The Canadian National Newspaper: A Canadian's personal experience of travelling through the Middle East

The young man on the left, his name is Bashar and he is Palestinian. I have never in my life met someone who is such a splitting image of myself.

Many nights we have spent up until two o’clock in the morning discussing Politics, Economics, Religion, Spirituality, Philosophy and Occultism, just to name a few subjects of conversation. Never have I met someone that I can so freely share and expand on ideas.

It’s amazing how people, no mater how far off in culture, geography and predicament can, in a sense, can share such a similar identity. This is what I like to consider one of the wonderful things about being human, and this is that as humans we seem to share a common union with one another that transcends physical distinctions.

When Bashar was four years old his family was forced from their homeland to start anew in Amman, Jordan. Like millions of other Palestinians he has been trying to fill a gap that has been created since the Israeli occupation of Palestine. When I look into his eyes I can see a generation in pain, a generation of an entire people consumed with overwhelming anger and sadness, a people whose culture is being stolen from them.

Why do so many people of my generation in the Western World share many of the same dark emotions in our hearts? We are not occupied by a powerful and ruthless military; we are free, free to live and free to think whatever we choose. Or are we? There are many constitutional scholars and journalists in the United States that would argue that our choices are becoming more limited with every passing day.

The choice to free speech and the choice to support anti-war movements, are just a few choices that have been limited through various executive orders coming from the White House, coupled with the Hawkish war mongrolling and manipulation of the Corporate pro-war mainstream media.

Bashar took some internationals, including myself, to a refugee camp in Amman, Jordan to show us firsthand the predicament that many Palestinians are living today. Today I was able to see for the first time with my own eyes a very sad truth. I believe that I have witnessed the reason why many people in all corners of the world share a common sadness.

In one form or another we are all enslaved by something, in one form or another; whether that form be an ideal, a dream or a certain paradigm, most of us are caught in the midst of world that makes no sense to us. A world that for the past seven years has been dictated to us through the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Bill O’Reilly, just to name a few of the culprits. Whose interests do these phonies represent anyways? These phonies would have the masses believe that the best foreign policy for the United States be served cold, involving the murder, yes murder, of innocent children, women and men; all in the name of freedom and democracy. It sounds more like a sick joke that some sociopath conjured up on a lonely Saturday night.

Bashar invited us into one of the resident’s houses so that we could see what the average house in the refugee camp looks like on the inside. There is no door on the entrance to the house, no ceiling, no plumbing and no bathroom. To say that the living conditions in this house are unclean would be a hell of an understatement. No human being should have to be subjected to these types of living conditions, but it is an every day reality for many Palestinians scattered throughout the many refugee camps in the Middle East.

As we walk through the alleys of this particular refugee camp, all eyes are focused on our group. We are three Palestinians, a Czech, a Dutch, a Belgian, a Frenchman and a Canadian. When asked whether or not these people take offence to the many pictures we were taking, Bashar tells us that we represent hope for these people. It’s amazing to see the smiles on the children’s faces as we pass them by on the streets and in the allies, smiles symbolic of the little innocence that’s left.

Why is it that these 250,000 Palestinians have to live in this tiny corner of Amman in these sub-human living conditions? This place would be better understood if they were referred to as ghettos; a place for people in a society that doesn’t want them.

To say that getting to Palestine is a hassle would be an understatement. I crossed the border from Jordan to Palestine through the Alenbi Bridge, which is about 60 kilometres West of Amman. When I got to the first checkpoint, I foolishly thought that I was crossing the border into Israel. After passing my luggage through a security scanner and showing my passport three times, I lined up with everyone to get onto a bus that would take me into the West Bank.

When I got onto one of these busses and took a seat near the back it crossed my mind that I might be in the wrong place as I was the only non-Palestinian on the bus, but I figured this would be the easiest way into the West Bank. Israeli police came on to check my passport and they told me that I needed a stamp from Jordanian Customs, so they escorted me off the bus and pointed me in the direction towards the customs office

In the Customs Office I gave my passport to a customs officer and was told to wait for another customs officer, so I sat down and I waited. When I realized that I was sitting beside someone that spoke English I asked her if she could help me figure out what the hell I was doing. Her name is Davina Jeffery, a British National, and it turned out that she is a relief worker for an organization by the name of Relief International and she had been living in Ramallah for nine months. She was on her way back to Ramallah and told me that I could tag along, which I was very grateful for, indeed.

We passed through two more checkpoints before getting to the border. We had to show our passports another three times as well as pass our bags through security scanners another two times. When I got to the customs desk, again I showed my passport and was asked a series of questions by the Israeli woman working at the immigration desk.

As was instructed to me by the Internationals at my work camp that had visited Palestine, I told her that I was on my way to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israelis have been known to turn back Westerners at the border that admitted they intended on visiting the West Bank.

After getting my stamp from Israeli customs I waited in another line with Davina for about a half an hour so that we could again show our passports and pass through more security scanners. We finally got out to the bus station where we bought tickets for Jericho and got on a bus. On our way to Jericho we were stopped at two checkpoints where we assumed the usual drill of having our passports checked.

From Jericho we shared a cab with four Palestinians to Ramallah. We traveled through a rocky and desolate mountain terrain where there are many Bedouin communities spread throughout the countryside. On the horizons of the countryside, on all of the highest points are Jewish-only Israeli settlements. These settlements have all been built illegally on Palestinian land, as stipulated in UN Resolutions 452 and 465 which “…’calls’ on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories” and “…’deplores’ Israel’s settlements and asks all member states not to assist Israel’s settlements program”, respectively.

Since 1967 Israel has expanded a total of 121 Jewish-only settlements and 102 outposts on confiscated Palestinian land, which is in direct violation of Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention which states: “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Israel’s settlements are in direct violation of International Humanitarian Law.

Israel has vigorously used a complex legal and Bureaucratic mechanism to expand its territory into more than 50 percent of Palestinian occupied territory in the West Bank. Israel uses this land strictly for the use and the benefit of the Israeli settlers. Palestinians are restricted from its use in any way whatsoever. This act is completely illegal and, again, in violation of International Humanitarian Law.

Walking around the old city of Ramallah was an amazing experience. The city is very beautiful and the people are friendly and hospitable. The energy of the city, at this specific point in time, seems calm and positive. Every time I would stop to buy something I was asked where I was from. If you are an American traveling in the Middle East, I suggest you tell the locals in whatever country you are visiting that you are Canadian.

I walked around for hours and visited various sites, including Al Manarah (Lions Square), Yasser Arafat’s grave and the Palestine Times, just to name a few. There’s something very special about this city but I can’t figure out exactly why; simply the feeling that I get walking around aimlessly, something about freedom in this city that makes it rather intoxicating.

I met up with two local friends and we cruised around the streets of Ramallah listening to angst filled American punk music sipping on the local Palestinian beer, being sure to hide them in the more densely populated areas. After giving me a condensed tour of the city we headed to Sameer’s house, which is located on the outskirts of Ramallah where right on the horizon is a Jewish settlement. Sameer told me that this is what North Americans would refer to as the ‘hood’, as it is very common for Palestinians and Jewish settlers to shoot back and forth at each other from this area.

We sat down in Sameer’s back yard so that we could figure out what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into. We chained smoked and drank beers for a short time before Sameer’s father came outside to greet us. He sat down with us and right away we started to talk about politics and the occupation in Palestine. Sameer’s father is a researcher and documentary film producer, which I thought was really interesting.

One thing in particular about the really educated and informed Palestinian, which is most of them, is that they remain open to and aware of all the many powerful global apparatuses that most of us North Americans simply shrug off as conspiracy theories because an expert on the television said so. They are subject to the Israeli genocide of their people and apartheid of their land on a daily basis, which is a stark contrast to the lives we live over here, lives so influenced and moulded by a mainstream media that works overtime to spin our perceptions into believing the worst of lies to serve the agenda of few. One need only watch Fox News Network to see this propaganda machine in full throttle.

There aren’t too many things that are more shocking to a Palestinian than someone from North America that can see the world through the same eyes as they do. They generally think that every North American, especially Americans, are ignorant, uneducated, dumbed down, entertainment seeking androids and I don’t blame them one bit for coming to that conclusion.

I talked a lot about the growing popularity of independent media in North America and that every day more and more Americans are making themselves more aware of what’s really unfolding domestically and abroad. The awareness of the growing popularity of these news sources makes Palestinians hopeful that perhaps, in the near future, their plight will be answered. We really want to believe that it is only a matter of time before enough people are made aware of the nightmare unfolding here before the required steps are taken to rectify it.

After much discussion, Sameer and Tayeb decided to take me out to the countryside located on the outskirts of Ramallah. Upon arrival we gathered some dead wood and shrubs from the grounds and built a fire near some rocks. On the horizon, about a kilometre North West we could see an Israeli army compound overlooking a large canyon. About another half-kilometre above in the hills rests a Jewish-only Israeli settlement. After cursing in that general direction for a few minutes we started to talk in detail about what is happening to them. They wanted to give me some first hand accounts of some of the unimaginable horrors that they have had to endure throughout their lifetimes.

Imagine being tortured growing up as a teenager. Imagine carrying many of your friends’ caskets to the grave with your own hands while their mothers cry and weep for God to bring them back and give them another chance. Imagine, everyday, seeing unimaginable pain and suffering everywhere you look as people cry for their children, their husbands, their wives, their brothers and their sisters. Imagine living in fear, not knowing whether or not your friends and family will be kidnapped in the night or whether your house will still be standing come dawn. Can you possibly imagine what that could possibly be like? I can’t, not for a second. When will their cries be heard? When will we start to listen?

It amazes, no, it boggles my mind how people who have suffered so much can still remain hopeful in the way that these two Palestinians remain this cool night in Ramallah. After a certain threshold of abuse and chaos, the fear subsides and the anger takes over. These people will never surrender to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. They will never give up their homeland without giving up their lives. This is what it really means to fight for freedom. This is what it really looks like.

The drive from Ramallah to Bethlehem gave me my first view of the massive wall that has and continues to be erected around and through the West Bank. Until you see this shame with your own eyes it’s really difficult to comprehend the true extent to what is happening here in Palestine. Like the Berlin wall and the South African Apartheid Wall before it, the wall in Palestine is symbolic of complete loss of freedom. In the year 2007, after all the difficult lessons humanity has learned together, on a human level, it is impossible for me to understand how this wall has come to be built in Palestine.

Despite intense pressure from Israel, the United States and EU Governments, on 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague “by fourteen votes to one stated that: ‘The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law’…by fourteen votes to one ‘Israel is under obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto, in accordance with paragraph 151 of this Opinion’… by fourteen votes to one, ‘Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem’…” These are just a few of the stipulations handed down by the International Court of Justice in regards to Israel’s Apartheid Wall, more than three years ago. Since that time the wall has been greatly expanded and continues to sprawl throughout the West Bank to this day, with no end in sight.

In April 2007 there were 71 Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. These check points are designed to make life for the Palestinians as difficult as possible by restricting their movement through the West Bank. This number doesn’t account for the various partial checkpoints, road gates, roadblocks, earth mounds, earth walls, trenches and road barriers; which for the same period totalled a whopping 549 (checkpoints included).

I was lucky to have had a very savvy taxi driver that knew many shortcuts around these various impediments, so we were lucky to only have had to cross one checkpoint. Under normal circumstances we would have had to cross through at least three checkpoints traveling from Ramallah to Bethlehem. When we got to the checkpoint we were greeted quite rudely by a young Israeli soldier that was carrying a new, high tech model of the American made M-16 assault rifle. He came into our taxi and took all of our passports and retreated to a small barracks where there was another young Israeli soldier. I could see that they were inputting some information into a computer and reading the results. This particular soldier couldn’t have been older than 21 years old.

He talked down to the Palestinians and myself as if we were complete idiots. It was appalling. These soldiers are here for nothing more than to intimidate and to make normal life for the Palestinians as difficult as possible. When he returned with our passports he looked at me quite oddly and asked where I was from as he was holding my passport in his hand, which I found to be quite odd. I thought it would be best to refrain from teasing this young man, so I said I was from Canada and I shut my mouth. After handing me back my passport he ordered one of the Palestinians off the cab to stay behind for interrogation. He must have been a threat to Israeli security, traveling through the West Bank from Ramallah to Bethlehem.

Most North Americans understand Bethlehem to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and thus considered sacred and holy land by all Christians. If you venture off from the Nativity church and into the city streets of Bethlehem you will see a massive, 12 metre-high wall that zigzags through various neighbourhoods, literally cutting neighbours and family off from one another.

I was lucky to receive a personal tour of the apartheid wall in Bethlehem and I was also introduced to some of the families that live right next to where the wall has been built. I was able to discuss in great detail with these Palestinians the extents that this wall has affected their livelihood. It is appalling what has happened to the Palestinians of Bethlehem.

There used to be houses where this wall now stands, but, like thousands of other homes, these homes were bulldozed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to make way for the wall. Many of the homes that remain on the enclosed, or more accurately jailed, side of the wall have been abandoned because they have been completely cut off from the rest of Bethlehem.

One of the residents showed me the gunshot wound to his hip that he suffered from an Israeli soldier when he attempted to stop the bulldozing one of his neighbour’s houses. According to the Israelis he is lucky that he was not run over and killed. I guess in some sort of sick way he is lucky, considering the amount of Palestinians that have been run over by Israeli bulldozers trying to protect their property and their families.

This man is forty years old and can barely walk let alone work, assuming that there’s any work inside Bethlehem. How is this man supposed to feed himself and his family, or send his children to school? It’s insane that Israel pays money to foreigners to move into illegal settlements in the West Bank when they have to render innocent people homeless just to build many of these settlements. It’s complete and utter insanity that this is happening, even right now as I type these words.

The Israelis want a Jewish majority inside the West Bank and in order to do that, they have to steal more and more land from the Palestinians and expel them from that land with no reparations, more accurately referred to as ethnic cleansing. Why is the Holocaust repeatedly used as an excuse to commit similar atrocities to the Palestinians? Palestinians that clearly had nothing to do with the genocide of the Jews during the Nazi’s reign over Germany. Since 29 September 2000, 4,170 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel. Zero Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians.

I took some time to take pictures of the various graffiti that’s painted all over the Palestinian side of the apartheid wall. Many powerful messages written by Palestinians, as well as internationals that have been brave enough to come see this crime against humanity will echo in my mind for the rest of my life. One message in particular that is etched into my brain contains a picture of a cross and beside it is written “For us he died”. When I look at this wall with my own eyes, I agree that if God does exist he left this place a long, long time ago.

Back at my hotel room as I was getting out of the shower I began to hear gunshots out in the streets. I ran to the nearest window to see what was happening but couldn’t see much of anything except for other locals out on their balconies for the same reason that I was. In Bethlehem, just like in Ramallah, the Jewish settlers were exchanging gunshots with the Palestinians. It’s difficult to describe the anxiety that you get when you start to hear gunshots. I personally didn’t feel fear, but I felt an overwhelming anxiety that took ownership of my senses for quite some time, even after the gun shots ceased.

After what felt like about fifteen minutes the shooting ended and the manager of the hotel came up to my room to assure me that the gunshots were simply celebratory gunshots from a wedding that was happening at the time. I assured him that I wasn’t going to leave the hotel.

Later that evening, I was invited to dinner by one of the Palestinians I had met while investigating the wall. When I arrived I was greeted very warmly by two other Palestinian men, one of which was the owner of a souvenir shop and the other a member of the Palestinian authority. They both spoke English very well. The man that was a member of the Palestinian authority, after a little bit of discussion (politics of course) told me that he had spent 12 years in an Israeli prison for being part of the resistance. We talked about politics and the situation in Palestine for about three hours, even through dinner.

As we sat and ate together I couldn’t help but feel intense sadness and anger. I have been asking myself the same question over and over ever since I first got a glimpse of the apartheid wall while on my way to Bethlehem: How can something so utterly inhumane be able to precipitate for so long without any foreign intervention? I repeatedly ask myself this question despite the fact that I know the answer. Thanks to objective researches such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and Norman Finklestein, amongst many others, the answer to that question, while seemingly complicated, has been outlined literally hundreds of times.

The most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America, not only allows it to happen, but actually supports it. They allow it to happen by vetoing nearly every sanction by the United Nations on Israel for “crimes against humanity” (42 vetoes since 1947 directly shielded Israel from council criticism) and they support it financially through 3-billion in annual military aid. In addition, financial arrangements worked out solely for Israel bring the total to about $5 billion a year. This total does not include such programs as the $10 billion loan guarantee granted to Israel in 1992. Much of this money is secured for American weapons; Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank; the construction of the apartheid wall; the expansion of settlements into Palestinian land; the bulldozers that have bulldozed thousands of Palestinian homes and the prisons to house the many Palestinian political prisons who’s freedom has been stolen from them for resisting the Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

The media in the United States also works hand in hand by manipulating the perceptions of Americans into believing flat out lies. The same way they convinced Americans that a group of cave dwelling Arabs flew planes into the Pentagon and World Trade Centre; the same way they convinced Americans that Saddam Hussein, not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but had close ties to Al-Queda; and the same way they are currently trying to convince Americans that Iran is directly responsible for the failed operations in Iraq and that they are an imminent threat to American sovereignty; they have convinced Americans for decades that Palestinians are nothing but terrorist that Israel needs unequivocal protection from. This seems to be the general consensus among the top political leaders in the United States. How can this possibly be so when the reality of the matter is actually the complete opposite?

The world we live in is completely schizophrenic and our doctors wonder why there’s been a sharp rise in mental illnesses all over the world. People are simply reflecting the world that they live in, a world that has gone completely insane. It’s insane that since 1992, 459 Israeli soldiers have committed suicide.

In 2005, suicide was the number one cause of death for IDF soldiers. This figure may seem alarming to many people, but not at all to me. This is simply what happens when you send innocent Israeli children to commit genocide on innocent people. You see, with Israeli citizenship comes a mandatory three year sentence to the IDF. People can be brainwashed by their country’s propaganda, but when they see the reality of the atrocities that they are forced to commit, many young Israelis are so torn inside that they take their own lives.

Late one night in Amman, Bashar told me a story of a faint childhood memory he still holds on to. One day when his family was crossing a checkpoint from his hometown of Lydda, he encountered a young Israeli soldier that was puzzled that Bashar wasn’t smiling in his face, as was common of the Palestinian children in those days. The soldier asked Bashar why he wasn’t smiling and Bashar replied to the soldier that it was because when I grow up, you are going to shoot me. The soldier started to shed tears uncontrollably and was rushed away from his post by his superior.

Americans need to wake up and empower themselves by reading independent, factual media and they desperately need to tell their government that they aren’t going to stand still while America endorses the atrocities that are taking place in Palestine and that they will no longer allow these crimes against humanity to take place while they foot the bill. Until the United States Government stands up to the Zionist influences that cast their shadows over politicians and the mainstream media through powerful lobbying organization such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Palestinians will continue to suffer the genocide and ethnic cleansing that is the reality of today in Palestine. People need to realize that life is ultimately more sacred than profits.

Upon thorough examination of the April 2007 Closure Maps that I was able to obtain at the United Nations Headquarters in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which is now completely annexed to Israel (contrary to UN Resolutions 298, 476 and 478) , one can only come to one logical and rational conclusion. The conclusion is that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is not going to end until ALL of Palestine, the remainder of the West Bank and Gaza, are evacuated of all Palestinians. When the new April 2007 Closure Map (published by the United Nations) is compared with the 1948, the 1967 and the 2000 maps, the pattern is blatantly obvious to anybody with a shred of reason. The Palestinian land keeps on shrinking, the Jewish settlements keep getting more abundant and the apartheid wall is extending through more and more Palestinian neighborhoods, villages and arable lands.

Especially in contrast with the 2000 map, if the rate were to keep up at the pace of the last seven years, in another ten years, there will be nothing left of Palestine except for refugee camps sprawled throughout the Middle East. Theirs will be a culture that once was, a culture that will be forgotten to many once the history books are rewritten and an entire people become dust in the wind. If that happens it’s because WE allowed it to happen, period.

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