Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Damascus Gate
This is one of the gates that funnels people into the impossibly narrow and chaotic alleys of the Old City. Hey all it's Elliot here.
Jemima has gone to bed, but I am to pumped with caffeine- Palestinian coffee and tea are just too tempting.
So we're in Ramallah, in the top secret world HQ of the International Solidarity Movement, ingeniusly disguised as... well a flat. For the last 2 days we've been training with other activists in the ways of non-violent activism.
JERUSALEM/AL QUDS
But before this we "did" Jerusalem, baby. Known to Muslims as "Al Quds (The Holy). We had more time than we thought we were going to in which to mooch touristically about the holy city, and ponder the number of people who had been butchered in order for their bosses to possess it.
We were staying on the edge of the Old City. It's encircled by 16th century wall built by Someone(?) the Magnificent, who was fretting about a Spanish Crusade that never materialised. Inside you the walls you enter a bustling world of narrow streets crammed with markets. All very medieval, except very alive- certainly a contrast with Tel Aviv's skyscrapers.
We stayed in the Faisal Hostel, which is rough and ready, but a great place to hang and
A view of East Jerusalem
This pic looks rather tranquil with the palms and the warm sunlight. This was a noisy intersection outside the old city. chat to strangers. There's also Mish Mish, the incessantly pregnant Cat, and a tiny kitten, which would soothe the most avage breast.
It was nice for me because Jemima helped me see it with fresh eyes. Plus, her near-religious faith in the Lonely Planet (I was skeptical) revealed new stuff I'd never done.
A case in point was the "Museum of the Seam." THis place was a nineteenth century house that was occupied as a military outpost when the border between Israel and Jordan passed through the city 1948-1967, before the Six Day War. Israeli soldiers pointed guns from there, and Jordanian soldiers pointed theirs back from the city walls, profiting from the foresight of Wossname the Magnificent.
The Museum now there houses art that expresses the futility of the conflict. It's quite difficult to describe what it was like - lots pf video installations and interactive displays.
Some of it was quite harrowing- bombarding the senses with sound and images. Some of it was more measured, but still provocative. We left resolved that everyone should go there.
Continuing our run of tourism (we are going to do activist stuff, I swear!) we had a meal
The kitten
One of Mish Mish's manifold progeny. in a rooftop restaurant called Papa Andress (also courtesy of Lonely Planet- grrr). There place mats showed the sky line of the city, the sacred landmarks being subtly arranged to represent the name of the restaurant. Cracking grub, too.
Anyway, we passed into the West Bank yesterday morning. Qalandia checkpoint, betwixt Al Quds and Ramallah, has now been transformed into a "terminal" where passage INTO the West Bank was easy. I think this is probably a genuine improvement for many Palestinians, but you still need to have the right colour ID to go both ways. Saw the Wall again too, which hasn't got any more aesthetically pleasing in its bland presence.
Parenthetically, I will typically call this "the wall" for short hand, though I concede in some places it is only a 6 metre high fence with two trenches, razor wire, motion sensors, and tri-lingual "get lost or get shot" signs (I paraphrase). If you don't know what the diddly it is I speak of, then check stopthewall.org.
TRAINING IN RAMALLAH
Anyway, the last 48 hours have been spent ensconced in the ISM stuffy media office discussing non-violent protests, international law, our legal status, the properties
of tear-gas and rubber bullets, the prospect of deportation, women's rights in Palestine, and football. I have to say it has been pretty harrowing stuff. Penalties again!!
Yesterday, while we trying to get our heads around all this, Ramallah was closed down- not for the final like Paris or Rome, but because of Gaza. It was a strike in the West Bank to express solidarity with what's happening down there. I don't really know what to say about Gaza... i think I may lack the words at 1.30 AM. It... erm... sucks. ISM are not in Gaza. I doubt they could do much there anyway, with the scale of Operation Summer Rains (sounds Wordsworthian...).
I was disappointed - actually quite upset to discover that ISM does not have a group in Tulkarem, my old Palestinian stomping ground. I think it'll be easy enough (or as easy as getting anywhere in Pal gets) to get there and drop off our donation for the the Society of Social Work and the orphans, but I had always imagined going back there as an activist to work with the same community. I wanted to introduce Jemima to everyone there, and act all knowledgable about the locality. Now I'm going to be an innocent abroad again.
Still no use whinging- there's still an occupation to end. Tomorrow we leave for a mysterious location in the Jordan Valley... I know not where! It will be good to finally be doing something, anyway. I am advised it will be very hot, which will be nice given the chilly 30 degrees C here.
Anyway, enough for tonight.
Love Elliot
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.025s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mary
non-member comment
Get some sleep
Good to hear all that is going on and glad you have spent some time seeing things around. Keep going with the blog as it puts our minds at rest, but get some sleep, you'll need your wits around you.