Fair Harvest in the Dominican Republic

8 years ago here at Global Exchange Reality Tours we began incorporating the fair trade story into our annual departures to address disturbing truths about the global economy.  Millions of farmers around the world are facing poverty and starvation because global crop prices have continued to plummet to all-time lows, a worldwide crisis exacerbating problems including malnutrition, family farm closures, and in some cases increased drug cultivation.

In today’s world economy, where profits rule and small-scale producers are left out of the bargaining process, farmers, craft producers, and other workers are often left without resources or hope for their future. Fair Trade helps exploited producers escape from this cycle of poverty.

The tourism industry has seen a growth in both “voluntourism” and philanthropy-based travel, and in 2003 Reality Tours launched its first Fair Harvest tour. The goals; to share the story of fair trade with travelers, to offer a service learning opportunity, to support local community-based tourism initiatives as a promoter of socially responsible travel, to meet and exchange with fair trade certified cooperative farmers, and to inspire our alumni to return committed to supporting the fair trade movement in their own communities and to support our Global Exchange Fair Trade campaigns and Fair Trade craft stores.

Global Exchange Reality Tours highlight the importance of fair trade on commodity crops such as cocoa, coffee, olives, and tea as well as textiles and crafts, and contextualizes the debate between “fair trade” and “free trade” crops and products in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Palestine, India, Nepal, Rwanda and many other countries. Reality Tours provide the opportunity for participants to learn firsthand how:

• fair trade producers receive a fair price – a living wage;
• forced labor and exploitative child labor (and modern day slavery) are prohibited;
• buyers and producers have direct long-term trade relationships;
• producers have access to financial and technical assistance;
• sustainable production techniques are encouraged and mandated;
• working conditions are healthy and safe;
• equal employment opportunities are provided for all;
• all aspects of trade and production are open to public accountability.

The Fair Trade system benefits over 800,000+ farmers organized into cooperatives and unions in over 48 countries. While the complexities of each country are unique, what fair trade means for communities is often very similar. Fair Trade profits help fund basic education, health care, and general infrastructure in communities, amplifying the dignity of communities who get to stay on their land. Reality Tours fair trade themed trips provide the opportunity for farmers to share their stories with participants. Reality Tours participants who have witnessed firsthand the benefits of fair trade return from their journey inspired by the experience.

Nicaragua Woman Harvesting Coffee Beans

A Cup of Fair Coffee?
Let’s take a commodity or two as an example. The United States consumes one-fifth of all the world’s coffee, the largest consumer in the world. But few North Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as “sweatshops in the fields.”

Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis in Nicaragua, assuring consumers that the coffee they drink was purchased under fair conditions. To become Fair Trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria; paying a minimum price per pound, providing much needed credit to farmers, and providing technical assistance such as help transitioning to organic farming.

Fair Trade for coffee farmers in Matalgapa means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship. Our Fair Harvest programs to Nicaragua provide the historical context for this social and economic vulnerability and absolutely impact people’s purchasing decisions. We’ve been honored to work with the Fair Trade Cooperative CECOCAFEN for years and know that when our delegates return many choose fair trade in their cups. What if that one-fifth of global coffee drinkers all put their purchases where their values are? That would have global repercussions!

Sweet, Sweet Chocolate

Fair Cocoa Harvest in the Dominican Republic

Next, let’s look at chocolate. The six largest cocoa producing countries are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon. Cocoa has significant effects on the economy and the population in these countries. In Ghana, cocoa accounts for 40% of total export revenues, and two million farmers are employed in cocoa production. The Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer, providing 43% of the world’s cocoa. In 2000, a report by the US State Department concluded that in recent years approximately 15,000 children aged 9 to 12 have been sold into forced labor on cotton, coffee and cocoa plantations in the north of the country. A June 15, 2001 document released by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that trafficking of children is widespread in West Africa. (For ILO definitions of these labor violations, see ILO Convention 182 on Child Labor ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor.)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) followed up these reports with an extensive study of cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, directly involving over 4,500 producers. The results were released in August 2002. An estimated 284,000 children were working on cocoa farms in hazardous tasks such as using machetes and applying pesticides and insecticides without the necessary protective equipment. Many of these children worked on family farms, the children of cocoa farmers who are so trapped in poverty many make the hard choice to keep their children out of school to work. The IITA also reported that about 12,500 children working on cocoa farms had no relatives in the area, a warning sign of trafficking.

Child laborers face arduous work, as cacao pods must be cut from high branches with long-handled machetes, split open, and their beans scooped out. Children who are involved in the worst labor abuses come from countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo — nations that are even more destitute than the impoverished Ivory Coast.

Vicious Circle of Poverty

Rwanda Women's Coffee Cooperative Sorting Beans

Parents in these countries sell their children to traffickers believing that they will find honest work once they arrive in Ivory Coast and then send their earnings home. But once separated from their families, the young boys are made to work for little or nothing. The children work long and hard — they head into the fields at 6:00 in the morning and often do not finish until 6:30 at night. These children typically lack the opportunity for education, leaving them with no way out of this cycle of poverty. The IITA noted that 66% of child cocoa workers in the Ivory Coast did not attend school. About 64% of children on cocoa farms are under age 14, meaning that the loss of an education comes at an early age for the majority of children on cocoa farms. (Watch The Dark Side of Chocolate, a powerful documentary on this issue).

Producer income remains low because major chocolate and cocoa processing companies have refused to take any steps to ensure stable and sufficient prices for cocoa producers. World cocoa prices fluctuate widely and have been well below production costs in the last decade. Though cocoa prices have shown moderate increases in the past few years, cocoa producers remain steeped in debt accumulated when prices were below production costs.

Producers typically also get only half the world price, as they must use exploitative middlemen to sell their crop. The effects of insufficient cocoa income have been exacerbated by deregulation of agriculture in West Africa, which abolished commodity boards across the region, leaving small farmers at the mercy of the market. This economic crisis forced farmers to cut their labor costs. The outcome was a downward spiral for labor in the region, and a surge in reports of labor abuses ranging from farmers pulling children out of school to work on family farms to outright child trafficking and slavery. These small farmers and their children remained trapped in a cycle of poverty, without hope for sufficient income or access to basic education or health care.

 We Can Change It!
For years, US chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don’t own them. But the $13 billion chocolate industry is heavily consolidated, with just two firms — Hershey’s and M&M/Mars — controlling two-thirds of the US chocolate candy market. Surely, these global corporations have the power and the ability to reform problems in the supply chain. What they lack is the will.

At Global Exchange, we know there is a solution – supporting Fair Trade cocoa and chocolate. Fair Trade chocolate and cocoa products are marked with the “Fair Trade Certified” label. Fair Trade cocoa comes from Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Peru. Thus Reality Tours has a Cocoa Fair Harvest program in the Dominican Republic. Every year, we encourage chocolate lovers from around the world to join with our local partners from Grupo CONACADO to explore benefits of Fair Trade cocoa and sustainable harvest, renewable technology in the Dominican Republic.

Palestine Fair Olive Harvest, Group with Farmers 2009

Fair Trade Tourism is a growing segment of our socially responsible travel program here at Global Exchange. Our third Fair Harvest destination was announced in  2007 to Palestine where participants worked side by side Palestinians harvesting olives. The Fair Trade story continues to evolve and we look forward to expanding our Reality Tours programs in the years to come.  There is an opportunity for those of us in the tourism industry to make a positive change in the world. Tourism can be a force for good. We can ensure tourism dollars stay to benefit the local economies of our hosts. We can highlight the stories, the struggles and aspirations of the communities we visit. Together with Reality Tours trip participants, we can be a force for fairness.

This piece was originally written by Malia Everette  for Tourism Review, Tourism Magazine Review October 2010 issue.

A young Palestinian boy in the West Bank by Ken Yale

When Global Exchange founded Reality Tours back in 1988, it did so with the belief that travel can be a tool for promoting peace and cross-cultural understanding. Since then, we have committed ourselves to organizing enriching, thought provoking and philosophically complex Citizen Diplomacy delegations around the world, even when those nations are often demonized as enemy states or part of the “Axis of Evil”.

Citizen diplomacy is based on the concept that individuals have the right to help influence and shape foreign policies for their country by informally meeting with global citizens and learning about their reality.  As you will read  below, Ken Yale’s reflection and learning is exactly the kind of transformative experience that keeps us here at Reality Tours ever motivated to continue our work to have you “Meet the People, Learn the Facts, and Make a Difference”!

“PLEASE DON’T JUST TAKE IT FROM ME…”

By Ken Yale, Reality Tours Palestine & Israel 2010 Past Participant

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” 
– Aldous Huxley

“Begin challenging your own assumptions.  Your assumptions are your windows on the world.  Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in. “  - -Alan Alda

We are often unconscious of the potential and significance of the moment in which we live.  This was certainly true for me in July, 2010, as I prepared to embark on a Global Exchange Reality Tour of the West Bank in a period when progressive movements in the region did not appear to be very strong.  Less than six months later, the Arab Spring began in Egypt and Tunisia.  Now it is hard for anyone with open eyes to miss the power of this unique historic moment as growing waves of mass uprisings for human rights, democracy, and social justice continue to spread outward from the Middle East and North Africa to nations on every continent.

It’s not easy for most of us in the US to understand the conditions and dynamics that are fueling such rapid change in the region and offering inspiration and hope for global social justice.  We struggle to either discover or unlearn decades of history that have been largely ignored, obfuscated, or distorted by a corporate controlled media and an educational system that discourages critical thought and examination.  For many of us who grew up in Jewish families, we are further challenged to find the courage to confront a lifetime of cultural and religious narratives that demand allegiance to a settler colonial Israeli state as a foundation of our identity.

As a young child growing up in a Jewish Chicago neighborhood, every Sunday morning my parents would send me off to temple with a donation for Israel.  For every dime, we would get a stamp with an image of a leaf to paste onto a drawing of a tree.  When you filled all the branches, you had funded another tree that would be planted in the newly formed nation of Israel, then only about ten years old.  We should feel proud, we were told, to support our people from all over the world, who were returning to the land God gave just to us and making the barren desert bloom despite being surrounded by hostile Arabs who were trying to push us into the sea.  This narrative, repeated in many forms throughout my childhood, was never questioned or challenged in my family or community.

Landing in Tel Aviv airport about fifty years later, I made my way to the baggage claim past a long hallway displaying Zionist art from the 1950′s.  Dozens of posters from the United Israel Appeal, with titles like “Conquering The Wasteland” and “One Million In Israel, On To The Second Million” encouraged the Jewish Diaspora to come settle in Israel with slogans and imagery eerily familiar from my childhood.   An Israeli cab driver picked me up and soon we came upon a group of 25 orthodox Jews blocking an intersection and screaming that we should not be driving on the Sabbath.  As we made a U-turn, 3 teenagers ran toward the taxi and flung eggplants the size of bricks against the cab.  “Welcome to the real Israel,” I thought!

Once I finally connected with Mohamed, the Global Exchange trip leader from the Siraj Center, I immediately felt more relaxed and secure.  He was warm, caring, articulate and insightful, with an amazingly deep knowledge of the history, politics, and culture of the region.   As we drove towards our orientation meeting, Mohamed noticed me staring at a very long, straight row of trees paralleling the highway for miles.  I was fantasizing about how the trees we helped fund as kids could have been planted in a place just like this, when Mohamed said,  “Beautiful, isn’t it?  You’d never know those trees were placed there so that people driving this popular highway won’t see the wall just behind it.”

Mohamed was referring to the 450 mile long separation barrier that Israel has constructed around much of the West Bank and Jerusalem, the most visible symbol of the apartheid state built through military conquest, occupation and the systematic dispossession of Palestinian land and human rights.  It is around 25 feet high in many areas, topped with concertina wire and electrified fence, monitored by surveillance cameras, snipers, dog patrols and soldiers.  It often divides Palestinian communities from their own land.  The wall is the backbone of the infrastructure and policies of occupation that include extensive military checkpoints, mandatory ID cards, restricted access to roads and water, demolitions of Palestinian homes, mass arrests, repressive legal, administrative, economic and military regulations, and the construction of Jewish settlements which confiscate Palestinian lands in violation of international law.  The wall is often covered with the graffiti of resistance, and is a frequent target of Palestinian, Israeli, and international protest.

Mohamed and I are about the same age, so we grew up at the same time, but in obviously two very different worlds.  Mohamed’s family has lived in Palestine for many generations, but they were displaced from their homes and can no longer travel freely.  Just before Palestine was partitioned in 1947, there was a total population of 1.75 million, one third of whom were Jewish, owning 6% of the land.  After the war of 1947-48, the new state of Israel was formed with 78% of the land, leaving just 22% for Palestinians, primarily in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.  Today, Gaza is under a military and economic blockade and 200,000 Israeli Jews have established settlements in East Jerusalem.  A report released during our tour by the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, said Jewish settlements now control more than 42 percent of the West Bank through their jurisdiction and regional councils.

On a daily basis, occupied Palestinian territories are increasingly being carved up into small, disconnected and impoverished enclaves, much like the Bantustans of South African apartheid.  Yet I, who had never set foot on this land before, had so many more rights than Mohamed and his family, including the ability to get full Israeli citizenship, based on nothing more than my being born a Jew thousands of miles away.  What a painful irony that this is rationalized in the name of liberating Jews from centuries of anti-Semitism.  “Never Again” we were often told in my community, with reference to the Holocaust.   But is “Never Again” only for Jews, or for everyone?  Justice or Just Us?  Can there be a humane and fulfilling life for any people, no matter how oppressed, that is built on a foundation of ethnic cleansing, denial of human rights for others, and alliance with international corporate and imperial powers?

Graffiti Wall by Ken Yale

One of the many things I appreciated about Mohamed was that despite his incredible knowledge, he would always say, “Please don’t just take it from me.  Engage people from every perspective, see with your own eyes, make your own meaning, discover your own truths.”  Our Global Exchange tour provided the opportunity to meet with two or three organizations and countless individuals every day, both Palestinian and Israeli, some activists and others not.  We heard stories, stories, and more stories, all very moving, from human rights groups, a prisoner’s group, military refuseniks, a woman’s art cooperative, a youth theater, a Jewish settler organization, the nonviolent direct action movement, residents of refugee camps and kibbutzim, politicians, university students and faculty, international solidarity activists, and so many more, including a wonderful home stay with an open and generous Palestinian family.

Perhaps the day that was most memorable was our trip to Hebron.  Despite its location on Palestinian land in the West Bank, a one square kilometer section of the Old City has been occupied by 400 Israeli settlers with the support of 1500 Israeli soldiers.  In Hebron as a whole, over 10,000 Jewish settlers live in 20 settlements.  The military has closed down a large section of the main street in the Old City, shuttering hundreds of Palestinian shops, evicting their owners, and banning Palestinians from even walking on the street.  I will never forget the striking image of dozens of stray dogs that roamed the once teeming market area, with more freedom of access than the rightful Palestinian residents of Hebron.

If you are considering visiting the Middle East at this incredible time in its history, I’d strongly encourage you to go with a Global Exchange Reality Tour and/or the Siraj Center.  They made it possible for me to make personal and organizational connections and experience the region in ways I couldn’t possibly have arranged on my own.  Every time I read the news these days, I access lenses and insights from the trip that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

But please, don’t just take it from me…

What follows is my initial summary of some of my experiences on the Global Exchange reality tour to Palestine/Israel that I wanted to share. I hope after some time to digest the experience – I will write an op-ed piece and do some presentation with the maps I brought back showing the “green line”, the separation/annexation wall and settlement locations.

After 10 days of talking to Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, touring sections of the separation wall (the term I’ve heard most often), seeing demolished homes and unrecognized villages – David and I had 2 days on our own. We got to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem before it opened and walked over to see the Knesset Building. My memory, from my visit in ’92, was a flowing glass building on the top of a hill. Now – behind guards and high fences with barbed wire – my view was further blocked by many temporary structures – I assume they are for security forces. The building is not largely glass (like Kennedy Center) but stone – I don’t know if it was modified for protection or if my memory is wrong. I stood and felt conflicted – is it the governing body of the entity that saved my people from the threat of oblivion or the seat of government of an occupying colonial power?

Our base for the trip was the guesthouse of St. George College in East Jerusalem – the Cathedral of the Anglican Bishop of Palestine and 5 surrounding Countries. If the name sounds familiar to news junkies – perhaps it made news in the states that Mordechia Vanunnu – the Israeli who blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear capabilities is in sanctuary here after being released from prison. We went to the celebration of his release and returned to find him sharing the guesthouse and hoards of photographers hanging around the gates of the compound. We sat in the garden and dining room with him, many in the group talked to him although the terms of his probation forbid him talking to foreigners.

Our trip leader was a young Jewish-American living outside of Bethlehem – our guides were 2 Palestinian professional tour guides both from families that lived in the old city of Jerusalem for several hundred years. Rantisi was assassinated the first day we were there.

-I realize how little I knew of “the situation” – the number of settlers living in OPT (occupied Palestinian territories) doubled during the years of Oslo.

-I remember, as a young adult, being told that it was Jewish settlements that turned what had been arid wastelands into productive oasis – what I never was told was that it was done at the expense of Palestinians

- Israel has meters on Palestinian water wells and fines them if they use in excess of an allotment that was established in the early 80′s – settlements have a per capital allotment of water that is 6 times greater.

-Palestinian activists talk about Israel’s strategy of “quiet transfer” – 12,000 homes have been demolished and permits to build Palestinian homes – in most of the West Bank are denied. Restrictions on movement that make holding a job very difficult are to encourage Palestinians to either leave the Country or move to area A or B communities – those densely populated communities like Ramallah and Nabolus that are nominally under Palestinian Authority control. Estimations are that between 150,000 and 250,000 have left the Country during the last 3 years (the current intafada).

-Our van driver showed us where 100 homes in his village were just given demolition orders to make way for a tunnel to provide access to a new nearby settlement.

-We saw where a community’s only playground was demolished to make way for the wall.

-We met with Peretz Kichon of Yesh Gvul – the refusnik group, who told us about an Israeli law – “the black flag of illegality” that requires Israeli soldiers to disobey illegal orders but says it is not happening. While over 1200 reserve soldiers have refused to serve in the territories, there was a media embargo not publicizing this in Israel that was finally broken by the letter from the 27 pilots. Peretz said that he thought Jewish Americans have confused supporting Israel with their favorite football team and act like sports fans yelling – hit them hard, beat the opposition etc.

-While examining a newly constructed portion of the wall near Abu Dis – we meet a Palestinian man, woman and newborn walking 3 hours home from the hospital (women who have given birth can remember, as I do, what that would feel like) – their home used to be accessible by car from the hospital, now impossible because of the wall.

-We learned about the legal system effecting the territories – Israel says that the Geneva Convention does not apply because the land is not occupied, nor does Israeli civil law apply – rather the territories are governed by military orders – that are not codified so no one knows exactly what applies – i.e. the army refuses to make public the orders on when it is legal to open fire

-We were in Ramallah the third day after the assassination and there was a Hamas rally with singing and drums – while the songs were of retaliation – every one was friendly to us.

-We saw a movie – Arna’s children that I highly recommend seeing if it comes to the states. It told of an Israeli woman who worked with children in the Jenin refugee camp – doing drama and helping them express their anger – and followed some of the young men 10 years later who had become militant fighters and 1, a suicide bomber. Even without understanding the language (it was supposed to be the copy with English subtitles but wasn’t) – I could feel the despair, and see the young kids sitting around demolished houses as perhaps the next generation of militants. I watched Israelis looking very sober as they left the theater.

-There is a Palestinian nonviolent movement that we never hear about in our press. We were told that while Hamas is strong in Jerusalem, there have never been any suicide bombers from Jerusalem because the lives of Palestinians living there are still tolerable and they are still able to work and make a living. The 2 intafadas are very different – the first was a mass movement that didn’t go beyond throwing stones, the second is a movement just of militants and is more violent.

-Many Palestinians are disgusted with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority and call them corrupt and ineffective. The PA prime minister has a cement business that actually sells cement to the Israeli government to build the wall. People say Arafat in power is what Sharon wants – if his support wanes, Sharon talks of murdering him and the Palestinians again rally behind him.

-We met with B’Tselem – a wonderful Israeli human rights group. They said that their key issues are: o Restrictions on freedom of movement o Impunity in killing Palestinians o The separation wall and its implications ß Those in the “seam” – i.e. between the green line and the wall must get permits in order to remain in their homes ß Those who the wall divides from their land ß Those around Jerusalem who are divided from needed services by the wall -We also met with Rami Elhanan from the circle of bereaved parents – a group of Israeli and Palestinian parents. He talks of breaking the cycle of despair and anger – of putting cracks in the wall of hatred and bringing it down. -He speaks to groups of Israeli high school students and tells them that when they become soldiers (which happens automatically after high school) – what they do at checkpoints affects the possibility of the next terror bombing. -They have set up a phone number that Jews and Palestinians can call to just speak to someone of the opposite group – thousands have done it in the last year. -He ran a program at Ne’ve Shalom for Palestinians and Israeli children who have lost someone to the violence so each side can begin to understand the suffering of “the other”. We saw a video clip of the program that was very powerful that I am supposed to get a copy of. -He said: When my grandparents were taken to the ovens 60 years ago – the civilized world stood by and did nothing. Today 2 sides are massacring each other and the civilized world is again standing by.

-Every where you go in the West Bank there are checkpoints – they do not just divide Israel from the territories – but one West Bank community from another – it is arbitrary when a Palestinian can get through or is denied.

-Both Hamas and Sharon talk of legitimate targets for assassination.

-We visited Hebron and saw 1200 soldiers guarding 400 settlers.

-Palestinians say, “Israel doesn’t want to divorce or wed us”. Israel bombs the governing office of the PA and then complains that the PA doesn’t rein in terrorists”.

-We visited in Deheisheh refugee camp – a very dense, fenced in community that contains 11,00 Palestinian refuges – 6,000 of whom are under 16 years old. o Their community center has a map showing the 46 villages that were destroyed that they come form. o They talk of the lack of dignity of living in a refugee camp – the total lack of privacy, for many years the lack of private toilets. o The inhabitants, even the Red Cross though they were a temporary situation – and they see no end. o Most suicide bombers are from refugee camps. o The unemployment rate at Deheisheh is 70%. o The key (to the homes their ancestors left behind) is their symbol – demanding the right of return is, to them, the critical issue.

-We visited Ein Hod one of the villages that have existed for hundreds of years but appear on no Israel maps – and are therefore not recognized and receive no services – like schools, water, and roads. Currently 60,00 inhabitants of Israel (not the OPT) live in unrecognized villages – we met with Mohammed Albuhassah who heads a group called the Association of 40 that is working for their recognition.

Wed. 5.5 (continued)

- In 1948, Arabs were 5% of Israel’s population. Today they are 20% (not counting the OPT) – people say they will eventually become a majority even with out the territories.

-To get into Nabulus, we had a letter from the Anglican bishop saying we were pilgrims who wanted to visit Jacob’s well – we still were held at the checkpoint for 5 hours. A soldier told our guide “turn the bus around, take them to a nearby village, show them a well and tell them it is Nabulus”. Standing outside the bus, I got a “finger” from a woman going to the adjoining settlement and a settler man yelled at me” you are an espion” I assume that means spy. Going back to Jerusalem, we had to show passports at 3 checkpoints within 45 minutes.

-We visited the village of Jayyous and saw olive trees that are more than 1000 year old. We talked to a man named Sharif who has been a farmer there for 36 years. When the wall was being built around their village – the soldiers would not allow them back and forth to their fields – so many of them slept in the fields and family members threw food and water over the wall (in places it is a concrete barrier – here it is a fence topped by barbed wire). Only one truck is allowed into their fields so they can no longer transport their produce to the West Bank cities they used to sell the food in – which now sell Israeli produce. Sharif said, “the problem is not the Jewish people, it is the occupation”. Israel wants farms to leave their land -if they are absent 3 years – Israel can claim it – and Sharif says (don’t know if is fact) Sharon said that he needed land for one million more Jews. Jayyous had 6 wells – they now have access to only one of them – which they share with 3 other villages. Many people in Jayyous have developed asthma from regular tear-gassing. They see many more, not fewer soldiers, since the wall was built.

-We asked whether Palestinians receive compensation when their land is taken and were told – “One cannot be compensated for having their land taken any more than for having their wife taken”. Israel offers compensation knowing that very few will accept.

-The best place to donate money is Palestinian Child Welfare Fund www.pcwf.org.

-We met with a settler at Efrat who says the word ‘occupation’ is loaded and prefers the term “administers” i.e. Israel administers the communities in the West Bank.

-We met with a Palestinian woman who runs a community center in the old city of Jerusalem. She said they have been fighting for 2 years to kept it from being demolished to build settler housing. She showed us a tourist map that is sold in the old city that identifies her community as “known as the Muslim quarter – future Jewish settlement”. She said that many young men are now dropping out of school and using drugs because they said that their father’s education is not helping them get jobs.

-Most of what I heard I could take in and think about but near the end of the trip we met with a representative from PENGON – a coalition of Palestinian NGOs working on stopping the wall – and a very bright, educated ANGRY young woman said than she couldn’t condemn suicide bombers – that people who feel desperate have only their lives to fight with. I lost it – walked outside in tears and felt that peace will not be possible – the young leaders of Palestine are either in jail (over 6,00 at the moment) or just as angry and irrational as some settlers. I am still fighting to regain some hope in the situation.

-We met with Adam Heller of Gush Shalom – a Jewish peace group who spoke about the right of return – how the Jewish people who longed for so long to return to the land of our ancestors should understand Palestinians wanted to return to their ancestral communities. o His group coordinates a boycott of products that are made in the settlements which are listed on their website www.gush-shalom.org. o He has what I feel is the best answer about the future of the land: “2 people, 2 states.,1 future”. He said that change is not made by a moral minority but when mainstream politicians see the change as in their interest, and that what is needed is: ß unity in the oppressed society ß division in the oppressor society, and ß international intervention. o His ideas left me feeling a little more hopeful which Adam says is critical – “Optimism is not only a view but a tactic – I have no right to give up – Palestinians don’t have the option. Forget working ‘for peace’ – work to end the occupation and peace will come”.

I look forward to talking to all of you about my experiences.

In April 2004, I spent 10 days on the West Bank of Palestine as part of a tour of Israeli and Palestinian peace groups and sites organized by Global Exchange, the same organization we toured with in Cuba and South Africa. We both wrote up our experiences and are available to speak to groups, the following are my reflections:

Palestine journey

My journey to Palestine actually started several years ago on a trip to Eastern Europe. My wife and I were visiting Budapest. During that time there was an outbreak of anti-Semitism that included attacks on Jews as they were returning from Synagogue services. At the time we were there, one of the largest synagogues in pre WWII Eastern Europe had been restored and was re-opening. As a Jew, my wife wanted to visit and attend a Friday evening Shabbat service. Upon entering we were greeted with a machine gun carrying guard, scanned, my penknife confiscated, our camera checked and, at least I, was constantly eyed by plain clothes security guards during the whole time and this was all before 9/11. Leaving the synagogue and walking back to the subway in the dark made me feel very vulnerable and brought home the vulnerability of Jews whenever someone or some group wants to make them a scapegoat. So the need and justification for a Jewish “homeland” was brought home to me at that time.

After our Budapest experience I read a number of books about pre-WWII Germany, my ancestral homeland. I was obsessed with gathering clues as to how the most cultured, sophisticated and civilized country at the time could sink into committing one of the most heinous crimes in world history. The willing silence and denial of ordinary citizens was certainly part of Nazi Germany. That, coupled with what many non-Americans tell us about how we take our freedoms for granted, led me to the conclusion that what happen in Germany could happen in any country, including my own. So, a homeland for my Jewish wife? Yes to Zionism and the State of Israel.

Unfortunately, what I observed during our two weeks of visiting numerous peace groups and sites throughout the West Bank says to me that after a century of creating, nurturing, and strengthen such a state is at the expense of others. This “homeland” is clearly at the expense of displacing families who we met who could often trace their history in that same land back several centuries. Some even observed that their family name is carried by families in other villages with different religious backgrounds who are Christian, Moslem or Jewish. Just like my surname “Cramer” is carried by Catholics, Lutherans and Jews in Germany.

As for a “secure” homeland, I felt venerable visiting Tel Aviv and the Jewish sections of Jerusalem. I actually felt safer in the occupied territories during the two weeks we traveled extensively in cities, towns, villages and refugee camps. So the Zionist dream of creating a safe haven in Israel is certainly not true.

I tend to be anti-authoritarian and side with the oppressed. There are many forms of oppression. Fear generated by maniacal, suicide bombings is a form of oppression. Having entire cities, towns and villages strangled by a system of separation barriers, encircling settlements, settlement only roads, checkpoints, permits, curfews and TV taxes is also a form of oppression.

TV taxes?

Yes, East Jerusalemites (Arabs) are required to pay the equivalent of a $200 tax on TV’s whether you owned one or not. A driver we hired to take us to the Dead Sea showed us his receipt in case we were stopped at a checkpoint and the paid tax payment was requested. Another East Jerusalemite told a story of someone without a TV being thrown in jail because he was caught without a receipt even though he offered to take the soldier to his home and show him that he did not have a TV!

Permits

Having a permit to enter certain areas is also a requirement. Farmers in the village of Jayous needed a permit to go from their homes to their fields and from there to the city to sell their products. Obtaining a permit was described as a Kafkaiesque procedure with the result that many farmers give up, leaving their fields fallow and working for other farmers more willing or able to take the risk and tolerate the process. One surviving farmer described the Arab city he sold his goods to as now obtaining products mostly from Israeli settlers because Arab farmers trucks could not get through.

Curfews

The day after we stayed overnight with a family in a village adjoining Bethlehem the entire area, inhabited mostly by Palestinian Christians, was placed under curfew for several days. One of our guides could not go to her office only several blocks from where she lived. Some in our group could hear tanks driving near where they were staying during the night we were there.

Checkpoints

Because we spent most of our time traveling in the territories administered by the IDF (Israel Defense Force), we got to experience checkpoints first hand. At our first one we observed several college age men trying to skirt a checkpoint and being chased by a patrol jeep. They joined our group as we walked toward the checkpoint hoping that they would be able to get back to their university classes by attaching themselves to us as “tourists”. The guards removed them from our group. One of guides, an Israeli, protested so much that we were concerned that we also would be bared.

Going into Bethlehem, our bus was stopped and our East Jerusalemite guide was bared from entering. In solidarity we decided not to go through hoping that denying the town our tourist dollars might force a change in heart. After failing to find another way with more sympathetic guards our guide convinced us that it was no big deal and he would join up with us later. In fact, we did get through without him and he got to our rendezvous sooner than we did! Coming out of Bethlehem we had to avoid a checkpoint by walking down several back alleys to pick up our bus to return to Jerusalem.

During our extensive travels our bus was stopped many times at known checkpoints and at “roving” checkpoints. Depending on the border guard – we were sometimes waved through after they were told we were tourist, other guards made a big display of checking all our passports, albeit courteously. We could never know how long a trip would take. A forty-five minute trip one day might take several hours the next day. It was impossible to make a specific time for an appointment — cell phones are essential tools for linking up.

It took us five hours before permission was granted to enter the City of Nablus. This was with a letter from the Jerusalem Episcopal bishop describing us as Christian pilgrims visiting Jacob’s well and having permission from the local army colonel. (When leaving, we were asked how the shrine was and we were prompted as to how to respond).

We were denied entry to another village near Jenin. We were able to visit Ramala, including Arafat’s compound, Hebron, a refugee camp and even a Samaritan village, (which provided helpful insights to the good Samaritan and woman at the well stories in the Christian bible).

Settlements

Around Bethlehem are settlements, around East Jerusalem, around Ramala, around other villages. Most settlements are on the tops of hills surrounding these cities and towns. We visited one of these settlements and talked with a settler. We went from the dusty Arab section where houses are half finished, demolished are not even allowed to start, to the lush, new and architecturally interesting settler communities. The Arab section had little vegetation in contrast to the lush and green landscaping of colorful flowers and green lawns of the settlement. I observed water running from these flowerbeds overflowing into the street. In contrast, water is rationed and more expensive in the Arab sections. A block from the town center was a huge Olympic size pool brimming with water. In every settlement we visited or passed, there were building cranes and building activity going on. We were told there were many vacancies. The settler told us that units were open to all, but Arabs did not take advantage of the offer. (An exception to this is the French hill “settlement” in East Jerusalem where there are Arab residents.)

Settler only roads

A modern system of highways connects parts of Israel and settlement communities and run throughout the West Bank. Special license plates, IDs and permits control who uses these roads. They are open to all Israelis, forbidden to most West Bank Arabs.

The separation barrier

The dividing barrier takes many forms. We observed completed walls of concrete and some being built. They are about twice as high as the highest noise barrier along our interstates. Outside of highly populated areas the divider takes the form of a chain link fence topped with barbwire with electronic sensors. On both sides of the fence and concrete wall are patrol roads and another fence. No one is allowed in this space as we found out when we trespassed one area to visit an Arab home caught between the wall and a fence. Within minutes a patrol jeep challenged us.

The barrier takes up a lot of space much like a major highway. It cuts through villages, olive groves and farmer’s fields. Many houses have been demolished to make room for the barrier. Many olive trees have been uprooted, many centuries old, some claim thousands of years old. We were told that these ancient trees are moved to Israeli parks or destroyed.

Compensation for land is refused on principle. A farmer compared his fields as being as precious as his wife and asked how one can take compensation for the loss of a wife?

I remember debates in previous years for a separation fence when it was revealed that little or no suicide bombers came from Gaza — because it was completely enclosed. Pundits would speculate that a fence around the West Bank would then solve the problem of suicide bombers. I even heard the fence being supported by West Bank Arabs as a temporary device to separate the parties until they could figure out how to interact better. One farmer, who’s fields were being cut off, even offered to pay for half of the fence if it were placed at the border. And that’s the problem — the fence seems to be going everywhere but the border. The path of the barriers goes almost entirely inside the borders. Worst still, the fence meanders in and out appearing to divide the West Bank into sections around major cities and enclaves. The fence not only divides the West Bank from Israel, it divides Arab sections from Israeli settlements and Arab settlements from each other when the barrier is coupled with gates and checkpoints, permits and settler only access roads.

At several places along the barrier, we observed: o Farmers could not get to their fields to plant, nurture, or harvest. o College kids were prevented from returning to school. o Grade schoolers, and middle schoolers and high schoolers had to go hours out of their way, if they could get to school at all. o A mother and father with her new born infant forced to walk three hours to return home in a trip that used to take minutes by car.

The barrier appears to serve another purpose other than preventing suicide bombers (which continue despite the barrier), occupants feel like it’s a form of collective punishment for acts that they don’t participate in (but are not quick to condemn). In fact, you hear, “I wouldn’t do it but I can understand those who do.”

West bankers refer to these enclosures as Bantustans and call the barriers, the “Apartheid Wall” because of their similarity to Apartheid South Africa. In my travels to South Africa I don’t recall seeing or any barriers described as anything like what I observed in the Holy Land. In SA millions of people were forced to move — within the country. In the Holy Land, conditions are such that people are moving out of the area. The Christian Arab population, which used to be 17% of the population, is now down to 2%.

The settler we visited went to great pains to describe his liberal and progressive pedigree. He said he was aware of the suffering of those in the “administered territory” because he read about it in the Israeli paper (which provides fairly good coverage). He claimed that if the choice is between security, which is at the heart of Israel’s survival, and people not being handled politely, he would have to pick security. So one gets back to the essential question: survival of a state for whom, at whose expense?

What to do?

So what are the solutions? There are no silver bullets but three things are clear. One, peacemakers need to be supported. Two, any solution must have a Palestinian voice and approval. And three, an outside broker is needed.

We met with many Israeli, Palestinian and some internationals mixed in – groups who are all working toward a just peace — all are using nonviolent methods. Many are dealt with violently. A recent casualty was a young lady who was part of a group trying to stop house demolitions. She was bulldozed over and was killed. Her name was Rachel and an American citizen from Oregon. It was reported recently that 8 to 10 protesters where killed while protesting nonviolently in Gaza. Despite the risks peacemakers take, it appears that the non-violent peace movement is growing both in Israel and in Palestine.

Arab speakers would claim that the first Intafada was supported by everyone. Every family had a member or relative in jail. The second Intafada, often referred to as the second disaster (the first being in 1948) is led and radicalized by “outsiders” and does not have community-wide support.

An example of a solution that has Palestinian participation and approval is the Geneva accord.

An example of an outside broker is the “Road map” supported by the US, Russia, the EU and the UN.

Conclusion

Some ask has Israel lost its spirit? I think not. Mordechai Venunu, the nuclear arms whistle blower, was considered a traitor, revealing critical state secrets. He was imprisoned for 18 years and was recently released. We were at an event at the prison when he was released and got to see and experience him up close since he was staying at the guesthouse we were staying at — a compound of the St George’s Cathedral. In contrast, in our country Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, accused of revealing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed by our government, even though Ethel was indisputably innocent according to declassified FBI documents and recently released KGB records.

In another example, Ariel Sharon was deposed from his position as Minister of Defense when an inquiry tied him to massacres in Lebanon. Defense Secretary Rumsfield is praised in the face of the worse military PR scandal in our nation’s history — the Abu Ghraib prison revelations.

In some ways, Israel is handling some things better than our country. So there is hope. I was teasing some friends the other night over dinner about Israel having an Arab prime minister some time in the future. I can imagine an Arab Christian who grows up partially in East Jerusalem and partially in Flint, Michigan. Goes to school at the University of Chicago. So she knows Middle American English and speaks Hebrew with a Jerusalem accent. She also can speak Arabic with a Middle Eastern accent (in contrast to the Jordanian King who is accused of speaking Americanized Arabic!). And, because she gets arrested leading a peace rally and spends several years in an Israeli prison, she learns Russian from her guards. She rises in stature and runs for office caballing together a coalition of Arab Israelis, second generation Russian Israelis, and progressive Israelis who are attracted to her positions (and good looks). Possible? When there’s hope one can imagine.

This suggests what a Jewish state might mean. Does it have to be led by a Jewish Israeli? Can it be both Jewish and a democracy if it does not have a majority of Jewish Israelis? Any Jew in the world is considered a citizen of Israel just be showing up — sort of a right of “return”. Does a people tied together by a religion and a culture and some genetic material, have an exclusive right to a territory? Only through the lens of justice can this question be answered.

Thanks for your interest in reading this. At one of the checkpoints, a truck driver who had been waiting to get through for over a day while his vegetables cooked in the hot sun, said hello and simply asked me to tell his story. The above is but a portion of what we observed, heard and experienced.

I recently returned from a week-long women’s trip to Palestine and Israel, organized by Global Exchange, and sponsored by Code Pink, a woman’s peace group formed in response to the threatened war in Iraq, and the White Dog Café, a restaurant in Philadelphia. The trip was organized to honour Rachel Corrie, a young American girl killed by an Israeli army bulldozer, as she tried to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home in Gaza. There was some international publicity at the time of her death in March but since then a deafening silence, especially in the US media. We wanted to see for ourselves the kind of conditions that would lead to such a standoff and to get a better understanding of the current conflict in the Middle East.

We were particularly interested in seeing the so-called “security fence” being erected by the Israelis. The Apartheid Wall, as it should more properly be called, is actually a series of walls and fences, in some places an eight foot high wall with watchtowers, in others an electrified fence. It is being built rapidly around practically every Palestinian village and town in the West Bank. Most of the northern section in the most fertile area of the West Bank is already completed. Supposedly it is to protect Israeli settlers from Palestinian violence; In fact, it is a blatant land grab that has continued in spite of the Road Map or any other peace initiatives. The wall does not follow the Green line that marks the 1967 borders but in many places cuts far into Palestinian territory. The Israelis want a 150 meters of land on either side of the wall and to achieve this they bulldoze houses, confiscate land, demolish orchards and olive groves and displace Palestinian families, who may have lived on the land for generations. Their policy, as was explained to us by a British woman with Wall Watch, an Israeli monitoring group which documents human rights abuses, is one of more land and fewer people and they want those people to be Israelis. To this end, they continue to build settlements all over the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, which has always been Palestinian. Annexing the land around the settlement, they then build the wall, which further reduces the areas of Palestinian autonomy. Fences are cordoning off East Jerusalem itself; “the Jerusalem envelope” which is gradually eroding the amount of land available to Palestinians, leading to overcrowding and high rents in the city. Bethlehem, just ten minutes from Jerusalem, is being decimated by the wall which snakes its way through the town, cutting off families and denying people access to work and land and holy shrines. In all areas where the wall is being built, people’s homes are demolished, often overnight, not allowing them time to salvage anything.

It was defying house demolitions in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, that Rachel Corrie lost her life. We visited the spot, the house of a doctor, where the bulldozer crushed her. Our guide told us that there had been 63 houses in the village — now all that’s left is a barren expanse of land and, in the distance, the wall and the Israeli lookout tower. The house she died defending is still standing; we could hear the children calling softly to us from inside. The guide told us that the driver looked right at her before her crushed her and then reversed back over her again. Rafah is full of the demolished ruins of houses and the ones still standing are pockmarked with bulletholes. The people told us that the tanks drive along firing and they also shoot at them from the wall. The small contingent of international volunteers from ISM, the International Solidarity Movement, stays in houses nearest the wall to try and protect them. There is still a feeling that a foreigner’s presence may dissuade the Israeli army from some of its worst practices, though the death of Rachel has shaken that conviction. It’s hard to describe the destruction and despair in Rafah, subject to daily incursions from the Israeli army and sleepless nights as the bullets pound into the houses. “Welcome to the other side of the moon”, Mr. Raji Sourani, from the Palestinian Human rights watch, had greeted us as we first arrived in Gaza where 1.2 million Palestinians live in an area of 360 square kilometers, an area being made smaller still by Israeli settlements. Israel controls 42% of this area where they have settled 6000 people. It was in Gaza that we met the family of Khalil Bashir, whose three story is house is occupied by the Israeli army on the top two floors, while he and his family sleep in one room on the ground floor. This educated and cultured family are being tortured by the presence of military in their own home simply because there is an Israeli settlement built not far from their land.

Despite having read much about the situation of the Palestinians, nothing really prepared me for the reality of the occupation, its effect on the Palestinian population and also on Israeli society. What struck me most vividly and what I had not expected was the day-to-day harassment and the sheer difficulty encountered by the Palestinians is trying to lead their lives. We met with the Israeli committee against House Demolitions who told us about the network of new roads, which are only open to Israelis. These beautiful, modern by-pass roads, which connect various Jewish settlements, often run alongside and contrast greatly with the roads the Palestinians must travel. In many places, roadblocks are erected just outside towns and the populace must leave their vehicles, traverse the roadblock on foot for maybe a half mile and obtain another vehicle, bus or taxi at the other end, making their journey slow and expensive. They may encounter this several times on a stretch of road, so that a short distance can take them hours to travel. Imagine the difficulty getting to work or to a neighboring village. Outside Ramallah, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, we saw young boys running between the roadblocks with wheelchairs to carry the elderly and horse and carts ferrying people back and forth. The party line is that these barricades are for security but the army polices them sporadically, leading me to believe that they are there simply to make travel difficult for the local populace.

There are also Israeli army checkpoints along roads and at the entrances to towns, which can be barricaded off for no reason and at any time. Bat Shalom, an Israeli peace group, told us that over 60 newborns had died at checkpoints because their parents could not get them to a hospital. In the towns and villages surrounded by the wall life is even more difficult. There may be only one opening and it is used at the discretion of the Israeli army, thereby denying farmers access to their fields and greenhouses. Families cannot visit other relatives in different villages and all travel is restricted by often impossible-to-get permits. In Bethlehem we stayed with a middle class Christian Palestinian family who told us they had not been to Jerusalem, whose lights we could see, in seven years — no permit.

As well as controlling the roads and travel Israel also controls over 80% of the water supply in the Occupied Territories. Water is often distributed 80% to the settlers, the rest to the Palestinian villagers, despite their greater numbers. At Ma’ale Adummim a huge Israeli settlement outside Jerusalem, we watched two people swim in and Olympic-sized pool while our guide explained that nearby villages survive on 60 liters of water per person per day, less than 1/6 that of the average settler. This lack of water also effects the ability to grow crops on what little land the Palestinians have left.

Everywhere in Palestine there are children, many, many children, dressed in their neat school uniforms, their eyes bright and faces curious about strangers. They will point out the bullet holes in their houses, show you shell casings they have collected, describe with gestures what happens during the Israeli army incursions. They love to have their pictures taken and will crowd around, the boys pushing to the front, the girls shyer. They pointed out to us where Tom Hurtnell, a young English volunteer, was shot in the head as he ran to grab a child who was caught in gunfire. These children are seen as a danger to the Israeli state, and the high birthrate is one of the reasons the Israelis are so keen to confine the Palestinians in little “Bantustans” and to deny them civil rights. In Hebron, an Arab town with about 400 Jewish settlers, Chris Brown of the Christian Peacekeepers Team told us of escorting children to school through army barricades, where the soldiers point guns at them, and past hostile settlers who hurl abuse and sometimes physically attack these children. Over 600 Palestinian children have died in the current conflict, many at the hands of the Israeli army, which seems to have declared war on babies. We visited a school in Ibarra where the children sang to welcome us and as we looked at their little faces, it was hard not to cry at the sheer hopelessness of their future.

Before my visit to Palestine I pictured house demolitions as bulldozers knocking down little tin shacks. This is far from the reality. The Palestinians we met seem to care deeply about 3 things; family, land and home. Their houses are built solidly of stone, sometimes 2 or 3 stories high, designed to catch the wind and let in light. The effect of demolishing these houses is devastating — it impacts the man’s view of himself as a provider for his family and destroys the family’s economic base, sense of security and peace of mind. There is often a random nature to the demolition –one person may have a demolition order for months before anything happens, others may only know about it the day before. The end result is frustration, anger and despair, poverty, overcrowding, and disease. Over 10,000 houses have been demolished, a form of collective punishment expressly forbidden by international law. We met a man who was rebuilding his house for the fourth time, determined not to leave his land but, as we looked at the army post on the hill above his house, we wondered how long the new structure would last.

Everywhere we went in Palestine we met with people who are desperate and hopeless. In many different villages, we heard people say that the whole community is living in a prison. Often there is only one gate in the wall and it is open only at the Israeli army’s pleasure. Farmers are cut off from their olive trees and greenhouses, unable to make a living and support their families. Ma’sha used to be a thriving market town but because the wall goes right through where the market used to be, the village is dying. In Tulkarm, a town completely surrounded by the wall, we took part in an n anti-wall demonstration organized by Palestinian and Israeli women, planning to meet at the checkpoint in the wall. We marched with the Palestinian women and children to the checkpoint where the immediate Israeli army response was to fire tear gas into the peaceful protest, scattering mothers with babies in arms. The sheer courage it takes for these people to organize a demonstration is humbling as they may be met with tear gas, rubber bullets and real bullets and their children are often the targets of choice.

The Israeli occupation thrives on control and bureaucracy. Curfew is a much-used tool. The walled city of Hebron has been under curfew for 600 days of the last two years, a 24-hour lockdown, only lifted for a few hours every few days so people don’t starve to death. No wonder people think they’re living in a prison. Actual prison is a grim reality. Israel uses military law and emergency measures, including administrative detention, or internment without trial, to enforce the occupation. Basically, Palestinians can be imprisoned for almost anything and for nothing. Many Palestinians we met had spent time in prison and some had been tortured. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights estimates that over 11,000 Palestinians were arrested in 2002, including many women and children, Over 350 young people still languish in Israeli prisons. The Israeli army acts with impunity and some of the settlers function as paramilitaries, openly carrying guns. The penalties for killing a Palestinian are mild, one settler receiving a sentence of a short period of house arrest!

I wish there were something hopeful I could say about the situation in Palestine but it’s hard to be optimistic. The Occupation is an affront to the Geneva Convention and International Law on so many levels but the international community does nothing. The Israeli government seems intent on grabbing so much land that any eventual Palestinian state will not be viable. The Wall looks very permanent and is separating the West Bank into many small, isolated regions and denying Palestinians the right to work, travel and support their families. Israel controls the infrastructure, the roads and the water. Settlements and the building of the Apartheid Wall all have continued unabated, despite international censure. The Israeli government seems to have no interest in making peace but is trying to demoralize and exhaust the Palestinians until those with the means leave and those left accept any kind of settlement, even one that leaves them living in Bantustans with neither rights nor autonomy. The Israeli peace movement, though dedicated, brave and committed, is small and their morale is low– the rest of the state seems content to countenance any atrocity in the name of “security”.

I am still haunted by the misery and hopelessness we saw in the occupied territories and the names of the villages and the faces of the people we met buzz in my head and keep me from sleep. Palestinians everywhere expressed their hope that if the international community knew the truth things would change. What is being done in Palestine is on a par with or worse than what happened in South Africa and only the outrage and actions of righteous people everywhere will change the very bleak future for this beleaguered nation.

My name is Linda Sweiss, and I am a 23-year-old, first generation Palestinian-Canadian. Growing up in Canada I always heard of a distant land that was once the home of my parents, a home they were forced to flee from when they were children. As I grew older I began to learn more about this place called Palestine, and the turmoil the land and its people have faced for over 50 years.

I recently decided to experience it for myself. With the aid of Global Exchange, an organization dedicated to promoting social justice throughout the world, I visited the occupied territories as a part of a solidarity delegation. The delegation consisted of eight people from North America, all from various ethnic and religious backgrounds.

For two weeks I lived the occupation as every Palestinian citizen lives every day of their existence, less the fact that I had a Canadian Passport, which made my travels much easier. It was disturbing knowing that a foreigner (as myself) had many more privileges then a Palestinian who has been born and raised in Palestine. I found myself continuously wondering how peace could ever prevail in the absence of justice?

One of the most rewarding experiences of my trip was when I had the opportunity to live amongst the refugees in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, located in Bethlehem. Even though I was only visiting there for a short time, I found myself easily sympathizing with how a Palestinian could feel utter despair and complete hopelessness.

I met family after family and each with a tragic story to tell. More often then not, words became simply unnecessary, for the eyes of an orphaned child or a newly widowed mother, tell a thousand words.

I felt for the first time in my life how it feels to not have water to bathe in, to wait 3 hours for a soldier with a foreign accent and an M16 to allow me to make my journey from Ramallah to Bethlehem which typically is only a 20 minute ride, to be scrutinized and my belongings taken when entering a mosque for prayers. I never had to experience living like a prisoner within my own home, imprisoned like a caged animal with barbwire and tall fences surrounding me, and having a curfew, something my own parents have never afflicted on me.

There is nothing that could describe the feelings that erupt within you when you see the inhumane acts that are committed against the people of Palestine, atrocities that have been ignored by the world. I truly felt as though an insect had more rights then I.

In Gaza Strip, we visited the Rafah Refugee Camp, which is the site of the largest home demolition that has taken place during the intifada. As I boarded the bus for our return trip, I noticed my friend Elise, an American Jew, sitting in the back of the bus, face in palms, sobbing. I thought of consoling her. I went and sat beside her and before I could say a word, she began to apologize. She said that what we just saw was not what being Jewish was all about. She felt a sense of shame for what was being done to the Palestinians in the name of Judaism. In my effort to console her, I found that I was being consoled by her.

It was to my relief (and delight) to learn that the Jewish state does not speak for the Jewish people in the world. Not all Jews believe that the oppression is legitimate or justifiable. For me, this was one of the most cherished lessons that I took back with me. Elise and I promised to continue our relations when we returned home and to fight the ignorance in our own countries together.

I have scarcely met a people as warm and kind as the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories. Even with their misery and poverty stricken lives, they would do their utmost to make you feel comfortable amidst their humble surroundings.

It is astonishing to see people cry so loud for help, while the international community stands idly by: not hearing, or pretending not to be hearing the cries. I wondered many things while I was in Palestine. One of them was: if this were happening to another people, a people from a different part of the world, with a different culture and different religion, would everyone else remain mute? Or, might we hear a call for justice by some brave nation? I have realized that in Palestine there are always more questions than answers.

While at the airport returning for home a young Israeli soldier by the name of Patricia walked me to my gate, she had asked me about my education, and if I had received military training in Canada. I told her that is was not mandatory to be in the armed forces in Canada.

I asked Patricia if she enjoyed being in the army, her answer was simply “it is something we must do”. I then asked her what she thought of the situation between the Israelis and Palestinians, and she abruptly told me that we (the Israelis) must protect our people from these “terrorists”. It was then that I told her that I am a Palestinian, and you have walked me all the way to my boarding gate and have talked to me in a civil manner, why can we not speak always in a civil manner?

She looked flustered and then began to agree with me. I learned that Patricia had never entered the Occupied Territories; she had never seen how the Palestinians suffer each and every day of their lives or what it’s like to grow up in an occupied land. I told Patricia about what an everyday is like for a Palestinian: the continual humiliation, cutting off of water, and electricity, the killing and imprisonment of innocent people, and curfews to name a few. I rhetorically asked her how the Government of Israel can justify for the sake of security, denying access to a pregnant mother who is about to give birth to pass through a checkpoint.

Until our conversation, Patricia had no idea what the Palestinians endure each day of their lives. Patricia asked me what I think the answer to our problem is. And the answer is so simple: end the suffering of the Palestinian people; end the occupation.

How much more proof do we need to see that these people are suffering, how much more collective punishment, how many more demolished homes, how many more mothers will have to cry for the loss of their children, how many more unnecessary checkpoints, how many more Israeli soldiers will have to refuse military occupational duty, how many more suicide bombings will have to occur, before we understand how real this occupation is, and how we have been so negligent as westerners to the outcry of the Palestinians.

The famous anthropologist Margaret Meade once said ” Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that has.” Well I for one intend to be a committed Canadian citizen who will fight and speak out against these crimes of humanity.