A Pilgrim Diary
Day 7
Had a bad nights sleep - think I'm coming down with a cold - either that or it's the dust !
At the Alternative Tourism Group we met two out of the three Georges that help run the place.
At the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre we heard that stress related diseases becoming common. Domestic violence is also more common.
Zoughbi Zoughbi told a story that shows how they try to reconcile people :-
"God gave a man one wish for his family. So he went and asked his Mum who, because of her age, wanted to have new eyes. He went to his wife who said, Don't listen to your mother, she's old. We should have a child to continue our family. The husband just wanted a better life. They couldn't agree on the one wish so they went to the centre for reconciliation where they were told not to wish for anything for themselves, but that their wish should be that his mother would see her grandchildren grow up in a land of milk and honey."
One thing that is becoming apparent is that the stories we are hearing from the Palestinians concerning their treatment under the Israeli's is pretty consistent. This consistency lends truth to what we are hearing. It will be interesting to hear the Jewish side, and also their answers for some of the things that we are hearing and seeing.
One thing that is interesting is that the Israeli's have checkpoints and border guards enforcing closures of towns and roads for reasons of security. Which sounds sensible until you realise that it is extremely easy for the Palestinians to walk around these checkpoints. So much for security !
Visited our guides home and family. His parents live downstairs and their children will live on the floor above them, once they've built the floor ! His brother speaks five languages and is working on his degree.
Visited Hope Flower school which has a mural of flags from around the world, and is the only place in Israel / Palestine where you will see the Israeli and Palestinian flags together. They are working at the grass-roots level to reconcile Palestinian and Israeli. They are not without dissenting voices in Palestine - our guide wasn't too happy with some of the views of the director of the school and that's putting it mildly. He felt the school was selling the Palestinians out.
At the school we heard how they are trying to get Israeli and Palestinian children together to find out about each others cultures, to learn to live together. Hussein (the director) mentioned about losing some of their customs (as Palestinians). Our guide took offence at this, desiring to hold onto traditions and customs at any cost, whether they are good or bad customs, as that is all they have left since their land has been taken away from them. Differing points of view about the school from Palestinians !
Hussein mentioned the custom about a man riding on a donkey with his wife walking behind, when he felt it should be either the man and the woman on the donkey or them both walking. Another custom is at a wedding feast the men eat the meat and the women and children get the scraps after the men have had their fill. Our guide thought that Hussein is working more for Israeli's than for Palestinians. It was interesting to see that there is no easy answer. I felt that our guide had got the wrong end of the stick. I thought that what Hussein was saying was that we should put aside our prejudices and customs, on both sides, and to work together. Working at the grass roots level as they are can be a more effective way of change. Still need political change (which is what Humans Rights organisations are doing) but sometimes change is better, more lasting, more real if it comes from the bottom up rather than top down.
Things are never clear cut in this place, it's going to take a lot of T.L.C (Tender Loving Care) on both sides before Peace will last.
It's expensive over here, I'm rapidly running out of money !
Yesterday Tomorrow