“This is their homeland and it’s turned into a war zone” We are two of the five participants on the ICAHD summer camp from Norway. Since our hometown, Tromsoe, is Gaza’s twin city we already new about some parts of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. However, we found it hard to understand the situation completely, just by reading articles and going to seminars. Therefore we decided to see it with our own eyes, both to show the Palestinians that they are not alone in this situation, and for our own personal experience so that we can tell others about what is truly going on. Monday 12.08 After finishing Arabiya’s homemade Palestinian breakfast, we took a walking tour through the village of Anata. During the tour we talked to the mayor and experienced some of the wonderful Palestinian hospitality, showed to us by the people living in the village. But more importantly, we saw the Israeli politics in practice. Did you know that the Palestinians on the West bank only get water every third day? Or that they have to store it in black tanks on the house roofs, to have water the rest of the week? Keeping in mind that less than three hundred meters away, the Israeli settlement, Pisgat Ze’ev, is provided with water every single day. Not to mention that in the past Anata was fully capable to provide water to the citizens of the village and Jerusalem. Now they are not able to sustain themselves because Israel authorities have confiscated all of the water supply. Also during the tour we saw several demolished houses. It is devastating to think about how every house has been a home and belonged to a family. Later in the evening, after the tour, Salim told us his own story of his family and Beit Arabiya. He described it like this “The house was all my savings. It was destroyed and we were left with nothing… in 15 minutes it was all gone”. When we came back to Beit Arabiya we started working in the ruins of the demolished house, carrying away the rubble, piece by piece. After observing some of the injustice the people in Anata have to suffer every day, it felt good to process that through hard physical work. - Hanna and Karine
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 07:00:24 +0000
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