EYEWITNESS  FROM  BETHLEHEM

ARTICLES & REFLECTIONS WRITTEN BY TOINE VAN TEEFFELEN

BETHLEHEM DIARY (32)

June 18 – July 2, 2001

Once I was visited by a foreigner who told me that even under the most unpredictable circumstances people cannot do without some planning. You only have to conduct your planning in a flexible manner. His advice certainly applies to Palestinian traveling. These weeks we all are doing our best to plan flexibly. For some weeks Suzy was hesitating whether to leave the country through Tel Aviv Airport or though the Allenby Bridge. She had heard from local people that persistence in applying for a traveling permit helped. In one case, somebody applied three times: Sunday request submitted, Monday request refused; Tuesday request submitted, Wednesday request refused; Thursday request submitted, Saturday request … granted! Why, nobody knows. As for Suzy’s own case, in the weeks preceding her traveling she was told that “no mosquito” could leave the country through the Tel Aviv airport, except for a medical emergency. She arranged her visa request with the American consulate, whose staff met her at the Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint to receive from her the required documents. Now she travels through the Allenby Bridge. This is not a pleasant trip at all, with long waiting queues and searches. A few weeks ago, it happened that somebody I know who had a somewhat weak health record but was not really ill got speedy access at the bridge after being brought in an ambulance!

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Mary and I lately went to Jerusalem to arrange our summer trip. On the way to Jerusalem we took the long and winding “Abou Hummus” road to circumvent the checkpoint. (Taxidrivers finger a quick circle in the air to indicate that road). On the way back Mary was not in the mood to go back that same long way, and, notwithstanding my protests, urged me to the checkpoint where now all the passersby coming back from Jerusalem have to show their ID to the military. Since Mary has of course no Jerusalem ID or permit, the soldiers told her that since she came through “the long way,” she also had to go back that same way. But Mary is not the type to succumb easily to orders; she walked through to only turn her head when the soldiers explicitly asked her to stop. She said,“My baby is waiting to get food, don’t you have a heart?” accompanying her words with dramatic hand gestures to express exasperation. The argument went on for a while, Mary refusing to set even one step backwards. After a while the soldiers conceded, and Mary walked through with a smile of deep satisfaction on her face. A small victory.

My Arabic teacher said that lately she and her husband also crossed the checkpoint from Jerusalem to Bethlehem without permit. The soldiers asked her whether they were “from Beit Jala.” Why they asked that was not clear. Perhaps the soldiers felt that the people from Beit Jala had to be singled out for punishment. She said that her husband, who is usually afraid at checkpoints, now feels more confident and will join her on trips to Jerusalem, every week she hopes.

Meanwhile, Mary and I stayed for over two hours at the travel agent to arrange our European travel plan. In fact, we have two plans, plan A and plan B. Plan A concerns the trip we prefer to take, through Tel Aviv airport. This itinerary is more comfortable and also very much cheaper. Plan B concerns the escape route through the Bridge. That shadow plan will come into operation when we don’t get a permit for the airport. Usually you know the permit situation only at the last minute, so the alternative plan should be ready and reserved, only to be canceled as soon as you know that the first plan can go ahead. The prices of flights are very different in the case of a departure from Amman, there are different air companies and itineraries involved. Our travel agent said that she is now accustomed to the complicated requests from West Bankers. Mary’s sister Rita, who is counting the days before the family and especially Jara will arrive in Paris, tells that the Israelis are playing with the nerves of the people. She herself seems more tensed than we are. Living far away she feels the powerlessness even more than we do.

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I see in my environment how people protect themselves against the uncertainty of living. Fuad says that he always prepares for the worst. Doing so prevents frustrations.

Living in uncertainty can beat people. Right now, people do not know what to believe. The rumors in Bethlehem are that there is a movement towards war, a quick deterioration of the situation after the likely breakdown of the ceasefire. What kind of war, nobody knows. Another rumor is that the Israelis, with the green light of the Americans, head for the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, including Arafat, and are already working for the establishment of an alternative authority. My own feeling is that such rumors are not based upon real analysis but primarily express a sense of powerlessness. By providing some foreknowledge of the future, the rumors give people at least the feeling that they have some grip upon the situation – even though that knowledge brings little solace.

Last week I had meetings to discuss a new Dutch-sponsored campaign for sending out international volunteers to the Palestinian areas. The campaign’s purpose is to provide the population with some form of protection and to function as a political signal for the need of having here an international presence of monitors or observers. The campaign is supported and sponsored by the major peace movements and development NGOs in Holland. The volunteers’ presence may also, we think, help giving a boost to the development of non-violent forms of protest. One remark of a local Palestinian with regard to the initiative, which is generally lauded here, is that the volunteers should help Palestinians to reach a local “victory” by peaceful means; for instance, stopping a land confiscation by a settler outpost. Such a result would help to create a sense of empowerment, a feeling that one can do something to control the situation.

For the preparation of this campaign I joined a Dutch representative of the peace movement on a trip to Gaza. There we met among others the well-known personality, Dr Hayder Abdel Shafi, - probably the most respected politician in Gaza. He commented that the campaign can only succeed if the Palestinians put their own house in order, and provide leadership, organization and strategy to the present-day Intifada. He is skeptical whether the PNA can provide that leadership. Lately, he conveyed his critical remarks to Arafat who listened but did not respond. We also visited a family in nearby Jabalya camp. An older member expressed his expectation that all Palestinians would be killed, and that the Jews would be punished for that on the Day of Judgment. Living in a refugee camp for over fifty years must be the background of such apocalyptic fantasies. The younger family members told more realistically about Gaza as a big prison. The unemployment and poverty is even higher than in the West Bank. One young woman mentioned that she could not go to Jordan two months ago to attend the funeral of her father.

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We ourselves are planning for the establishment of a youth house next year. To plan a year in advance is a very long period for people here. “Maybe I am dead then,” is one remark I heard. For planning you need a vision of the future, and Karishma skillfully leads a workshop in which local youth make a drawing of the house as they would like to see it developing. The drawings project a homely house, with kitchen, greenery around (our Dutch visitors say that they forgot about the green as they take it for granted), computer lab, library, and workshop room. One youth draws a house especially for refugees.

Social events are in general planned quickly here. Lately Mary, Jara and my family in law visited a foreign lecturer at Bethlehem University who showed her surprise about how an event like a concert was organized here. “If you tell people two weeks in advance that something is happening, they forget and don’t come, but if you tell them the day in advance they immediately tell each other about it and come in groups.” When the Palestinian youth from our institute visited Holland last year, they were surprised to hear that the Dutch sometimes make a note in their agenda when a family member comes for a visit. Here that would be unthinkable.

Although we may be in need of more planning, it is of course also true that a certain lack of planning gives salt to life. A youth staff at the media center PYALARA lately told that she had everything ready to go for taking a masters in the United Kingdom. Then, at the last moment, she decided not to go. In one way or another she felt that despite our prison-like circumstances she was more at home here. Also Karishma feels at home and seems intentionally to suspend decision-making about her future life plans.

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Last night Jara made a drawing of Abu Ghneim, the hill north of Beit Sahour and Bethlehem where an Israeli settlement is being erected. From my family in law’s we have a clear view of the hill. She drew it with a cozy chimney and encircled it with sea waves. The hill, a sign of the imprisonment under which Bethlehem lives, became a boat, a sign of freedom.

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