I'll never have an eating disorder here...

Let me apologize now for what is likely to be a post loaded with typos. The problem is that I am lying on my bed with my laptop balanced on my bulging belly making it difficult for me to tap the keys with any degree of accuracy. I have just come back from dinner at a friend’s house where her mother made a deeeee-licious meal. True to Palestinian hospitality, they stuffed me like a Koosa Mahshi. This, by the way, is exactly what we had for dinner.

I am a huge fan of Thai food. I love Mexican food. I consider Chinese a real treat. But if you want the best home cooked food on the planet, Palestine is the place to be. Koosa Mahshi is probably my favorite dish. The first time I had it was with a friend of a friend from Nablus. After one bite, I thought to myself that if I lived here permanently, I would need to invest in some elastic waist pants. Not exactly a Weight Watchers approved dish. Of course, that isn’t going to stop me from trying to make it myself.

Koosa Mahshi is stuffed zucchini. It is stuffed with rice, ground beef and what I can only guess is a little bit of heaven and then poached in the oven. Then it is simmered in a sauce made of dried goat yogurt. I know I tasted cardamom, but I’m not sure if it was in the stuffing or the sauce. My friend’s mother also made some amazing lamb and salad. The meal was topped off with a cup of sweet Arabic coffee which will no doubt have me staring at the ceiling well into the wee hours of the morning. Ah…it is all worth it though.

Eric, Here's Your Damn Post...

Yes, I KNOW June 10th was my last post. My dear friend has sent me several emails with the last post in the email body. Alright, already! I fell down the rabbit hole, OK?

Actually, I have been in "Arabic Bootcamp" at Hebrew University. They offer an intensive Literary Arabic course and I figured I could continue being a human being while taking it. I figured wrong. It was truly the most brutal course of my academic career...and I'm the kind of gal who sets the bar pretty high to begin with. The course was 5 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week, PLUS there was 5 hours of homework a night. Brutal. I'm still suffering from some post-traumatic stress from the experience so I will refrain from expressing any opinions about the program until my head is clearer.

I realize I have missed some really important events while I've been away. I have been scribbling notes on scraps of paper so I could get back to the house to write a post about events as they came up. Alas, I was a slave to this course. I'll try to do better in the future.

The People Who Should Be in the News

Ok, I'm getting some saddle sores from ranting on top of my high horse in the last few posts.

Moving on... At Tantur this weekend, my friend was exhibiting pictures from her Palestinian children's photo project. Check out the link below to see Palestine through the eyes of children. It really is such a great organization and I really admire her dedication to non-violent resistance. http://www.contrastproject.org/

One last thing, I just saw a documentary about the Parent's Circle. This is a group of Palestinians and Israelis who have lost their children or family to violence and have realized that the only way for the conflict to end is for them to reach out to others who have lost loved ones. http://www.theparentscircle.org/about.asp

The movie is titled Encounter Point. If you can find a screening of it, please watch it. At the very least, watch the trailer below. It will change the way you see the conflict--or at least you'll be able to see Palestinians and Israelis the way I see them. Turn off the news and meet the real people in this conflict:



http://www.encounterpoint.com/trailer/quicktime7.php

See No Evil, Hear No Evil...even when it hits you like a 30 foot wall.

This weekend I went to Tantur for part of the June 5th Initiative events. Above is a picture of the set-up. It seems pretty fitting that the Wall is snaking behind the stage. It kind of puts to bed the notion that this is just a "fence". It is so tragic that many Israelis aren't even aware of how the Wall is weaving through the West Bank--not along the Green Line. The intention is to encircle Jerusalem to create new boundaries. The consequence is that Palestinian families are finding themselves on the wrong side of the fence and being physically barricaded from their family and neighbors, their property on the other side, their jobs, their hospitals... Could you imagine if you woke up one morning and found that the end of your street, on which you've lived your entire life, was blocked off by soldiers and your new view was of a concrete slab. Holy crap, I've heard of bigger protests coming from neighborhood associations demanding the dismantlement of tacky lawn ornaments. This is a little more important than pink flamingos.

I think that the Israelis who came to the events at Tantur were very courageous and I admire their curiosity. One friend was asked quite a few questions. One asked if the Wall was really as big as the activists were saying it was. She just kind of blinked and pointed behind her. "It's right there." They were absolutely shocked that they hadn't seen it. I bet they were wondering "How did I miss that big, fucking Wall?

I'm always a little suspicious when an expat begins passionately talking about the Occupation and speaks critically of all Israeli citizens. As if the reaction to the occupation by the average Israeli on the street was so uncommon on the historical continuum of this violent, hateful world; people naturally avoid seeing things and addressing topics that make them uncomfortable. Wasn't the Holocaust indicative of that? How 'bout Rwanda? How 'bout Sudan RIGHT NOW? How many people regularly discuss the desperate poverty and crime within their own country? How many people really delve into the issues behind the endemic homelessness in cities around the world, especially the U.S.? How many people recognize that human trafficking and child pornography exists everywhere? How many people really take the time to get to know other people from different races, religions, and economic stratum? Let alone get involved to put an end to human suffering within their own borders? People don't ask the hard questions because usually they're not ready to hear the answers and make the tough choices necessary to act. Scratch that. Once you know the reality, acting is not a "choice", it is a moral obligation mandated by all religions. Don't like that reality? Become an atheist--I'm sorry if I offended any atheists.

Social ills exist everywhere in one form or another. I suppose this is part of the reason I can't be "pro" or "anti" anything. I think that we all need to address social justice issues in countries outside our own with a little more humility and a little less "us against them" arrogance. I don't mean that Palestinians and Israelis should do anything. I have no business telling people who have suffered from experiences that I hope to never know, what they "should" or "should not" do. When I say "we", I'm talking about the expat community that becomes voluntarily entrenched in the conflict. What this conflict needs is a group of people who can show their support while remaining vigilant watchdogs for opportunities that lead to peace. Sadly, I don't know too many expats courageous enough to build relationships in both East & West Jerusalem.

My Kind of War

I hope these guys make it huge--so unbelievably talented. Check out more of their videos at http://www.baratsandbereta.com/

I'm Studying Sign Language

I attended my first Women in Black demonstration this past Friday to stand in protest of 40 years of occupation. Many cars honked their horns and gave a thumbs up as they passed by, but I also learned quite a few new hand signs. The first few times that I saw one particular hand gesture, I interpreted it as being supportive and a sign of solidarity. I later found out it is far more offensive than the old school middle finger. This was probably one of the few times I was grateful that I didn't understand Hebrew. Oy! Do they kiss their mothers with those mouths?

When I was doing research on the Israeli Peace Camp, I was always fascinated by the group of women who have been standing in silent protest every week since the first Intifada. Out of all the peace groups, Women in Black is clearly the most moderate, yet they evoke the most contempt from the right-wing elements of society. Check out some very cool women's groups here: http://coalitionofwomen.org/home

What is it about a group of non-confrontational women--mostly mothers and grandmothers--that makes grown men scream obscenities and shake their fists in rage. Existing literature has led me to conclude that women’s groups that voice opposition to the Occupation are especially vulnerable to hostility--more so than all other groups in the Peace Camp. Women's activism is seen more as a betrayal because they deviate from expected gender roles. When people protest they are often labeled leftist or radicals. When a group of women stand in protest, especially middle aged women, their presence lends more credibility to the cause and their protest serves to shame a community. The reaction therefore is less political and more personal.

Ayala Emmett, one of the contributors to Our Sisters’ Promised Land: Women, Politics, and Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence, wrote that counter-demonstrators at the silent vigils in Israel used to hold signs that read: “The Women in Black are longing for Auschwitz”, “The Women in Black—A Knife in the Back of the Nation” and “We ‘recognize’ Black Widows. We recognize that they can kill, and we recognize that they are insects.” By evoking national symbols of vulnerability, the counter-protest signs implied that women in the Peace Camp are betraying the Jewish collective.

Last year, I did a news search for articles about the Peace Camp in Israeli media starting from 1988. I was horrified by the vilification of women's and bereavement groups that want dialogue. In 1990, the Jerusalem Post had an article about attacks on Women in Black. The Kach youth movement would distribute leaflets in Jerusalem listing the names, phone numbers and addresses of members of the Women in Black organization. As a result of this listing, the women had become targets of death threats and threats against the lives of their families. Other callers threatened to burn their houses down. All for standing in silence in a supposedly "free" society. (Margot Dudkevitch. “KACH NAMES WOMEN IN BLACK.” The Jerusalem Post. August 24, 1990, Friday. News. Accessed through Lexis Nexus Academic.) I've also read about cars that have tried to swipe at the women protesters and opposition groups who sprayed protesters with bug spray. Maybe there should be some community workshops on how to use constructive debate instead of vehicular manslaughter to prove our points.

In my research, I found that Israeli society is generally uncomfortable with being occupiers. The symbols of occupation are deliberately kept out of sight, so the average Israeli never actually crosses a checkpoint, sees the Wall or enters East Jerusalem, West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The "occupation" is more of an abstract concept. Yet, like the bogeyman in a child's closet, the specter of Palestinian injustice and its attendant rage is always lurking in their subconscious. When they see people who look just like their mothers standing in the light of day with signs that remind them that the Occupation is real and it is wrong, people don't know how to process their feelings constructively. Like a petulant child being punished for their bad behavior, they lash out at "mommy".

Man, this country could use some serious time on the psychiatrist's couch. Interestingly enough, the other day I was thinking "hmmm, so do I"...for moving to this cognitive rubik cube of a town in the first place.

"Those People"

I often hear people make comments about Palestinians in blanket terms. Lots of "they all" or "those people" believe this or that. Sometimes the comment isn't even about Palestinians--it's a blanket comment about all Arabs...or all Muslims but they invoke the word "Palestinian" to give some kind of legitimacy to their comment. Don't even get me started about how these folks are throwing the semantics right into the Cuisinart...As if a Palestinian was the same as a Kuwaiti, and a Kuwaiti was interchangeable with a Tunisian; which of course makes a Tunisian the same as an Indonesian.

The fact is one can be an Arab without being Muslim. One can be a Muslim without being an Arab. One can be a Palestinian without wanting to strap a bomb belt on and march into a Sbaro. But I don't think that one can be a Palestinian and not feel the pain of Occupation. I'm not even Palestinian and my heart breaks a little more each day with the things that I see.

Below is a poem that I really liked. It's a conversation between two types of people who share the same pain.

You & I
By Mahmood Jamal

You want to speak of War
I want to speak of Peace

You say Punish
I say Forgive

You speak of God’s Wrath
I speak of His Mercy

Your Qur’an is a Weapon
My Qur’an is a Gift

You speak of the Muslim Brotherhood
I speak of the Brotherhood of Man

You like to Warn others
I like to Welcome them

You like to speak of Hell
I like to speak of Heaven

You talk of Lamentation
I talk of Celebration

You worship the Law
I worship the Divine

You want Silence
I want Music

You want Death
I want Life

You speak of Power
I speak of Love

You search out Evil
I warm to the Good

You dream of the Sword
I sing of the rose Petal

You say the world is a Desert
I say the world is a Garden

You prefer the Plain
I prefer the Adorned

You want to Destroy
I want to Build

You want to go Back
I want to move Forward

You are busy Denying
I am busy Affirming

Yet there might be one thing
On which we see eye to eye

You want Justice
So do I

You can choose how to view the world: with optimism and faith or pessimism and doubt.