crack, crack, boom

On Monday, I started working with an amazing female-run Palestinian NGO that aims to empower women politically and seeks to end violence against women in Palestinian society. This organization is one of the reasons I wanted to do research on Palestinian women's organizations to begin with, so admittedly I am a little bit star struck.

I can honestly say that this the first time I have ever had a checkpoint as part of my daily commute to work. And I thought taking the Red Line in DC was a pain in the ass...On my first day, as the bus drove through the checkpoint, I caught a glimpse of a young soldier pushing a middle aged woman and then forcefully shoving a man my father's age. I am not a good enough writer to be able to convey the feeling that this encounter evoked. "Perverse" comes to mind. "Shame" is another. I think that I always assumed that when faced with abuses of power that I would be courageous. I would be compelled to step forward. But, I didn't. Like the rest of my fellow commuters, I just continued on to my destination.

Two hours later, I am sitting at my new desk sifting through some of the organization's documents. All of a sudden, I hear crack, crack...BOOM! By now, I am used to these sounds. It could be fireworks (yes, they shoot them off even in the middle of the day...and no, I don't know why), it could be a truck back-firing, it could be teargas canisters being tossed by soldiers, it could be construction noises...in general, this is not a quiet place. Then my Palestinian co-worker ran in and said "Did you hear the bomb?" So, we tried to assess the situation from my window that faces the huge grotesque "security" wall. Some people seemed to be hesitating by the wall opening but otherwise, life was going on as "normal".

Could you imagine this happening elsewhere? You're sitting down to have lunch at work and you hear a loud explosion. After a cursory glance out the window, you return your attention to the matter at hand. Oooh, egg salad!

I don't know how much coverage there is of the Nakhba, otherwise known by Palestinians as "the catastrophe". This day marks the anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel and the crushing blow to Palestinian national aspirations. Israelis celebrated this event a couple of weeks ago along with their Memorial Day. The Palestinians in Jerusalem don't have the luxury of having a Memorial Day. Just in case they forgot, they were reminded of their constant state of occupation by the Israeli flags that have been hung throughout our East Jerusalem neighborhood just for this occasion and by an influx of hundreds of young flag & rifle toting soldiers taking a "tour" of East Jerusalem neighborhoods.

I suppose if this wasn't enough to jog their collective memories, the crazy assed Jewish fundamentalist movement descended on our Holy City. One friend was watching a settler demonstration in the Old City where a symbolic coffin with a Palestinian flag was set aflame. Unfortunately for them, the flame was quickly doused as the skies opened up and poured down on them. Ever resourceful, the demonstrators proceeded to rip the flag apart and stomp on the "coffin". As she was relating what had occurred, I couldn't help but think that there was something very "Lord of the Flies" about this story.

I think it's important for people to know that the "crazy assed" element of this society does exist and that comment is well founded. Tragically, the other day a 35 year-old taxi driver from Beit Hanina was brutally murdered by their ilk. My co-worker came to show me an article about her childhood playmate who was murdered by two of these fundamentalists. They lured him away from Damascus Gate by getting in his taxi and then slit his throat. The victim was selected because he was an Arab, and that's all that mattered. I hope that justice will be served. The whole thing has left me sick to my stomach.

By the way, the article I link to is from the Jerusalem Post, a right wing Israeli paper (in my opinion). By the looks of the comments at the end of the article, I think that the ugliest segments of society must subscribe to this paper. Somehow, (according to the reader responses) the brutality of the crime is mitigated by the fact that Tayseer Karaki's dead body was draped with a Palestinian flag. As if his national identity somehow "proves" his own guilt for something. A human being died at the hands of hate-mongers. Period. Shame on anyone who thinks otherwise. The uncle said it best when he said: "Why is it that whenever a Jew murders an Arab they say he's crazy and deranged?" he asked. "But when an Arab murders a Jew, he's always convicted even of he really is insane." There shouldn't be a double-standard. A hate motivated, pre-meditated murder is wrong no matter who the victim is.

Man, sometimes I really hate all this hate.