The Good and the Bad

Well you’ve heard already that the participants are here if you read my last post. And you’ve heard pretty much what I’ve been doing considering I am with them at all times, responsible for organizing their activities and leading/accompanying all of the activities as well. I suppose I can just take a moment on a personal note to say that I am really enjoying this group. They seem like very mature individuals, and actually, I am one of the youngest people among us right now. I have had a lot of fun getting to know them and hanging around with them in our meetings and our trips within Bethlehem and in Jerusalem. A couple of nights ago at Osh Grab (the park where I worked last year), there was a little festival with a British musician and a few debkah (traditional dance) groups performing. One member of the group went with me, and besides having a good time watching everything, we had a really great discussion about using our expensive private educations to do something meaningful here and back in the U.S.

Even though so much has been going very well, I have been getting very frustrated recently—just because I have been reading the news. While waiting for a while to meet our participants as they arrived in Jerusalem, I was reading an Israeli newspaper, which had a mix of articles from right-wingers and people who are probably middle-of-the-road politically. I have also been reading Ha-Aretz online in my spare time. I’ve read about how Israeli companies are removing stone from West Bank quarries, which is a violation of international law (it is illegal to exploit the non-renewable resources of an occupied territory). I read from people who were indignant that illegal settlement outposts were being threatened by the government to be dismantled. (Never mind that normal settlements are against international law themselves—it is illegal to move a civilian population into an occupied territory—but, the outposts are illegal even by Israeli law! Defense minister Ehud Barak has been making empty threats of dismantling these for two years; he tries to negotiate with the people living in them, who are clearly not interested in negotiating, and never gives an ultimatum for talks to end and action to commence, enforcing his own laws/policies.) Over and over, I see how Israel out-rightly refuses to abide by the terms of the peace agreements it has signed. I read how the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton are actually “pressuring” Israel to freeze all growth in settlements (something encouraging finally!), yet how Netanyahu has decided to ignore that. (In another article I learned that despite Israel’s noncompliance, the U.S. is going to completely foot the bill for a new missile defense system.) I read how Israel is getting closer to outlawing the mourning of its conception. (Palestinians usually commemorate the Nakbah [i.e. “catastrophe” in Arabic] rather than the Israeli Independence Day.) To echo a cry I’ve heard at the Ma’asara protest numerous times: “1, 2, 3, 4, Occupation NO MORE; 5, 6, 7, 8, Israel—a FASCIST STATE!” I want to know what is going on around me, yet I wonder if reading all of this news is just going to make the whole situation even more unbearable because, when I hear all of these things day after day, it wears me down and chips away at what little hope I am still holding onto for this situation to be resolved with a real peace (and there can be no Peace without Justice).