GREGORY HARMS blog: Summer 2014: West Bank

Travel email 2 of 3 (June 27, 2014)

Friends,

It's been a while since Angel Report 1, so I thought I'd send a dispatch.

As mentioned, I entered Palestine-Israel on May 26 and left on June 24. It was a good month. I got to cover a decent amount of territory in the West Bank, most notably, Jerusalem, Bethlehem (a couple times), Ramallah (a couple times), and Hebron.

For the month, I lived in the Abu Dis and Aizaria (Bethany) area of the West Bank, just east of East Jerusalem. Abu Dis and Aizaria are sibling towns, basically work-a-day in character. Tourism is very limited, consisting of buses making quick stops at the Tomb of Lazarus, just off the main road in Aizaria. The sightseers then climb back aboard their buses, with minimal (closer to zero) local interaction. One also sees the occasional European worker from one of the many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) operating in Palestine. Other than that, the only white Westerner walking around is me.

For the first week, like my previous trip, I get plenty of strange looks. But like Jordan, the people in Palestine are warm, generous, and eager to help foreigners. However, there's a "What are you doing here?" look that I get a lot. And sometimes, it's accompanied with the actual question, "What are you doing here?"

The question is not conveyed in an intimidating way. They genuinely want to know, and are sometimes puzzled that someone would elect to travel from Chicago to live in Abu Dis for a while. However, at mention of Chicago, I routinely hear the following: "I have a [insert relative] in Chicago."

When I arrived, tensions were rather low. I would even say quiet. Sometimes at night, young Palestinians get into confrontations with IDF soldiers along the separation wall, where the Israelis respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. In my neighborhood, a doctor suffering from a heart condition died due to tear-gas inhalation. These skirmishes are generally an act of demonstration against Israel's "administrative detention" of Palestinian prisoners, a large number of whom were recently on a two-month hunger strike. Signs in Arabic saying "water + salt = dignity" appear all around the West Bank, indicating solidarity with the prisoners, who accepted small amounts of salt and water. Nothing else.

Then, on June 12, three Jewish Israeli teenagers were kidnapped while hitchhiking near their West Bank settlement. As a result, tensions in the territory have increased. Israel has used the incident to put enormous pressure on Hamas, which they accuse in the kidnappings, while also meting out collective punishment of the entire West Bank.

Hebron has been more or less on lock down, while the Israeli military continues to conduct early-morning raids and search and seizure missions. Travel in the West Bank—difficult on a good day—has become increasingly challenging due to checkpoint closures and feared violence from Israeli settlers.

By the time I left, the military had entered Abu Dis and Aizaria, making arrests near my house at 3:00 in the morning. In the late evening before my departure, my neighbors and I watched and listened from their rooftop as Palestinians in the distance faced off with soldiers: yelling, streams of sparks as tear gas canisters were launched into the air, and a small amount of automatic-weapon fire. At present, Israel has arrested almost 400 Palestinians in what they are calling Operation Brother's Keeper.

For fear of making this email unduly long, I'll sum up as best and succinctly as I can:

Given the stress and hardship of being under military occupation, the Palestinians maintain a dignified, friendly, cooperative culture. Tourists who go to see Israel in search of a historical/biblical experience will sometimes point out "how dirty East Jerusalem is" compared to Israeli West Jerusalem. With an air of enlightenment, the implication is made: "There's your proof. The Arabs don't have their act together, while the Israelis are more European." In other words, the Israelis are more like us: sophisticated, modern, clean.

Important to bear in mind is that Israel is a nation-state and Palestine is not. In the towns where I lived, they are in what is called "Area B" of the West Bank. This means they are under joint Israeli-Palestinian jurisdiction. What this actually means is that they are under neither. Abu Dis and Aizaria are essentially on their own. Garbage gets collected occasionally, there is a police station (though no police presence), and things like infrastructure get tended to when the Palestinian Authority can or will.

Given this fact, it is quite impressive how civilized the society is. Yes, it can be loud, people can drive like lunatics, igniting dumpsters full of garbage that smolder endlessly is popular, and littering is paid nary a thought. Even West Bankers I know complain about some of the headache-inducing behavior; but the discussion quickly turns—and I contribute to it—to the culture's strengths. I'll take litter and friendliness over their opposites any day of the week.

Despite being an American—that is, from the country sponsoring their misery—I am treated with a kindness that is almost heart-rending. It's not an act. I was there too long. I went from being a guest to being a regular. And still, the hospitality never wavered. If I needed anything—information about this, advice about that, a good place to buy fruit, a broom, you name it—my neighbors would drop what they were doing and see to it I was cared for. Likewise—and as I have mentioned on many occasions—perfect strangers in Palestine are quick to draw the distinction between the American people (who they like) and the US government (which they don't).

It is my hope that the attached photos are somewhat representative. Pictures don't lie, but they don't tell the whole truth either. As mentioned, I don't love taking them. Moreover, in the conservative areas of the Middle East, it's best to be conservative yourself when it comes to photography. I therefore err on the side of prudence in this regard. (Also, at Israeli checkpoints, photography is most discouraged.) Nevertheless, I think these photos convey the basic idea.

I'm now back in Amman and hope to do a bit more traveling.

Gregory