Sunday, September 6, 2009

O.P.

I’m getting settled into my new home at Ibdaa Cultural Center in Deheishe Refugee camp. So far, so good. It’s Ramadan so things are a bit slow. I was forced, truly, into a successful phone buying adventure this morning, so I am now a little poorer but a little more accessible. I’ve also been set up on my first assignment for my job, duel translation with a lovely dentistry student from Beit Jala, a nearby city. I’ll update more on Ibdaa later but for now I want to go back to Jerusalem.


As I left the hostel I stayed at in Jerusalem early Friday morning, in a futile attempt to receive my lost luggage before traveling into the West Bank (where are you all of my clothes?!), I faced a tide of older Muslim men and women flowing fast down the street into the heart of the old city. I thought that naively it must be people arriving for work or shopping. As I made my way the bus station I sort of bravely tried out my small, I will refer back here to how my mother speaks of her Italian, baby Arabic, and asked a number of women the way to the bus to Bethlehem. Ok I’ll admit to the first two women I think I asked ‘where is the bus IN Bethlehem’ to which they, rightly so, were a little unsure. However, even once I got my vocabulary straight it took a really long time for someone to help me. I thought that was a little strange as the bus station ended up only being a few blocks away.


However, my new boss, Areej, put both these events in perspective. She explained to me that Fridays during Ramadan (which is now) are the only time when Muslims who live in the occupied Palestinian territories, the West Bank, can visit the Al-Asque Mosque (within the Temple Mount). And get this, even then, on those 4 or 5 Fridays out of the whole year, not everyone can go. Women have to be older then 45 and men have to be older then 50. They, the Israeli army/government, don’t want any “trouble” from young Palestinians. Evidently even the age restrictions were not enough to put the armies mind at ease as the street was lined with soldiers (yes they are just as young looking as everyone says) weapons at the ready. Of course looking back this new information put the response to my directions inquiries in perspective. Obviously, you would not have a detailed understanding of the transportation network in a place that you are at best allowed to visit 4 times a year…


When Areej explained this to me and I told her my story adding that I was surprised just how overwhelming the signs of occupation were traveling from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and walking around the old city, she agreed, and added that, in her words “you don’t need to go anywhere else to understand what’s going on here (the occupation), not to the West Bank, to Tel Aviv or Hebron, just go to Jerusalem the story is so clear there”.

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