Thursday 12 October 2017

Day 3, stories

Today we met with the French organisation and some of their participants to give presentations about life in our own countries. We began with Afnan and Abed explaining the situation in Palestine, to anybody who might not be aware of the political context. Afterwards, we went round in circle and each told the group a story about a very important part of our lives. This gave us a space to hear, on really personal levels the kind of hardship and discrimination that is felt in everyday life.  The first story from one of the Palestinians centered around one massive issue in Palestine; having either a blue or a green I.D. In 2002, after the separation wall was built, if you born in Jerusalem you were given a blue I.D and if you were born in the West Bank you were issued a green I.D. These I.Ds determine where in Palestine you permitted to travel to. One of the members of a group has a green I.D, but their partner and children have blue I.Ds. This means that in order for them to live together and be together as a family, they must rent a house in both the West Bank and Jerusalem, pay taxes on this house and spend multiple nights a week apart, just so the Israeli government doesn’t find out they live together in the West Bank. Learning about this kind of life where as a human being you can be issued a certain colour I.D, as if by being born you have already done something wrong, really shocked some of the French and British members of the group who were unaware of the level of occupation in Palestine.  Another story that was shared from the Palestinian side, was about the Israeli army arresting the older brother of one of the participants. They told us how it was the middle of the night and 20 Israeli solders burst through their front door, screaming and shouting as loudly as possible. As their father hurried their mother and sisters in to one room and went to speak to the solders, this participant managed to slip out and make a run for it. When they returned home their brother had been arrested. The crime? A post on facebook mentioning Israel. 15 months in an Israeli prison for a 21 year old boy, all because he wrote something on facebook. It was during this story that I had to really fight to hold back tears. Hearing them speak about the fear that they felt when the army came, the pain and anxiety of the safety of their family and being just 18 years old- it showed me just how resilient and brave they are, like so many of the Palestinian people.  Being able to communicate our stories to each other in this way, was an amazing way to hear personal accounts of each others lives but it really bonded the participants from both France, Palestine and the UK.

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