Settlements

The first 12 days in Palestine I have been involved in a workshop where everyday is packed with meetings and lectures in attempts to paint a picture for myself and my fellow classmates of the conflcit going on here. We've met with both Palestinians and Israelis from the extreme right and left. If you know anything about me, you know where my solidarity lies. So some days have been true tests of my ability to listen and to be patient. Also, because days have been so packed, processing information has been difficult.

A day that truly tested my ability not to completly freak out was the day we visited three different settlements. I knew it would be hard, but there is nothing that I could have done that could have adequately prepared me for the experience. I really tried to calm myself before arriving, but the first settler we met with, Mike Lowrey, within minutes of arrivng at Taquoa pointed off into the distance and said, “If you look out beyond to our left you'll see the desert and there are some Arab villages. They weren't always here. They just started popping up without asking anyone.” I lost it. To hear a settler say that Arabs were taking land made my blood boil. I was expecting him not to recognize Palestine, but to claim that the land was a barren swamp land made me loose it.

When we came together in the group and he opened himself to questions it was impossible for me not to attack him. I knew there was no way I could convince him of anything, nor could I make him see my perspective, but I could not remain silent. The claims he made seemed completely outrageous and I could not find a grain of reason in them. I am always trying to be objective and to see the perspective of the other side, but I just could not do it with Mike or any of the settlers. His claims that the only way for the Arabs, here and in neighboring Arab countries, to recognize the state of Israel is if the occupation continues. His assertion that he, who had been there for 33 years, had more of a right to be where he was then the Palestinian people made me not capable of seeing straight. His history lesson that asserts Palestine was an uninhabited swamp land and the only reason Arabs came here is because of the amenities that the state of Israel brought after 1967 made me clench my fists until my knuckles turned white. I know getting into an argument was not the most effective way to get my point across but that was all I could do at that moment.

Although fuming on the inside,I kept quiet the rest of the day. I was at a loss for words. The next settler Neftali did impress me with his control over the audience. I could easily see how he could win over people who had no previous position on the issue. I think I was able to compose myself with him because I had gotten some rage out with Mike. I also was absolutely speechless with some of the ideas he had. He, as well as others, claim that Muslims are trying to take over the world to spite Israel. He also claimed that everything was fine in Gaza before Hamas came in. And that there is coexistence in the West Bank like never before. And that one of Fatah's objective is to brainwash the children in the Palestinian Territories, oh I'm sorry, I meant Judea and Sumeria. The pièce de résistance that really made my mouth drop was his plan for peace: to simply leave all the settlements as they are and to create some sort of tunnel/bridge system between the 40%of the West Bank that is under PA control. Wow.
The final settlement was in Hebron, where David Wilder just plain scared me. We took a 'tour' of Hebron where I was tempted to tell him that he was leading an Arab Muslim around, but I was worried about how he might react.
Meeting and hearing the settlers was important to my experience here, but it just adds to my anger about the conflict. I just do not get it.

The ending of the day was the true icing on the cake. Myself and a few of my classmates decided to walk around West Jerusalem. We got lost along the way and the stranger we asked for directions ended up taking us to a fine pub and spent the outing with us. He volunteered his views, which mimicked a lot of the ideas the settlers had shared with us earlier in the day. It was very disheartening to hear a random Israeli we met on the street say that he felt the Arabs in Israel needed to go to neighboring Arab countries. He felt all Arabs are the same, and the 'Sinai is empty anyway' so those in Gaza might as well go there. It further complicated a complex issue and made me cry yet again in frustration.