i'll be there when it all gets weird...
I am not sure where to start.
I guess on a lighter note.
Yesterday I went with a small group from my school to the HeartQuake exhibit at the Museum on the Seam, named because it is on the road that served as the border between East and West Jerusalem from 48-67. It was all about anxiety and trauma and was the third part of a larger series on conflict. It was excellent. There was a video project where an Israeli guy used stills of his own family on a beach in Tel Aviv and juxtaposed it with the film of the family on the beach at Gaza that got shelled by an Israeli ship in... 2006? It was intense. There was a lot there, and very very little of it was related specifically to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Which I think is good. There's not much to say about an art museum... in text... It was... uh... enjoyable, though.
Last night I went on a night hike-- 1030pm-730am-- in the Negev desert, which, unsurprisingly, is GORGEOUS. For the roughly two hour bus ride down, we all sat in the back of the bus with an Israeli band/friend of one of our madrichs, four guitars, and some bongos. It was a lot of fun and everyone did some manner of playing and/or singing along to everything from od yavo shalom aleinu/shir l'ahava to Simon and Garfunkel/The Beatles to Breakfast at Tiffany's to whatever. Then we got to the desert. I have never, ever seen that many stars in my life. It was more than a little moving. I also saw more shooting stars-- of various sizes as well!-- than I have cumulatively to date. Hands down. We hiked about two hours, naturally punctuated by people (myself included) tripping and falling into holes and off the sides of things. No serious injuries, though I bruised my knee. :( ahhaha Oh, grace. We stopped a few times and sat and played with some of the smaller instruments for about twenty minutes. We ended in an ancient Nabatean cistern, roofed in and populated by a large number of bats until we started jamming! About 45 minutes, some snacks, coffee, and tea, and a whole lot of singing and whatnot later, we headed home. The en route session did not last as long this time and many of us passed out on and off.
So I hadn't slept more than an hour, and decided not to sleep, either. Regrettably neglecting to grab breakfast first, I set out at about 11 with Melly to Bethlehem to document us some graffiti. On the way down through the Old City to the Arab bus station, we encountered police/military blockades in , the road leading directly to Damascus Gate, the primary entrance to the Old City used by Muslims. We saw a group of soldiers arguing with a man to the side, and an elderly woman in front of us was not allowed to pass-- contrary to articles I would read, but more on that later. We passed through without even a second glance. Blockades surrounded the actual Damascus Gate as well, but we weren't headed that way. We veered on left and found the bus situation to be business as usual. Driving out of Jerusalem, we could see the absurd number of soldiers and police swarming the Arab areas. (Our thoughts prior to knowing why this is happening: "This is obviously a terrible, terrible idea. Escalation station. What is wrong with these people?")
The rest of the trip to Bethlehem is uneventful. The only possible perceptible difference in experience is the soldier at the checkpoint mayyyybe looking a bit more closely than usual at my passport. Maybe.
We walked along "the wall"-- be it of apartheid or separation or not even something you'd like to call a wall... which... is blatantly... I mean, it's a 40 ft high concrete wall... I digress-- to the South for about an hour. Lots of excellent graffiti all over it. Expect pictures soon. Expect one of them to be a snapshot of the roughly 5 minutes I spent getting every part of me caught in razor wire (note: NOT barbed wire) right in front of an Israeli outpost filled with raucous soldiers. It was hysterical: "Ah! My pants! -leans forward- Crap! My keffiyeh! -frees left leg, goes to free keffiyeh- EFFFF! -gets purse caught, resnares left leg- EHNNNN." It is a wonder I managed to get out with any pants left. I wish I had been wearing jeans. That crap is sharp. I barely touched it with my finger and it drew blood. Just a tiny cut, but it was like butter! Crazy. Anyway, the place where we reached this dead end and needed to hop over a little wall and razor wire was blocked by parts of a Muslim cemetery in various stages of disrepair and a mysterious building right up next to the wall with an Israeli flag and a big ol' tacky aluminum menorah. Some questions I can not answer.
Early on in our escapade we came to a house with a man with excellent English sitting in front of it. He was in pretty much the epitome of crap situations created by the wall. His property was surrounded on three sides by a wall that ensured that sunlight did not so much as touch his roof save at noon. He talked to us for awhile about how it was destroying his life and his business (he's a mechanic). He pointed out the security cameras/microphones mounted on the wall glaring at the front of his house, and told us these were recent additions. They're all over the wall, every ten, fifteen, twenty feet. Some are more recent additions than others.
It's crazy how quickly all of this became the norm. I am embarrassed to not have known this, but there were no roadblocks until the policy of closure came into effect in the mid-nineties. It's truly unfathomable to imagine the conflict without the persistent, often arbitrary, restrictions on movement. I can't imagine Israel not having the power to lock all the kids in the basement whenever it got irked. I genuinely can not comprehend the degree to which labor was integrated-- all while maintaining a strict policy deterring the development of economic infrastructure and industrialization of the territories, including strict laws to prevent them from becoming a competing entity. It is so difficult to fathom how quickly and to what degree it can become so much worse.
--
So that brings us about up to date. But there's something far more important. I feel like I am watching a lit fuse, each crackling spark a building block for the seemingly inevitable conflict looming on the horizon. I'm not sure if the international community sees the degree to which the past few weeks, particularly just events in the past few days, are indicators of a very rapidly approaching full out... Problem. Seriously, it is a little too reminiscent of the ascent to the Second Intifada. Allowing 70 "ultranationalist Jews" to visit the Temple Mount Thursday, then closing the Old City/Temple Mount/etc to all men under 45 regardless of permit status? Yeah, the best way to pacify people is to keep them from getting to their holy sites. That always breeds peace. I'm just not sure if we'll get an Intifada or a civil war with the settlers first. The crap they have done in Hebron the past two days is unbelievable. International journalists had to rescue a Palestinian family after settlers set bushes and clothes and stuff around it on fire and all the police/soldiers were busy with other things. Such as, y'know, settlers shooting three Palestinians at point blank range. And Palestinians rioting against the soldiers. Which, darling Palestinians, is really... not helpful. I understand that they don't do the best job of protection sometimes-- ie yesterday at Huarah checkpoint, which settlers managed to completely block off and threw stones at the Palestinians... while soldiers just hung out. Nonetheless. Sigh.
It will be interesting to see where this all goes.
I guess on a lighter note.
Yesterday I went with a small group from my school to the HeartQuake exhibit at the Museum on the Seam, named because it is on the road that served as the border between East and West Jerusalem from 48-67. It was all about anxiety and trauma and was the third part of a larger series on conflict. It was excellent. There was a video project where an Israeli guy used stills of his own family on a beach in Tel Aviv and juxtaposed it with the film of the family on the beach at Gaza that got shelled by an Israeli ship in... 2006? It was intense. There was a lot there, and very very little of it was related specifically to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Which I think is good. There's not much to say about an art museum... in text... It was... uh... enjoyable, though.
Last night I went on a night hike-- 1030pm-730am-- in the Negev desert, which, unsurprisingly, is GORGEOUS. For the roughly two hour bus ride down, we all sat in the back of the bus with an Israeli band/friend of one of our madrichs, four guitars, and some bongos. It was a lot of fun and everyone did some manner of playing and/or singing along to everything from od yavo shalom aleinu/shir l'ahava to Simon and Garfunkel/The Beatles to Breakfast at Tiffany's to whatever. Then we got to the desert. I have never, ever seen that many stars in my life. It was more than a little moving. I also saw more shooting stars-- of various sizes as well!-- than I have cumulatively to date. Hands down. We hiked about two hours, naturally punctuated by people (myself included) tripping and falling into holes and off the sides of things. No serious injuries, though I bruised my knee. :( ahhaha Oh, grace. We stopped a few times and sat and played with some of the smaller instruments for about twenty minutes. We ended in an ancient Nabatean cistern, roofed in and populated by a large number of bats until we started jamming! About 45 minutes, some snacks, coffee, and tea, and a whole lot of singing and whatnot later, we headed home. The en route session did not last as long this time and many of us passed out on and off.
So I hadn't slept more than an hour, and decided not to sleep, either. Regrettably neglecting to grab breakfast first, I set out at about 11 with Melly to Bethlehem to document us some graffiti. On the way down through the Old City to the Arab bus station, we encountered police/military blockades in , the road leading directly to Damascus Gate, the primary entrance to the Old City used by Muslims. We saw a group of soldiers arguing with a man to the side, and an elderly woman in front of us was not allowed to pass-- contrary to articles I would read, but more on that later. We passed through without even a second glance. Blockades surrounded the actual Damascus Gate as well, but we weren't headed that way. We veered on left and found the bus situation to be business as usual. Driving out of Jerusalem, we could see the absurd number of soldiers and police swarming the Arab areas. (Our thoughts prior to knowing why this is happening: "This is obviously a terrible, terrible idea. Escalation station. What is wrong with these people?")
The rest of the trip to Bethlehem is uneventful. The only possible perceptible difference in experience is the soldier at the checkpoint mayyyybe looking a bit more closely than usual at my passport. Maybe.
We walked along "the wall"-- be it of apartheid or separation or not even something you'd like to call a wall... which... is blatantly... I mean, it's a 40 ft high concrete wall... I digress-- to the South for about an hour. Lots of excellent graffiti all over it. Expect pictures soon. Expect one of them to be a snapshot of the roughly 5 minutes I spent getting every part of me caught in razor wire (note: NOT barbed wire) right in front of an Israeli outpost filled with raucous soldiers. It was hysterical: "Ah! My pants! -leans forward- Crap! My keffiyeh! -frees left leg, goes to free keffiyeh- EFFFF! -gets purse caught, resnares left leg- EHNNNN." It is a wonder I managed to get out with any pants left. I wish I had been wearing jeans. That crap is sharp. I barely touched it with my finger and it drew blood. Just a tiny cut, but it was like butter! Crazy. Anyway, the place where we reached this dead end and needed to hop over a little wall and razor wire was blocked by parts of a Muslim cemetery in various stages of disrepair and a mysterious building right up next to the wall with an Israeli flag and a big ol' tacky aluminum menorah. Some questions I can not answer.
Early on in our escapade we came to a house with a man with excellent English sitting in front of it. He was in pretty much the epitome of crap situations created by the wall. His property was surrounded on three sides by a wall that ensured that sunlight did not so much as touch his roof save at noon. He talked to us for awhile about how it was destroying his life and his business (he's a mechanic). He pointed out the security cameras/microphones mounted on the wall glaring at the front of his house, and told us these were recent additions. They're all over the wall, every ten, fifteen, twenty feet. Some are more recent additions than others.
It's crazy how quickly all of this became the norm. I am embarrassed to not have known this, but there were no roadblocks until the policy of closure came into effect in the mid-nineties. It's truly unfathomable to imagine the conflict without the persistent, often arbitrary, restrictions on movement. I can't imagine Israel not having the power to lock all the kids in the basement whenever it got irked. I genuinely can not comprehend the degree to which labor was integrated-- all while maintaining a strict policy deterring the development of economic infrastructure and industrialization of the territories, including strict laws to prevent them from becoming a competing entity. It is so difficult to fathom how quickly and to what degree it can become so much worse.
--
So that brings us about up to date. But there's something far more important. I feel like I am watching a lit fuse, each crackling spark a building block for the seemingly inevitable conflict looming on the horizon. I'm not sure if the international community sees the degree to which the past few weeks, particularly just events in the past few days, are indicators of a very rapidly approaching full out... Problem. Seriously, it is a little too reminiscent of the ascent to the Second Intifada. Allowing 70 "ultranationalist Jews" to visit the Temple Mount Thursday, then closing the Old City/Temple Mount/etc to all men under 45 regardless of permit status? Yeah, the best way to pacify people is to keep them from getting to their holy sites. That always breeds peace. I'm just not sure if we'll get an Intifada or a civil war with the settlers first. The crap they have done in Hebron the past two days is unbelievable. International journalists had to rescue a Palestinian family after settlers set bushes and clothes and stuff around it on fire and all the police/soldiers were busy with other things. Such as, y'know, settlers shooting three Palestinians at point blank range. And Palestinians rioting against the soldiers. Which, darling Palestinians, is really... not helpful. I understand that they don't do the best job of protection sometimes-- ie yesterday at Huarah checkpoint, which settlers managed to completely block off and threw stones at the Palestinians... while soldiers just hung out. Nonetheless. Sigh.
It will be interesting to see where this all goes.