hard stone pavement. Forbidden to enter, they are praying on the ground. 3

Kids are throwing stones, setting tires on fire under showers of rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. "It is like a war."

The women carry a stone, think about the stone, write about the stone:

'Fawda. "When I see my stone, it brings my memories back to my childhood and to the high hill in Beit Jala where I used to live. On that mountain there were many beautiful stones which my friends and I used to play some games such as hajalae and seven stones:

Nowadays my children's life is not the same….."

Sarah: "I hold my stone and remember that I have to stay in this land with Sumud like the stone despite all the difficulties."

Elaine: "During the first Intifada, children resisted occupation by throwing stones at the military tanks, and they were called children of the stones." 5

Israeli News reports: Some 50 Palestinians throw stones at security forces stationed there. The soldiers returned fire with tear gas. Rabbis for Human Rights claimed that the Palestinians arrived on the spot in order to conduct a quiet protest against the separation fence in the area and sought to plant trees. 6

"March 21

Kol Sana Wa Inti Salmeh. My husband is on the way home from Amman, he & our daughter had to cross the Jordanian & the Israeli boarders by noon. I haven't heard from them yet. I hope they will be here at 4 in the evening.

I think you can come to visit me at 11 am Friday. Then we'll have lunch with my family at 2 pm . I'll be cooking Maklobeh, Up side down dish which is a Palestinian food. We like to have you with us as we prefer to serve the main meal at this time

Looking forward to our getting together,

Love, Jala" 7


"Separation wall to isolate Bethlehem village from Beit Jala"


1 The International Center of Bethlehem, presented by Al-Harah Theater, Beit Jala

2 Concert Hall, Tel Aviv.

3 Outside the Damascus Gate, Jerusalem. Inside stands the Al Aqsa Mosque.

4  Shu'fat Refugee Camp, East Jerusalem

5  Sumud Story House, Rachel’s Tomb Area, Bethlehem

6 Beit Jala, two kilometres from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

7 E-mail from Jala in Beit Jala to myself in Bethlehem on the occasion of Mother's Day, March 21

Walking

Inside the walled city of Bethlehem: Walking. In the Rachel's Tomb area where the Wall looms high ("Rachel is my neighbor but I can't visit her anymore." Antoinette has told me. Rachel's Tomb is walled off to the Palestinians and Netanyahu recently announced that it would be added to the list of Israel's "Heritage sites.") Walking…The Arab Educational Institute Sumud Story House. (A.E.I.'s Sumud Story house works with women and families surrounded by the Wall to foster creative non-violence and "sumud"-- steadfastness.) Walking…. The Paradise Hotel (A cordon of Palestinian Authority soldiers and police abut the sidewalks, guard the streets, leery of a third "intifada"—uprising-- alerted to stop protestors.

The recent closure of the Al Aqsa Mosque to men under 50 and Netanyanhu's announcement to build 1600 new homes in Occupied East Jerusalem have brought thousands of Palestinians to the streets of Jerusalem, crying out; some stone-throwing, burning of tires, and in response, pummeted with tear-gas, stun-grenades and rubber-coated-steel bullets.. Mustafa Barghouti confirms on Al Jazeera that it doesn't matter if the Palestinians protest peacefully or violently—they are treated by the Israeli authorities with violence.) Walking… Bethlehem Bible College. (The recent international conference "Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Peace and Justice" is just letting out.) Al--Azza Refugee Camp (Kids have thrown an old couch into the middle of the Camp's one street and are using it to block the way, playing at "Checkpoint;" waving a stick in the air.) Walking… The Mosque of Salah Al-din. Walking…

Bethlehem University (the highest point of the city. Toine tells me the library holds an excellent collection of Palestinian women's history… Wild lilies are blooming.) Walking… Children Street (Epheta Institute for Audiophonic Rehabilitaton; Hospital of the Holy Family; Church of the Holy Family; Women's Union Club)…Harat Al-Batin (Neighborhood), St. Joseph's Sister's Convent, Madbasfa Street, Salesian Convent and Church. Walking… Terra Sancta Girls' School… Walking… Climbing. The Mosque of Omar, Manger Square, Basilica of the Nativity, Milk Grotto Street. (A group of Italian tourists are visiting the Milk Grotto Chapel and the guide is speaking to them: "La Madonna vi si sarebbe rifugiata durante la fuga in Egitto…..") Further up the street, A.E.I. Youth Center. Walking...

Look over what was once a peaceful terraced countryside. Confront the white skeletal settlement of Har Homa–hovering closer and closer like a death cloud --built where the most beautiful forest used to stand. Two years ago, in Bethlehem, Uri Avnery spoke at a conference against the Apartheid Wall: "I want to apologize to all of you here for the terrible things done to the Palestinian people in the name of our government – even as I speak. I weep when I see Har Homa… I weep for the blockade and the siege of Gaza. This Wall will fall… (Applause) The Occupation will Fall… (Applause) And when I'm in Bethlehem--especially in Bethlehem--I think how beautiful this country could be if we had peace…"

Back to earth: On the Wall across the street from the "Bahamas Fish Restaurant" someone has written the menu: Bahamas Seafood Fish Shrimps Calamari Millet Mussels Beef Filet Scallops Garden Lobster Blue Crabs Desert. And at the edge of the Wall, someone else has scrawled another menu: Freedom Menu: Starters: Hope Faith Joy Knowing God Loving people Willing Hearts. Jesus He Paid for U.

Rest from walking. Hear the Islamic Call to Prayer rising over the city of Bethlehem.

Jane

"Colors for Free!"

Sunday, March 14.  This last evening in Tel Aviv, Marcey and I walk over to the beach.  Kick off our sandals. Walk barefoot in the sand.  Wade in the water.  Rest by the seaside.  Watch the tide rolling in.

Monday Morning, March 15.  I take a taxi from Ezra ha Sofer to the Jerusalem sherut; get off at the  last stop in Jerusalem; taxi to the bus station by the Damascus Gate; board bus number 124 to Bethlehem.

Arrive at Bethlehem Checkpoint 300.

The Wall.  Metal turnstile. Walk to paroled Checkpoint.  Another metal turnstile. Walk through long steel mesh corridor. Arrive on other side of Wall.  See Wall snaking through countryside.  Walk down road next to Wall. Walk through alley. Walk by closed shops. Walk by emptied houses in shadow by the Wall.  Walk to end.  Here's where I am.

 .

"Diamonds, Jewelry, Olive Wood and Mother of Pearl"

"Go to Hell Hearts.  I want you my best Love.  Carol M. will bring this Wall Down.  I don't ask to be Palestinian -- I just got lucky.  With Love and Kisses; Nothing Lasts Forever.  Democracy Now?  Jesus Wept.  Where's the USA?  Love Conquers All.  Love to All; Not Just to Jesus.  Atheism: A Brilliant Alternative.  Israel: Kiss my Ass.  Where There's a Will, There's a Way.  I Want my Ball Back!  Thanks!  Only God Can!  Nobody Else Can!

Colors for Free!  Colors for Free!

Here is the sea of Bethlehem:  a 25 foot high concrete wall stretching as far as the eye can see, snaking through city and valley, blocking the sunlight (See the lemons, how small they are); blocking the houses ( See the houses, how the wall towers over the roofs); blocking sight (Say cheese to the cameras on top of the Wall.)

But, I find it again--in front of  Claire's home:  Blue sky.  Fluffy white cumulous clouds.  Calm waters.  A yellow sandy shore.   Here it is, the sea, the beach, the seashore – graffitied in bright colors on the Wall.  So children can see where they can't go anymore.. So everyone who journeys here can see.  But few make that pilgrimage anymore.

Saturday, in Jaffa, as a finale to a meeting of Israel's Women in Black, the "Raging Grannies" donned silly aprons and straw hats with huge fake flowers and sang  in their uproarious sardonic way (to the tune of "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho"):

"Is there a Wall in Jericho, Jericho, Jericho?  Is there a Wall in Jericho? Jericho?  No!  There isn't.  But, there's a Wall in Mos'ha, in Bi'na, in Bil'in.  There's a Wall in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Tulkarem.  There's a Wall in Abu Dis, Jayous, Qalqilya… When will that Wall come tumbling down?  So… there's no Wall in Jericho, Jericho, Jericho.  There's no Wall in Jericho.  --   Not yet!"

Jane 

Friday, March 12, Tel Aviv

Friday evening, March 12

Sunset: I walk south along the beach front and hear the drumming. Ta ta-ta-ta-ta ta ta ta ta. A mass of people—old, young – children bouncing on their father's knees, four hands beating out the rhythm together, young women in the center of the circle flanked by the crowd on one side and drummers on the other, women waving scarves, beads of light, fire, dancing to the beat. Everyone claps, moves to the rhythm. This is Woodstock Green Sunday afternoon to the power of 10, but it is Tel Aviv at the beach Friday night at sunset.

Earlier Friday afternoon on a hill behind the houses at Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, crowds of people –young and old – gather and begin their drumming – Ta ta-ta-ta-ta ta ta ta. A mass of blue-clad police surround them, ready to encroach, send them away, take the protestors to jail. Israelis and internationals gather here weekly to protest the illegal settler confiscation of homes. Rabbi Arik Ascherman is among them.

Friday afternoon, in Tel Aviv, I follow the map Marcey has drawn for me so I can find my way from Ezra Ha Soffer to Hakovshim up through the Shuk, left to Allenby, cross to Shenken, then over Rothschild Boulevard to Carlebach and the Cinematheque. She says to leave an hour for the walk. I understand why as I thread my way through the packs of people who flock from stall to stall in the marketplace alive with the pungency of fish, herbs, falafel, ripe melons, strawberries, radishes the size of your hand, dark long eggplant, giant bulbs of fennel; and garments, shoes, toys, necklaces —stall after stall, one on top of the other; vendors calling out their wares, one voice louder than the other. A far cry from Price Chopper in the states. Here in the shuk, I am part of the gesticulation of hands, the concaphony of voices, the throng of people with their hand-carts, the rawness of fresh fruits and vegetables -- breathing, container-less. A caloused hand -- not a hand in plastic, not a sterile swipe across a computerized counter nor a polite voice in monotone repeating "Have a nice day."

I feel heady and get lost making my way to the Cinematique. This afternoon at 1, there will be a screening of Simon Bitton's film "Rachel." The film-maker will be present, as will Cindy and Craig Corrie who will speak with the audience after the film.

Standing in front of the Cinemateque, I see a vigil of Women in Black and recognize Israeli women I met at the international gathering of WIB in 2005 in Jerusalem. Now, 5 years afterwards, we remember each other. We've got more wrinkles and grey hair, but we're the same. These Israeli women are strong—they haven't given up standing against the Occupation. They've been standing in vigils throughout Israel since 1988.

The theatre is filled with people I recognize from Israeli's peace movement – among them, Uri Avnery (founder of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc and frequent commentator to the newspaper, Haaretz), Adam Keller (a founder of Gush Shalom, supporter of Yesh Gval, refuser of reserve military duty in the Occupied Territories, author of "The Other Israel" a bi-monthly newsletter of the struggle for Israeli-Palestinian peace) and Rami Elhanan (co-founder of Parents Circle-Family Forum) who tells me-- with a note of disparagement-- that here in the theatre, I'll see all of Tel Aviv's progressives.

The lights dim, the theatre darkens, the film lights up the darkness. It is an explosive film, an intimate recounting in Hebrew and English of Rachel's story, Marcey sits by my side and translates from the Hebrew for me. Here, five years afterwards, are the young internationals who stood with Rachel in 2003 in Gaza, telling her story, reading her diary; here is an interview with a religious Israeli who served in the military; here, an interview with a soldier who drove a caterpillar to demolish homes; here, the professors at Evergreen State College in Olympia Oregon where Rachel was studying; here, a video-clip of Rachel dancing with kids in Rafah, waving a scarf in the air to their music, their rhythms; here is the doctor whose home Rachel was defending…..

There is silence after the film before the audience breaks into applause. As Cindy and Craig Corrie come to the podium, there is a standing ovation for them. Rachel's parents are here in the country at a court proceedings in Haifa against the Israeli government. They have brought their civil action to challenge the military's account of their daughter's death. "We are here to speak for the lives of all young people—all of them—not matter who they are."

Jane