Comment

Israeli and Palestinian kids 3

Sixteen kilometers north of Jerusalem is the city of Ramallah, the capital city of the West Bank.  The first people who lived there were the Hadadeens, an Arab tribe with ties to Yemenite Christians.  Its nickname is God's Hill.

D. is a fifteen year old woman I met in Ramallah.  These are her words:

We come to this community center to express our energy. We act, volunteer, help the elderly.  We visit a prison for juvenile prisoners and help the kids there feel like they have value.  Some of us are in the writing program here and some of us are in the acting program.  But we all work together.

The play we are working on now is about hypocrites.  It's a comedy, but it is about how one person can get everyone all upset if they are not careful.

The prison we visit is for young people who break the law.  Not political prisoners, although there are a lot of them in Israeli jails.  This prison is for kids who break regular laws.  It's more gentle than an adult prison.  From volunteering there I have learned that there is no difference between them and us.  We are all teenagers.  This prison is surrounded by high walls.  The kids are not locked in cells but they cannot go outside the walls.  There are two floors.  One is the space they use for meetings and activities.  The second floor is where they sleep.  There is a bit of a garden, too, so they can go outside.

We also volunteer with old people.  I like doing that because we can hear lots of old stories, like what it was like for their parents and for them during the Nakba, the catastrophe in l948 when Israel was created.  So they have these really difficult stories and they also have stories that are just fun to hear, like what their wedding days were like, funny things that happened to them in their lives, trying to raise their kids and earn a living and deal with the Israelis.

When I hear their stories of what they went through, I think, If they can do it, I can, too.  It makes me stronger.

I live with my parents and four sisters - three younger and one older.  I want to be an archeologist and a philosopher.  I like acting because you can live in different characters.  Humans were created with imaginations so that we can see beyond where we are so that we can create a better world.

We want to live a life that is ours.  The occupation makes us challenge ourselves, show the Israelis that this is our land, and whatever they do, they can't rise to our challenge.

The soldiers don't come here anymore, not really.  It used to be quite bad, with soldiers and tanks all over, but now it is quieter.  This area is Palestinian territory, and mostly the Israelis stay out.

I once went to a youth conference and there was an Israeli girl there.  I asked her why she doesn't come to Ramallah.  She said that she would be afraid to.  I said, "You treat us well and we will treat you well."  She said she might try.  But I don't think she'll come.

We have been 67 years under occupation, so as it continues we'll have more pressure.  It is an honour to be a Palestinian.  When Israel bombs us, it is said they are defending themselves.  When Palestinians fight, we are said to be terrorists.

Other civilizations have moved through this area, leaving their mark.  The Turks, the British.  I like to think of Israel as just another phase that will pass, leaving its mark and then moving on or fading away  History always battles with itself.  May we not have too many more generations before this phase moves away.

The Hunger Games reminds me of what is happening in the world today.  Countries that are satisfied with the president and the rulers are treated well, and countries that are not supportive of the president - their lives are hell.

The internet is a great connection because we meet people from all over and talk about our lives and our positions.

Comment

Comment

Israeli and Palestinian kids 2

M. is a 13 year old boy.  I met him in a gift shop in the old walled city of Jerusalem.  These are his words:

I live in Jerusalem.  My family has always had this shop.  I am the oldest child and have two brothers and sisters, so it is my job to help my father when I am not in school.  As you can see, we have very nice things in this shop, things from all over Israel and Palestine.  The Armenian pottery is hand-painted with traditional designs, like the Tree of Life. And we have cups, plates, bowls, whatever anyone wants.

My family is from Beersheva, in the south, and many of my family still live there.  These blankets are made by old women there.  They make them in their homes and sell them to us and we sell them in the shop.  This is my father's shop and it was his father's shop before him.  Dad has worked in this market for 35 years.  I have a few more years of school to go, then I will probably have to work in the shop full time.  I'd like to go on to university and maybe be a doctor or a teacher.

What I would really like to do is be a tour guide in Jerusalem.  I know the Old City really well because I was born here.  When I was a small child I would play with my friends all over the Old City, up and down the stairs, in and out of all the small alleys.  I know what is behind most of the doors - where there is a little bakery, where there is a school or an orphanage hidden from the tourists, where the sweets are, where the playgrounds are - I know all of it.  So I would be a good tour guide.

I would know how to explain everything to the tourists.  The Old City has four neighbourhoods.  They are called Quarters.  There is a Christian quarter, a Muslim quarter, an Armenian quarter and a Jewish quarter.  But really, everything is mixed together.  The El Omariye Mosque is in the Christian quarter, right beside the Church of the Holy Seplichure, where the Christians go.  There is a yeshiva in the Muslim quarter, and Roman ruins in the Christian quarter.

As a child you can go everywhere and no one pays attention to you, as long as you don't make trouble.  And you can enjoy getting lost, but you're not really lost because the whole place has a wall around it, and when you get to a wall, you can always find your way home again.

My favourite part of the Old City is the Mosque, of course.  At the Al Aqsa Mosque there are gardens and open spaces to play, and lots of little spots where you can sit with your friends in the sun or the shade and talk or just sit.

Now that I am older I don't have a lot of spare time - I go to school and I come to work here in the shop.

I know a little bit of many languages because of all the tourists who come here.  They come from all over, and they like it if you speak their language - they will buy more then.  I learned a bit of English as school, but get to practice it a lot on tourists, so my English is pretty good. Lots of Russians come here, too.  Lots of people.

It's not so busy now, but it will be soon because Easter is coming.  There are processions of Christians through here every Friday.  The monks and priests and nuns walk and stop at every place Jesus was - where he fell, where he was killed - and they pray and people take pictures.  At Easter the processions are even bigger and people carry crosses. I am Muslim, but I know about Jesus because he was an important prophet.

Lots of cultures come to Jerusalem to pray for peace.

I will probably marry.  My father says I will be married and continue the family and the family business.  That seems like a long time away.

Comment

Comment

Children of Israel and Palestine

In January and February of 2013, I was back in Israel and Palestine to try to do an update on Three Wishes, the book I wrote back in 2002 of interviews with Israeli and Palestinian kids.  This last visit, I was able to meet with many more amazing kids.

A common theme I found among the kids I met was the way man of them searched to make sense of the world around them through some sort of creative endeavour.  They talked about how the creative work they did helped them to feel sane when so much around them made no sense.  They related their own creativity to the purpose they have in being alive.

Israel and Palestine are complicated places.  The young people I met are looking for ways to be themselves, and to be not too damaged by what continues to go on around them.

Instead of putting the interviews in a book, I am going to put them up on this website.

The first one is with a girl, S. who is 12 years old.

These are her words:

S.    - I used to live in California.  I moved to Israel with my parents one and a half years ago.  The city I lived in does no have a big Jewish community. Other cities do, so we were not isolated, but moving to Israel means we are surrounded by Judaism and can live a really Jewish life.

We live on a moshav near Tel Aviv.  A moshav is like a village.  It's really beautiful.  Lots of fields and trees.  Some of the olive trees are really ancient, and there are orange trees and lemon trees.  Some of the people who live on the moshav work at harvesting the crops, and others do other jobs off the moshav.

We have a lot of family here in Israel, so it is really great to live close to them.  And I like that the Jewish holidays are all celebrated here.

I'm learning Hebrew, of course.  I take regular Hebrew classes.  My reading and writing is getting better.  Hebrew is a logical language, not like English, so things make sense.  There are twenty-two letters in Hebrew, not twenty-six like in the English alphabet, and you read from right to left, which takes a bit of getting used to.  Instead of vowels there are dashes and dots.  I like learning it because it's the language used by Jews in ancient Israel, before the Romans, and it's also the sacred language of the Torah.  Although Biblical Hebrew is different - the way the words are arranged is different.  Like Shakespeare is different from how we speak English now.

But I'm still not a strong speaker, and people who grew up speaking it, like Sabra - the people who were born in Israel - talk faster than I can understand it.  I wanted to have something fun that I could do in English, so that it would just be fun, not fun mixed in with the work of trying to understand what was going on.

In California I was involved with a lot of theatre, so when I heard about Glee Plus, I thought it would be perfect for me.  Glee Plus is a musical theatre competition held all across Israel.  We do singing, dancing and acting.  I did a six-day training camp with them, and a three-day music video workshop.

Last May my team won the Glee Plus National Competition.  There were seven of us on the team.  We sang a song by Queen.  We choreographed our own dance and we even made our own costumes.  It was so much fun!  It was so great to see kids who were really nervous get stronger and more confident during the competition.  And my team won!

Last year it was really fun on the moshav because there were lots of girls turning twelve.  Turning twelve if you are a Jewish girl means you do your Bat Mitzvah.  It's a symbol of coming of age and taking on more adult responsibilities.  My family are Reform Jews, which means we believe in the equality of men and women in religious ceremonies.  One of the ways we show this is that girls read the Torah in the Synagogue during their Bat Mitzvah.  This isn't a common thing for girls in Israel, but I was happy to be able to do it.

Along with the religious part, there are Bat Mitzvah parties.  My party was wonderful - so much fun!  We rented a little hall on the moshav. We had a DJ who's a beat box artist, and h taught me how to do the beat box.

I think I'll go into the army when I turn eighteen.  Girls can do community service instead, but I think I'll go into the army.  I think it would be good to spend time in the army before going to university because the army matures you and helps you decide what you want to do with your life.  I'm not too worried about the dangers.  You can be in the army and do jobs other than being a soldier, so I don't think I'd be in any real danger.

It was hard to leave California and come to a different life here in Israel, but I've made some really good friends here.   I've never met any Arab children.

 

Comment

1 Comment

Pakistan

My thoughts are with the folks in south Pakistan who have seen their homes destroyed and family members killed in a terrible earthquake.  My thoughts are also with those in the church in Peshawar a few days ago who were killed by a bomb.  This is very sad news for a nation that has produced some wonderfully kind people. 

1 Comment

5 Comments

Neechi Foods, Winnipeg

I'm in Winnipeg for the Thin Air Writers Festival.  Went to the Neechi Foods Community Co-op yesterday, at 865 Main Street.  This is an Aboriginal bakery and grocery store - got warm bannock with raisins, right out of the oven!  What a great start to the festival! 

5 Comments