The soldiers stopping our shared taxi at West Bank checkpoints this weekend were barely past puberty, it seemed. Dwarfed by their huge guns and still acne-prone, these eighteen- and nineteen-year-old “men” leafed through our stack of Palestinian IDs and international passports and determined whether to wave us past the roadblocks or to order everyone out of the van for a round of questioning.
“They’re so young!” exclaimed Christian, a German man working as an accompanier in the Territories, as we stopped at our third checkpoint of the trip, one manned by what looked like a junior varsity basketball team.
A few weeks back, when my sister Karin was visiting, we spent an afternoon in Bethlehem’s Ayda Refugee Camp, where a friend was staying with her charming host family. We drank tea in the living room, taking pictures of and feeding snacks to Rueida, their rambunctious and oh-so-cute three-year-old.
The living room’s wall of windows looked out on what used to be a stunning view of Rachel’s Tomb. Now it faces the snaking cement of the Separation Wall and a watchtower with slit windows.
It was from the small windows of this watchtower that the family’s nephew was shot a few months back. Twelve-years-old and playing on the balcony with a toy gun, this boy was apparently perceived as a security threat by a soldier sitting 100 yards away in this tower. This soldier had a few things to think about before firing the shot: are handguns readily accessible to Palestinians? No. If this is a real handgun, would this twelve-year-old have the aim to get a bullet through one of these Pez-dispenser windows? Probably not. Is he surrounded by several young children? Yes. Sitting in a well-protected tower you would think a soldier would take the time to ask these questions before firing a shot to a crowded balcony of children. But the shot was fired, the nephew got a bullet in his leg (but survived), and the children of the camp now stay off their balconies and duck as they pass by windows in their homes.
“They’re so young” is so true. True of both the Palestinian kids who are traumatized by this Occupation and the soldiers who are given the job of carrying it out.
The boys of Ayda Camp.
a miniturized version of life in the holy land
Monday, February 12, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
JERU!!!! Karin style. Holler.
Karin will be your guest blogger for the day.
Through my travels around the Holy Land, I have pretty much done it all. In 15 days. So here are some things that you should make sure you get around to in your trip to the Holy Land. The order is the recommended sequence of events.
1. Meet a Timbuk2-toting, liberal-bashing, myspace.com-commenting boy on the sherut on your ride from the airport.
2. Visit Neve Shalom Peace Village. This place is the largest source of hope I saw in all of Israel/Palestine.
3. Do some yoga at the Y. No yoga pants? No problem! Pair some painting capris with leg warmers!
4. Go on a day trip with a van-full of kids from one of your prospective colleges. And make sure they sing you all of the songs that one simply must know before attending.
5. Scrabble in the Judean Desert. Just make it happen.
6. Go to the Turkish Baths in Ramallah (Yallah, yallah, lets go to Ramallah!). Make sure you drink water, because it is possible to blackout in the sauna. Apparently.
7. Visit Vered Haglil, a bit north of Tiberias. Try the hot chocolate cake. I kind of liked it.
8. Aroma Café (supposedly branching out to NYC, so watch out!) and hook yourself up with some of the almond croissants while chilling with a health code-breaking cat.
Fat cat lookin’ at the camera.
9. Bike the circumference of the Sea of Galilee in its entirety. It’s even better if you do it on a Lil’Honey kiddie bike, like my bike pro sister, Margit.
10. Visit Ayda refugee camp in Bethlehem, and let yourself be shown around by some teenage boys. I highly recommend the recently released convicts as tour guides; they will move parked cars, if not mountains, to make sure you enjoy your stay.
Two thumbs up for convicted tour guides.
To see what Karin thought about the rest of Israel/Palestine, check out the Karin Rates the Holy Land photo set. Thumbs up and down, she rates it like it is.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/margit/sets/72157594487958372/
Through my travels around the Holy Land, I have pretty much done it all. In 15 days. So here are some things that you should make sure you get around to in your trip to the Holy Land. The order is the recommended sequence of events.
1. Meet a Timbuk2-toting, liberal-bashing, myspace.com-commenting boy on the sherut on your ride from the airport.
2. Visit Neve Shalom Peace Village. This place is the largest source of hope I saw in all of Israel/Palestine.
3. Do some yoga at the Y. No yoga pants? No problem! Pair some painting capris with leg warmers!
4. Go on a day trip with a van-full of kids from one of your prospective colleges. And make sure they sing you all of the songs that one simply must know before attending.
5. Scrabble in the Judean Desert. Just make it happen.
6. Go to the Turkish Baths in Ramallah (Yallah, yallah, lets go to Ramallah!). Make sure you drink water, because it is possible to blackout in the sauna. Apparently.
7. Visit Vered Haglil, a bit north of Tiberias. Try the hot chocolate cake. I kind of liked it.
8. Aroma Café (supposedly branching out to NYC, so watch out!) and hook yourself up with some of the almond croissants while chilling with a health code-breaking cat.
Fat cat lookin’ at the camera.
9. Bike the circumference of the Sea of Galilee in its entirety. It’s even better if you do it on a Lil’Honey kiddie bike, like my bike pro sister, Margit.
10. Visit Ayda refugee camp in Bethlehem, and let yourself be shown around by some teenage boys. I highly recommend the recently released convicts as tour guides; they will move parked cars, if not mountains, to make sure you enjoy your stay.
Two thumbs up for convicted tour guides.
To see what Karin thought about the rest of Israel/Palestine, check out the Karin Rates the Holy Land photo set. Thumbs up and down, she rates it like it is.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/margit/sets/72157594487958372/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)