Outside Nablus

Palestine; some may call it the land of gratuitous tooting. If one is not awoken by the 5am call to prayer, he will be by the sounds of horns blaring as the volume of early morning traffic increases. There are many ways in which the horn is used in Palestine. It is used as a warning to other vehicles and pedestrians that a vehicle is approaching. It is used to express annoyance at a fellow car who has cut you off. It is used to encourage the person in front of you to go faster. It is used if the person in front of you stops in the middle of the road to let passengers off. It is directed toward (I can only assume) Allah when one is locked in a traffic jam. It is used by others when the taxi you are in continually drives on the wrong side of the road to avoid the traffic jams. It is used and sustained for sometimes up to 15 seconds if someone gets in your way. I would estimate that 85% of the time it accomplishes nothing and only winds people up. Hospital beds are laden with taxi drivers suffering from stress related illnesses. Palestinian road rules, or lack thereof, is something I will probably never used to. Nonetheless, if you want to see the country, you must jump into a vehicle and experience the madness once more. I have been fortunate enough to find myself amongst a bunch of avid travelers volunteering in Nablus. Come the weekend (Thursday and Friday for Project Hopers remember, though Friday and Saturday for most in Nablus), it is not uncommon for some kind of trip to be taking place somewhere around the West Bank.

Another trip to Sebastia, this time with my camera.

Hebron is a city at the bottom of the West Bank. It is the location of a few key holy sites, the most significant being a mosque containing the tomb of Abraham/Ibrahim and Sarai (maybe). Right next to the mosque is perhaps the most important synagogue in the West Bank. There was something odd about the presence of a soldier with a gun in the synagogue as people prayed and read the Torah nearby.

Abraham's tomb. RIP.

The site of Abraham's tomb contains one of the most significant mosques and synagogues alongside one another. This is a shot of the synagogue.

Hebron is also somewhat renowned for having settlements in the middle of the city. Usually settlements are in the hills, separated from arab communities. In Hebron, there is a checkpoint in the middle of the city, leading to a central street that contains primarily Jewish settlements. Needless to say, the area has been the site of numerous scuffles over the decades. We visited one Palestinian house located in the middle of the settlements, and it became clear through his stories that living there was close to impossible. Whether it was desperation or an attachment to his home that encouraged him to stay I was not sure. After his sad stories he indicated that he had a range of products for sale in his living room, which resulted in a long and awkward silence amongst the group. What do you say or do when an individual's desperate situation is used to push you into buying something you don't want? The long silence suggested that no one knew the answer to this question.

Check point in the middle of the city

Hebron city

View from the house we visited, complete with IDF neighbours.

New settlements going up mid city.

Palestine couscous is a uniquely chunky variety of couscous. It is called 'muftool' in Arabic, or muftooooooooouull as one shop owner encouraged me to pronounce it. I remember the pronunciation by recalling the cricket commentator from the Playstation game Shane Warne's cricket, who would always pronounce Simon Doull's name 'Doooooouullll'.  "Doooooouullll, steaming in." Muftoooooouull. Last week a few of us visited the fair trade factory just north of Nablus in Burqin. I had been buying Palestine couscous, or political couscous as I liked to call it, for a number of years, so it was great to go see the factory where it was being made. The visit was one of the more encouraging stories I have heard while in Palestine. 10 years ago, during the intifada, farmers around Nablus were being paid incredibly low sums for their produce (mainly couscous and olives). One individual, i forget his name, started a fair trade initiative in Palestine, a co-op that now includes around 1000 farmers and a well-organised production and export factory. In fact, it was the most organised thing I have witnessed while in Palestine. You can find the products such as couscous, olive oil, soap etc in your local stores. It may be a little bit extra, but it gives the farmers here a much better deal. The produce also has to be driven to the Israeli/West Bank border, unloaded, put into another truck, and driven on. The practical joys of occupation. So, the extra gold coin in cost is understandable. That's the end of my sales pitch. Read more here: http://www.canaanfairtrade.com/burqin.php

Another location I have found really encouraging is the freedom theater in Jenin, a town about 1 hour drive from Nablus. Recently the project hope crew was fortunate enough to meet a member of the PA here. I asked him what Palestinian people could do as a form of resistance, given he promoted non-violence and political peace talks had been ineffective for half a century. His answer, like all his answers, evaded the question somewhat, and the only point I could decipher was that Palestinians should stay in Palestine, which I did not find particularly enlightening. Perhaps they could do something while they wait? Maybe I am not being fair, but I felt like his answer reflected the lack of creative responses to the occupation throughout Palestine. Freedom theatre (along with canaan fair trade to some extent), is an example of creative resistance. The theatre has a school where students can learn to think critically and express their political frustration through drama. It has a full course which students can enroll in to study over the course of a few years, and it also runs youth programs. Productions take place in the theatre each week, and they are often taken on the road and performed around the world.There is, of course, an abundance of creativity in the youth of Palestine, but not many opportunities to express it. Schools are largely parroting institutions, where one learns by rote what the teacher says. The number one complaint I have heard from University students in Nablus is that the school system fails to teach them the intellectual skills they need. I hope there is a cultural revolution in Palestine, and youth are encouraged to think critically and creatively. I hope that this in turn leads to creative resistance, rather than violence or inactivity, which are the two options that seem to exist today. Initiatives like the Freedom Theatre offer me hope, and its therefore no wonder that they receive such a hard time from the IDF. I encourage you to read about them here: http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/

Inside the theatre.

Next week I head into Jordan to look around and meditate in the desert. I have a meditation attention span of about 10 seconds, but hopefully the sand will help.