Glimpses of a childhood in Aida

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With the Young Christian Democrats from Norway (KrfU), we visited one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem, Aida. We met with Rich Wiles, who works in the organization Lajee in the camp. Rich was asked to tell us a little bit about how life is like in Aida.

Rich works with children and young people, so this was his focus. He started to talk about the wall, which had disconnected the camp from an olive field nearby, where the children used to go and play. There are no gardens or football fields in the camp, so now the children are often playing at the verandas of the houses or in the streets instead.

People live densely in the refugee camps, and it makes life difficult in many ways. Water is scarce for all Palestinians on the West Bank, but in the camps even more so. In Aida, they have water two hours a week in the winter, and then people fill up water tanks to store water for the rest of the week. During summer people don't have water every week. This summer some families didn't get water in ten weeks. Israel controls water in the West Bank, and there is a clear contrast between the scarcity of Palestinian communities, and the constant water supply in the settlements.

Many homes in Aida have bullet holes in their walls. Rich said that Israeli soldiers are shooting into the camp regularly. He told us about a twelve year old boy, Miras, who was shot in his stomack while playing in his own house. It was noon on Friday, so everyone was in the mosque, praying. The streets were empty and calm. Miras survived, and his father wanted to take the case to court. He wrote to Israeli authorities, and needed an answer to his letter in order to open the case. The incident took place in 2006, and he is still waiting. The girl's school is Aida has also been shot against many times, so many times that when it was rebuilt, they made it without windows, which the bullets could go through.

It is so hard to believe that Israeli soldiers are shooting towards homes and schools, apparently for no reason. Like it was hard to believe when I met a mother in Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah this autumn. Her son had been shot, too, and he died. But even harder to believe is the fact Israel is not investigating these incidents.

With the help of Lajee, Miras had made a short movie, where he talked about what had happened to him. He ended: "I am thinking a lot about when I was shot. I try to solve it by playing games on the computer".


Children playing in Aida camp. Note the bullet hole near the window.
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Boundaries

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The last days we have had a group on visit from the Young Christian Democrats (KrfU) in Norway. At the moment they are in Israel, as they want to see and hear from both sides. Among the places we visited while they were here, was a valley close to the town Beit Jala. This valley has been annexed to Jerusalem by Israel. Baha, one of the empolyees at Joint Advocacy Initiative, where I volunteer, took us to a viewpoint over the valley. On both sides of us we could see olive trees with white marks, designating the planned route of the wall. When it is built, it will disconnect the valley from Beit Jala.

Notice the white marks on the trees, showing where the wall will be built.

This is not the first time Israel has changed the city boundaries of Jerusalem. When East Jerusalem was occupied and unilaterally annexed after the six days' war in 1967 (unilaterally annexation is prohibited by international law), they did not only take the six square kilometers which had previously comprised East Jerusalem, but also 64 square kilometers of the West Bank. The wall is again changing the city boundaries. On the one hand it is leaving out areas of East Jerusalem where Palestinians are living, so that 55 000 Palestinians will no longer be Jerusalem residents when the wall is finished. On the other hand it will include three Israeli settlements on the West Bank and big areas of undeveloped land. If you want to read more about this, see the website of the Israeli human rights organisation BTselem, or the Israeli organisation Ir-Amim, which is working especially with Jerusalem.

We went down into the valley to visit Abed, a Palestinian who is owning land in what used to be the West Bank and is now Israel. Palestinians need a permit from Israeli authorities or to hold a residency of Jerusalem in order to be allowed inside the city. Since Abed has neither, he is now staying illegaly in his own land.

Baha to the right and Abed in the middle.

States have boundaries. But how absurd is not a boundary that is changed by one side against the will of the other, a boundary that lets Israelis settle on the Palestinian side, while refugees can not cross it the opposite way, in order to return to their homes?
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Christmas sounds and Christmas silence

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The Christmas season here at the West Bank is long. It started early in December with Christmas lights in Bethlehem and is still going on with the Orthodox Christmas this week (a majority of the Christians in Beit Sahour are Orthodox).

A major difference between Christmas here and Christmas in Norway is the sound level, I think. It looks like Norwegians and Western people in general think of Christmas as a silent time. Just think of the first lines of this Christmas carol:

O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie,
above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by...

Not to forget other Christmas carols like "Silent night" and "Det lyser i stille grender". In Bethlehem and Beit Sahour, people rather seem to think that when a saviour is born, you ought to make some sound. Maybe they are inspired by the angels who sang for the shepherds? I suppose a host of angels is something pretty mighty to listen to.

Anyway, Christmas here is a holiday full of sounds: bagpipe prosessions, children shows (with more decibel than what would ever be allowed in Norway), candle prosessions (of course accompanied by music on a loud speaker) and young people driving their cars (also with music) through the streets late at night. This week the Greek Orthodox church chose to put their whole midnight service on the loud speakers so that everyone in the neighbourhood could hear it. It was loud and clear in my bedroom even with the windows shut and my pillow over my head. The chanting, singing and ringing of bells lasted for a couple of hours, only to let the good old call for prayers take over at around five o'clock...


Candle procession in Beit Sahour.

Still, there were some silent moments during my Palestinian Christmas as well. Stopping one December evening by a painted wall in Beit Sahour, for instance.





Or the Hannoun family sitting under their Christmas tree in East Jerusalem. After being thrown out of their home in August by religious settlers, you can find them on the street outside it every day, waiting for justice. If you want to read more about them, see Gjermund's blog. Maybe they are the best reminders of how and why Jesus was born. Or maybe we need it all in order to understand: the sounds, the silence and the call for justice.
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På skuleveg

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In Norway we have a song where a part of the refrain goes like this:

Hit eit steg og dit eit steg
dansar eg fram på skuleveg...

It is about a girl who is happily dancing on her way to school, eager for everyone to see her new dress. I guess most of us have memories from our way to and from school, happy memories and maybe scary ones, too. Last week I visited two schools in the Hebron hills. The children there also have their memories from their way to school, very different from those of Norwegian children.

The first school was situated close to the wall. Because most of the wall is built not on the so-called green line between Israel and the West Bank, but on Palestinian territory, the children at this school have to walk through a checkpoint every day to get to school. A checkpoint is not a place for a child, I think. For me, not used to seeing weapons, it is shocking to see people walking around with machine guns. I guess it is not any better to get used to it. Because of the proximity to the wall, it is not allowed to build with concrete in this area. A new concrete building had been built for the school. It has a demolition order.

In the second school we met Sam, who is working in the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT). Because of the violence from settlers, people from CPT accompany people on most of their errands. They also used to walk children to and from school, but Israeli authorities ruled that since their presence was seen as a provocation, Israeli soldiers should take over this task. According to Sam, the soldiers are not doing a good job. The children are not followed all the way, but have to walk the last 200 meters to and from their village on their own. Often the soldiers are late, leaving the children to wait for them all alone. The day we were there, settlers had thrown stones on the children with slingshots until they ran back to their homes. The smaller children had all been crying. "I think even the soldiers are afraid of the settlers," Sam said. "People say that if you lay hand on a settler, you will for ever stay in the lowest rank of the army."


Sam outside the school.

YMCA tries to give opportunities to children in the Hebron area to express themselves and to get other kinds of input than the settler violence. YMCA employees travel around to 300 schools and have activities with the children, using creative tools like clay, music or drawing. The day we were there a man and a woman were handing out clay and making figures together with the children.


The room these children are sitting in also has a demolition order.


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