I wish I knew how it would feel to be free

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For some months now, I've had a song on my mind. For me it sums up the life of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and discrimination, and since I'm going back to Norway in just a few days, I'd like to end my blog with it. So, here it is. If you want to hear Nina Simone sing it, go to YouTube.

And I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
I wish I could break all the chains holdin' me
I wish I could say all the things that I should say
say'em loud, say'em clear for the whole round world to hear.



I wish I could share all the love that's in my heart,
remove all the bars that keep us apart.
I wish you could know what it means to be me.
Then you'd see and agree that every man should be free.



I wish I could give all I'm longin' to give.
I wish I could live like I'm longing to live.



I wish I could do all the things that I can do,
and though I'm way over due I'd be startin' a new



Well I wish I could be like a bird in the sky
How sweet it would be if I found I could fly



Oh I'd soar to the sun and look down at the sea
And I'd sing 'cause I'd know yeah
And I'd sing 'cause I'd know yeah



And I'd sing 'cause I'd know
I'd know how it feels
I'd know how it feels to be free



Yeah yeah I would know how it feels
Yes I'd know I'd know
How it feels
How it feels
To be free




The photos show, chronologically:
1 People waiting at the Gilo checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem
2 The Hannouneh family, who were thrown out of their home in East Jerusalem in August last year, sitting outside their house
3 One of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, Beer Sheva in the horizon
4 Children in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem
5 Blooming almond trees in Beit Sahour
6 Beit Sahour farmers who have lost land to the Har Homa settlement, and are now struggling to keep their land in Oush Ghrab
7 Children in the southern Hebron hills, who are facing settler violence on their way to school
8 The painting of a flute player on a wall in Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem

You can find all the stories on my blog.
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Qalqiliya

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Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
what I was walling in or walling out
and to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall.

(From "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost)

This week Lars, Ciara, Gjermund and I visited Qalqiliya, a city that is completely surrounded by the Barrier. We met with Muhammad Selim, who is working with refugee issues, and Rafiq Marabi, who is the leader of the National Committee for Grassroots Resistance, an organization working against the wall and the settlements. Rafiq Marabi took us around Qalqiliya, and gave us an introduction to the situation there. He told us that 60 percent of the land belonging to Qalqiliya was taken in the war in 1948 (Israel during this war conquered more land than was given to the state in the UN partition plan, to be more precise, 78 percent as opposed to 55). Today 70 percent of the inhabitants of Qalqilya are refugees. After Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, additional land around the city of Qalqilya has been taken to settlements. Finally, in 2003, 2500 dunams (a dunam is 1000 square meters), ended up on the other side of the Barrier. The Qalqiliya that is inside the wall consists of 6500 dunams, 4000 of which is built-up area. Here's a map over Qalqilya city and the surrounding area:



As should be clear from the map, not only Qalqiliya city is divided by the Barrier, but the whole area around it. If you want to see how the Barrier is crisscrossing the entire Qalqiliya governorate, see page 4 of this UN report. All in all the wall is taking 60 percent of the land. The rest is divided by the Barrier and by settlements. "They are killing the possibility for a Palestinian state, they are killing the possibility for peace", Marabi comments.


Rafiq Marabi and Lars looking at a map.

In Qalqiliya city 45,000 people are living. But many are moving, because their lives have become so difficult. At the time 37 percent live under the poverty limit. Traditionally Qalqiliya has been a center of agriculture, because of its rich water supplies. According to Muhammad Selim, this is also why so many settlements have been constructed around it, and why the wall now is taking even more land. Farmers who have land on the other side of the wall, have great difficulties in reaching it. Many greenhouses are abandoned because farmers are not able to look after them during the day. If land is not cultivated within a period of three years, Israel can use an old Ottoman law to confiscate it. Other greenhouses had to be removed in order to make place for the Barrier.

The National Committee for Grassroots Resistance works against these Israeli policies in different ways: media work, demonstrations, working with political leaders and also legal work within the Israeli court system. In court they have managed to change slightly the route of the Barrier. What they asked for was for the Barrier to go along the so-called Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. The reason that was given why this was impossible was the settlements. If anyone wondered, the settlements are just as illegal according to international law as the Barrier is.

Back at Muhammad Selims office, we talked more about the effects of the Barrier on people in the area. Selim spoke about the difficulties of getting proper health care for the people left on the other side of the wall, and also of maintaining social ties. "If you want to have a wedding, you have to get permits for all your guests to cross the gate", Selim said, and continued: "We don't want to be animals, who just eat and work, we want to be human beings. You start to think that you are not like others, there are limitations everywhere."


The Wall in Qalqiliya.
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Study war no more

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I remember the first time I saw an Israeli soldier wearing a machine gun. I had only seen a gun once before in my life, a pistol carried by a police officer in France a few years ago. This time I was at a checkpoint between Beit Jala and Jerusalem. The sight of the machine gun was so shocking that it almost made me cry. I know that there is an occupation and that soldiers carry weapons, but still to see something that is produced to kill people is absurd to me. Now I am used to soldiers and machine guns. They are everywhere, not just at the checkpoints, but in the streets, cafes and buses, as Israel has many soldiers, and most of them carry their weapon even when they are off duty. I have seen settlers carrying machine guns as well. Despite the amount of settler violence towards Palestinians, settlers are not checked and disarmed at the many checkpoints scattered over the West Bank. Protection is for Israelis, not Palestinians.

A while ago I met with Ruth Hiller, who is active in a movement called New Profile. It is a feminist organization working for the demilitarization of the Israeli society. Ruth told me some interesting things about the Israeli military. She described how different parts of society are influenced by it, for instance how army networks are dominating politics as well as business. "One of the most militarized public spheres is the schools", she said. There are assistants in schools wearing uniforms, and often the principal is an ex-general (They retire and re-educate at 44.). Recruiting takes place during the two last years in high school: Different tests take place there, and military officials come to encourage the pupils to join different units. Teachers are obliged to identify children with low motivation and report them. People from the military dressed in civil then come and talk to them.

Some may have heard about how young Israelis who refuse to enter the army, have to go to jail. You can read about some of them on this website. When these conscientious objectors have finished their sentence, they are again asked to join the army, and if they say no, they are sent to prison once more. Often it continues like this until jail has made the objector so depressed that he or she is excempt on medical grounds. These people are not the only ones who avoid military service, however. Of the around 80 percent of the Israeli population who are Jewish, a total of 25 percent of high school graduates do not go into the military. Another 26 percent don't complete their service (two years for men and three years for women, men also have reserve service until they are 42). "The myth is that every Jewish boy and girl go into the military. People think that they don't have any other future than being a soldier", Ruth said, and continued: "In Israel you are not allowed to postpone your service a few years like you can in Europe, which means that there is no time to think. Israel could not have conscripted that many at the age of 21, because then people have matured as individuals." She added that soldiers live at home during their service, and only are paid around 100 dollars a month. "That's below minimum wage. It's slave labour", she concluded.

New Profile's main focus is giving support and counseling to people who question their military service or have decided to refuse. They cooperate with other Israeli organizations working in the same field. "It is our belief that there is always a choice", Ruth declared. "There are different ways of solving a conflict. Israelis are told that war is the only way. In New Profile we question this. After all it hasn't been working for 63 years".
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The light from Jerusalem

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Saturday before Easter Sunday is called Sabt en-Nur (Saturday of Light/Fire) by Christian Palestinians. According to Orthodox tradition a holy fire is lit without any human intervention in the Holy Sepulcher (the church held to stand on the place of Golgatha as well as the grave of Jesus). The lighting of the fire has taken place at least since 1066, maybe even centuries before that. The fire is thought to be the flame of the resurrection power, and also the fire of the burning bush that Moses encountered at Mount Sinai. It is brought from Jerusalem by special flights to many Orthodox countries, such as Russia, Serbia, Greece, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Syria and Lebanon, and welcomed on the airports by state leaders.

The fire also travels through the Wall to the Christian communities at the West Bank. I was at the reception in Beit Sahour. It was a great party, people had dressed up and were crowding the streets, scouts were marching and playing drums and bagpipes. The sound of at least 40 bagpipes playing in unison is pretty intense! I recognized a few of the tunes, the "Symphony of Joy" by Beethoven and then -of course- "My Heart will go on" from Titanic. It was an impressive celebration.


Scouts marching.


More scouts marching.

After speeches, music and marching, at last the light came, the holy light of the resurrection -in a taxi! After it came the prime minister of the Palestinian authority, Salam Fayyad. People surrounded the two cars, out stepped the patriark with the lantern, to the flashing of cameras and the smell of incense. Then we all started a procession through the streets of the Old City. On the balconies more people were watching, some throwing candy down at us. We arrived one of the many churches in Beit Sahour. There was a stage filled with scouts, and people could go into the church to light their own lanterns with the holy fire.


The patriarch stepping out of the car.

With my Lutheran background, Sabt en-Nur reminded me more of the Norwegian constitution day than Norwegian Easter. Still I see that there is no intrinsic link between Christian celebrations and organs. And there was something about this celebration that made sense, even to a Norwergian Protestant. Maybe it was the life and joy of the event. It seemed to suit a resurrection. There was a nationalistic touch to the celebration as well, with the prime minister present and kufiyyes and flags on the bagpipes. But for Christians struggling to stay in the land of the resurrection, as it is called in the Kairos document, I suppose your religion is also about your geografical roots.

But the strongest impression was maybe to see a celebration of a light coming from a city inaccessible to most of the Christians in Beit Sahour. In general, Palestinians are not allowed to go to Jerusalem (East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967, and is being separated from the West Bank more and more). During religious holidays, people can apply for a permission to go, but many don't get it. Some object to the whole system of permissions. Why should they apply for traveling in their own land? On Palm Sunday there was a demonstration where 100 people managed to pass the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem before they were stopped by police on the other side. This was part of an annual procession that used to go between the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem every Easter Sunday. It's so sad to talk to people about their holiday plans, knowing that they can't go to the city where Easter started, in order to go to the Holy Sepulcher, or to see friends and family. But the light of the resurrection crosses the Wall. Maybe it will someday also tear it down.
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