This morning on the way to school, one of the teachers was telling us about her weekend. She had gone to visit Jerusalem--this is a big deal.
For Palestinian's to visit Jerusalem, even East Jerusalem, which is technically West Bank territory, they need a permit. Most are only able to get day short-term permits, which means that every time they want to go into Jerusalem they need permission from the Israeli government. Sometimes my friends are lucky and get permission, sometimes they are not; no matter what, a drive only 20 minutes away (I could easily walk across the border from my usual stomping grounds in Bethlehem). So, I was excited for this teacher was able to go to Jerusalem, it's a big deal.
She had gone with a friend who wanted to try and find her old house. Twenty years ago they had been moved out by the Israeli government, like many other Palestinians made refugees in their own country. When the two women went back to this area to find out where the house was now, they couldn't find it.
Imagine that: you are moved out of your home, perhaps where your family has lived for longer than family memory, and you can't recognize your home when you finally go back to visit it. I could tell you the house I lived in before my family moved to New York and we lived there less than 10 years, and I was only alive for three of them. How much more important, then, would it be to have the ability to go back and visit, or even recognize, your ancestral home?
One of the laides got into a discussion with a store owner over this fact. The fact that Palestinians had been driven out of their homes, sometimes promised the ability to return. They left their homes and most, if not all, of their possessions. They still hold refugee cards, and bear the scars that such upheaval causes economically and emotionally. The laides in the market area
The store owner argued his point: "[The State of Israel is] better than other Arab countries. It is a democracy."
The Palestinian lady responded, "We're not talking about that. These houses were stolen."
The poignancy of that statement really hit me because of how true it is. How often do we complicate things by bringing in other aspects that we aren't actually talking about? Debates and conversations snowball and we end up talking about a million other things but the issue at hand. I'm not saying that these issues aren't complex, but that we can't just throw everything in a pot and expect to come out with a neat, solid block.
Someone recently was telling me a story about this restaurant that had a competition, and if you solved the puzzle you would get a free pizza or something. The challenge was to unravel a giant ball of knots, like the messiest snarl you've ever seen, without cutting the string, of course. People would attempt to untie the knot, but no one could get it. They would try to pull a string out, but it would tighten other areas, making it harder and harder to get the knots out.
Years passed and no one could win the challenge, people had long since decided it was impossible. No one even wanted to try anymore. Then, a younger child came in and decided to have go. The people in the restaurant didn't even bother to look on, they knew how it would end...with a ball of knots even stronger than before.
Then the child began. She worked on one area for about a minute, loosening the string...and then she moved to another area of the ball, loosening the string. Again, after a minute or so, she moved on. She went to another section of the ball, worked on it, loosened some strings, and moved on. Over and over this happened, but no one bothered to watch. In fact, it didn't look like it was helping because the ball of knots was getting bigger! With each string loosened, the ball expanded.
And yet, the child kept on, working with each section, and then moving to another small section. Until she finished with a pile of untangled string around her.
Therein lies my point.
So often we add to the noise, making the issue at hand about much more than it really is. Palestinian's having been moved from their homes in what is now the State of Israel and their now being refugees is a complex issue and we can't take away from that. We can't ignore all of the factors that play into the current status quo here in the State of Israel and Palestine...but sometimes we have to act like the child unraveling the ball of knots and work at one part at a time. Of course we need to keep the bigger picture in mind, but we can't always use the bigger picture to solve one section.
Palestinian's were forced to leave from their homes, often with the promise that they would be allowed to move. The State of Israel being a democracy or better than the governments of other countries in the region has very little to do with the initial argument, and is up for debate as it is. We can't ignore the human rights violations and problems that have arisen at the hands of the Israeli government just because we think they do some things right.
It'd be like saying, when we are talking about people in the United States who are killed (physically and emotionally) because of their religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender, "Our Constitution allows us to be one of the freest countries in the world. We are much better than some of those other countries. Our people live in relative safety." We're not talking about that...
So let's live in paradox, shall we? Let's acknowledge that issues such as the unequal access to water, economic disparity, freedom of movement and unequal governmental representation are all connected and, in fact, evidence of much deeper-seated problems of racism, religious intolerance, economic injustice, and gender inequality. But we can't pull it all in together and expect it to be solved in an instant; it needs to be worked on over time, unraveling the small knots to realize the places where they are connected with the larger picture.
For Palestinian's to visit Jerusalem, even East Jerusalem, which is technically West Bank territory, they need a permit. Most are only able to get day short-term permits, which means that every time they want to go into Jerusalem they need permission from the Israeli government. Sometimes my friends are lucky and get permission, sometimes they are not; no matter what, a drive only 20 minutes away (I could easily walk across the border from my usual stomping grounds in Bethlehem). So, I was excited for this teacher was able to go to Jerusalem, it's a big deal.
She had gone with a friend who wanted to try and find her old house. Twenty years ago they had been moved out by the Israeli government, like many other Palestinians made refugees in their own country. When the two women went back to this area to find out where the house was now, they couldn't find it.
Imagine that: you are moved out of your home, perhaps where your family has lived for longer than family memory, and you can't recognize your home when you finally go back to visit it. I could tell you the house I lived in before my family moved to New York and we lived there less than 10 years, and I was only alive for three of them. How much more important, then, would it be to have the ability to go back and visit, or even recognize, your ancestral home?
One of the laides got into a discussion with a store owner over this fact. The fact that Palestinians had been driven out of their homes, sometimes promised the ability to return. They left their homes and most, if not all, of their possessions. They still hold refugee cards, and bear the scars that such upheaval causes economically and emotionally. The laides in the market area
The store owner argued his point: "[The State of Israel is] better than other Arab countries. It is a democracy."
The Palestinian lady responded, "We're not talking about that. These houses were stolen."
The poignancy of that statement really hit me because of how true it is. How often do we complicate things by bringing in other aspects that we aren't actually talking about? Debates and conversations snowball and we end up talking about a million other things but the issue at hand. I'm not saying that these issues aren't complex, but that we can't just throw everything in a pot and expect to come out with a neat, solid block.
Someone recently was telling me a story about this restaurant that had a competition, and if you solved the puzzle you would get a free pizza or something. The challenge was to unravel a giant ball of knots, like the messiest snarl you've ever seen, without cutting the string, of course. People would attempt to untie the knot, but no one could get it. They would try to pull a string out, but it would tighten other areas, making it harder and harder to get the knots out.
Years passed and no one could win the challenge, people had long since decided it was impossible. No one even wanted to try anymore. Then, a younger child came in and decided to have go. The people in the restaurant didn't even bother to look on, they knew how it would end...with a ball of knots even stronger than before.
Then the child began. She worked on one area for about a minute, loosening the string...and then she moved to another area of the ball, loosening the string. Again, after a minute or so, she moved on. She went to another section of the ball, worked on it, loosened some strings, and moved on. Over and over this happened, but no one bothered to watch. In fact, it didn't look like it was helping because the ball of knots was getting bigger! With each string loosened, the ball expanded.
And yet, the child kept on, working with each section, and then moving to another small section. Until she finished with a pile of untangled string around her.
Therein lies my point.
So often we add to the noise, making the issue at hand about much more than it really is. Palestinian's having been moved from their homes in what is now the State of Israel and their now being refugees is a complex issue and we can't take away from that. We can't ignore all of the factors that play into the current status quo here in the State of Israel and Palestine...but sometimes we have to act like the child unraveling the ball of knots and work at one part at a time. Of course we need to keep the bigger picture in mind, but we can't always use the bigger picture to solve one section.
Palestinian's were forced to leave from their homes, often with the promise that they would be allowed to move. The State of Israel being a democracy or better than the governments of other countries in the region has very little to do with the initial argument, and is up for debate as it is. We can't ignore the human rights violations and problems that have arisen at the hands of the Israeli government just because we think they do some things right.
It'd be like saying, when we are talking about people in the United States who are killed (physically and emotionally) because of their religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender, "Our Constitution allows us to be one of the freest countries in the world. We are much better than some of those other countries. Our people live in relative safety." We're not talking about that...
So let's live in paradox, shall we? Let's acknowledge that issues such as the unequal access to water, economic disparity, freedom of movement and unequal governmental representation are all connected and, in fact, evidence of much deeper-seated problems of racism, religious intolerance, economic injustice, and gender inequality. But we can't pull it all in together and expect it to be solved in an instant; it needs to be worked on over time, unraveling the small knots to realize the places where they are connected with the larger picture.
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