Hebron

This is a hard one for me to write about. I'm not really sure how to present a balanced perspective on the town of Hebron so I'll just note my impressions from spending the day there. I recognize that I haven't heard a full story from all the sides involved.

Here we go.

There is an organization called Breaking the Silence here in Israel. It is a group of former IDF soldiers who are sharing about their experiences serving in the IDF in the West Bank, also known as, occupied Palestine. These soldiers lead tours and share their experiences as their way of commenting on what occupation really looks like.

I took a tour last week with Breaking the Silence to the town of Hebron in the West Bank. Hebron is a very important site for both Jews and Muslims as the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham was buried, is located there. It is a primarily a Palestinian/Muslim town with pockets of Israeli/Jewish settlements around and in it.

At one point Jews were massacred and expelled from Hebron and now the settler movement is slowly trying to exert a permanent presence there again.

Because the settlers are Israeli, the Israeli military is tasked with protecting them. In order to protect them they have to create "sterile" areas where it will be safe for free movement by the settlers. This means that certain streets and areas of Hebron are closed to Palestinians. This system was exacerbated by violence during the second Intifada (2000-2005). An area that used to be a thriving market place is now basically deserted due to sterilization.

For instance, this intersection used to be a busy and bustling market area. All the shops have been closed and these streets are not open for Palestinians.

Since Hebron is important for both Jews and Muslims, ideally they should all have access to it. But Jews have been massacred and expelled in the past and now Palestinians aren't allowed free movement through portions of the town. I know that it is more complicated than this, but it seems to me that it is a cycle of victims perpetuating victimhood.

So, the positives? Well, a bitter-sweet positive was that there were great doors for picture-taking.

The highlight from the day was when a group of boys asked us to play soccer with them. We played for about half an hour. It was a refreshing break from processing the complicated nature of the town of Hebron.

*Credit for the above photo goes to @dannyras

Grand Mosque: Jaffa

One of the advantages of being in Israel and having teachers that are well connected is that we get to have very unique experiences, like visiting the grand mosque in Jaffa.

This mosque is not open to tourists. We got a special invitation to visit the mosque and hear from the Qadi of Jaffa. He is a religious judge for Muslims in the area. There are several Qadis in Israel. The first female Israeli Qadi was nominated recently! It was very interesting hearing from him about his job and role in the community. He processes marriages and divorces, civil disputes, and can encourage sulha (a cultural reconciliation process).

I've visited a number of mosques and one thing that I always love is their beauty.

I am very grateful for these unique experiences!

I Can Fly!

Ok, actually, I can't fly. I wish I could fly. One of the reasons I went skydiving was so that I could get a sense of what it would feel like to fly. I love the wind in my face. I love the thrill of falling. There is something simultaneously terrifying and freeing about it.

I have been lucky to fly around the world, to skydive, and to go on lots of rollercoasters. They all play a part in fulfilling my childhood dream of being able to fly.

I have also been lucky to find wings in various locations. This has helped me with the imagery side of flying. If I were to fly what kind of wings would I want to have?

My friend Sarah painted these wings in Tanzania:

I found these in Tel Aviv:

Should I have joyful and colorful wings or should I have more dramatic wings? These are definitely important questions to ask oneself.

I Miss Shikamoo

Greeting is an important part of the culture in Tanzania. It's normal to greet someone at least 3 different ways, 'good morning', 'how did you wake up', 'how is your family'. That is probably the bare minimum of morning greetings. All the languages that I know in Tanzania have special greetings for people based on whether they are men or women and whether they are older or younger than you.

In Tanzania, whenever I greet someone older than me I say 'shikamoo' to which the response is 'marhaba'. Sometimes it was difficult to tell if someone was older than me. If I misgauged the age and didn't say 'shikamoo' I would often receive a highly emphasized 'MARHABA'.

I don't miss the stress of the age-guessing game.

I do, however, miss having a natural way of telling someone 'I respect you because you are older than me'.

I didn't expect to miss that. I find myself wanting to have an opening greeting of respect when I meet someone who is clearly older than me. I have, on multiple occasions, awkwardly not greeted someone when I should have because I couldn't figure out how to start without 'shikamoo'.

The truth of the matter is, all things being equal, someone who is 5 years older than me knows more than me. Their life experience has value. Someone 40 years older than me has that much more life experience. I miss being able to convey in a single word that I respect someone's life experience.

Happy New Year!

Last week, on Christmas day, I was studying in the library. Today, New Years Day, I am also studying in the library. I had class yesterday and I have class today. I don't actually mind studying on holidays. If I was with family it would probably bother me. As it is, I don't have much better things to do with my time other than study.

Yesterday, for my international law class, we took a day tour to Jerusalem to visit the security fence/separation wall between Palestine/The West Bank and Israel. The man who gave us the tour was one of the leaders of the project to build this fence. What a unique experience!

We learned that the reason it is more accurate to call it a fence rather than a wall is that the cement wall portion is only 5% of the entire thing. The rest of it, 95%, is a fence, not a wall. It's a very smart fence. Apparently it detects any movement near it, cameras then look to the spot where movement is detected and soldiers can then see if it was a child chasing his ball or someone trying to cross. 

We learned all the ways they tried to keep Israelis safe during the Second Intifada before resorting to building the wall. We also learned about the mind-numbing and pain-staking detail with which everything seemed to be done. These details included a disassembly plan so that the wall can come down as quickly as possible when it is deemed safe. There were debates, visits to the Vatican city, and calls from the White House to determine the exact meter upon which the fence should sit.

My brain is still trying to comprehend the difficulty of this project. I am also appreciating that our tour guide, one of the chief architects of the whole thing, hopes to pull down the first section of the cement portion of the fence as soon as peace is made.