As you might all know, a ceasefire in Gaza was established. Not because of benevolent considerations, but because it needed to happen. It was planned, as this entire military operation was planned well in advance. An Egyptian friend of mine informed me that the fighting needed to and would be stopped before the 18th of the month, because of the inauguration of Obama. I was not completely sure of his assessment, but he assured me that this was how things were about to unfold and I would come to acknowledge that he was right. And so he was... completely... a ceasfire: A time to reconsider the next steps, and to evaluate the outcomes and impact of three weks of fighting, with 1300 people being killed, 5500 wounded and about 100.000 made homeless.
Time to reconsider, for me as well. This ceasefire is my ceasefire, although my survival is not really at stake of course. Nonetheless,the three weeks of fighting have had its toll on me. Sometimes it's like the entire war in Gazais also fought out at the personal level. An invisible mini version of the war inside my head.
Over three weeks I've been fighting with my own weapons, even though their impact has been very limited at best, or even close to zero if I'm being honest enough to be realistic.
My trip to Egypt, to Al Arish and the Rafah border crossing have exposed me to the violence in Gaza and made it real for me. I saw, as far as I was able to see that the war was not just going on at the Al Jazeera tv channels. Wow... real war, with real victims, even though only a glimpse of it was revealed to me. I saw and heard the numerous explosions at the Rafah border, watching in shock how the rockets "slowly" fell down on Palestinian soil. Without being able to know the exact consequences , leaving it to my imagination to do the math.
This combined with hanging out with my Palestinian friends from Gaza, meeting others that were affected, hearing the stories, watching the news, travelling back and forth between Taba, Al Arish and Cairo, dealing with the fascist Egyptian police and just by being in the crazy jungle called Cairo, that is a lethal energy sucker itself, have left me beyond being emotionally and energetically drained.
It was time for a ceasefire, inside my head. Regroup, rearm, re-energize, reconsider altogether. My combat units had just completely destroyed all the civilians infrastructure in my mind, killing many of my civilians that were just against the fighting and that were only looking for ways to live a calm and simple life.
Now it's time to look for survivors under the rumble of the effects of war.
In the end there's not a lot of difference between physical and mental fighting. And even, and I'm truly shocked to say this as I never imagined myself saying such a thing, between fighting for a just cause and fighting for an unjust cause.
By that I mean: We should be completely aware that any fighting is violent and kills a lot, whether inside or outside yourself. My mental fight for a just cause, for Palestine, for Gaza, has created a lot of internal casualties and refugees.
When reading my own words, I'm surprised that these are mine. I've never thought about this, or like this, before and it is unfolding as I am writing this. Most likely way too deep for a simple blog like this... but as is Palestine itself... so whatever.
I don't mean to say that fighting for Palestine is useless or that I, myself want to give up my struggle for Palestine. I'm just saying that it comes at a price and we should not forget about that.
So time for a ceasefire. I'm currently in Taba right now and I've already been here quite some time, but I really need it. I went back to my friends at the beach camp and they've re-welcomed me with open arms. It has everything I need to get myself completely back together again: there's no people, no traffic, no noise. Instead there's the beach, the sea, the sand and stones, the sun, the moon and the stars and daily camp fires with cups of tea and laid-back conversations about life. But most of all, I refound myself there. Time to reconsider: Who am I? What do I want with my life? Why do I engage myself so deeply in this struggle? In the end I feel from inside that it's not my struggle, but why then do I identify myself so profoundly with it?? No easy answers available. But this place gives me so much new energy that in a few days I will be ready again to go back to Palestine and tackle these issues inside of me.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Gaza experience in Egypt
When I was in Al Arish I coincidentally met a Palestinian from Gaza in an internet cafe. Within the first 15 minutes he had already told me a lot of sensitive information about himself. He informed me that he had come to Al Arish through the tunnels that Palestinians have made under the border with Egypt. He showed my a wound on his arm...a result of his 'trip' to Egypt. He was working in the tunnels with several others, transporting food, clothing and medicines for the people in Gaza when the tunnel all of a sudden got bombed. Three of the people he was with got killed. He managed to escape to Egypt, where he went to stay with two Palestinian friends that were legally residing in Egypt.
He also told me how he had been in prison for 1 year and 8 months until five months ago. There he had been mistreated considerably, with the Israeli guards tying his arms and legs to a chair every day for 12 hours, 40 days in a row, forcing him to admit that he was Hamas and that he was making qassam rockets. The first being not true, but the second was. Damn... Welcome to Gaza, where violence is just interwoven with daily life.
In the days after, me and another volunteer from Nablus that had come to Al Arish as well, hang out with our newly made 'tunnelfriends' a lot. They helped us considerably, taking us to the border with Gaza and by just being nice and opening their house for us. We had so much fun, almost as if there was no war in Gaza. Their behavior seemed normal, they were laughing and joking around. In the meanwhile, the police was posting outside of the house, most likely because it's not normal for them to hang out with internationals, but possibly as well because they were Palestinians. Just enjoying life and hanging out is a tricky business here in Egypt and not entirely without risks...as I said: welcome to fascist Egypt, where the state determines who can be your friend.
So their house became like a happy little bubble, devote of the outside reality of the war in Gaza and the Egyptian totalitarian police. But as is the thing with bubbles, sooner or later they crack. And so did this bubble. The first little crack showed up the night me and Henry were invited to sleep in their house. When I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I saw two of them sitting in a dark room, anxiously making telephone calls. The air was tense and I knew that something was wrong. When I walked up to them I saw the despair in their eyes, leaving not much behind of the happy "tough" guys from before, these were five-year olds in the bodies of grown ups. Israel was bombing the area where they lived and had destroyed their family's house. Never before have I seen fear in such a pure and intense way, but in their eyes it was there. They couldn't reach their family, because the telephones there were hardly working and with every attempt I saw their fear grow and their bodies shrunk. In the end they managed to get a hold of them, using my Palestinian Jawwal sim, instead of their Egyptian ones. The family was fine, home-less... but fine.
The final burst came after a few days. While we were listening to music the doorbell rang... within no-time the house was filled with Egyptian secret service agents questioning us. They arrested the Palestinians and me and the other volunteer were also taken to the police for interrogation. Serious trouble...
In the police station I was questioned first. The police man was quite nice and polite and assured me that we as internationals would be fine.. Yes of course, the perverse power of a Western passport. At a certain point the officer told me that I shouldn't be hanging out with Palestinians in Egypt in the future, because it puts me in danger. I replied that I wouldn't change my behavior. He looked at me slightly surprised by such straightforwardness. I explained him: I like Palestinians, they are great people and I don't think there's anything wrong with hanging out with them. He replied: yes.... I like Palestinians too, but...
AH! The Egyptian 'but'...BUT not really, BUT only as far as it pays. As I've said in my previous post, the official 'but' is: we need to protect the security of our country.... Yes... BUT, and I take full credit for this last but, this is not the entire story.
Many people would say that Egypt is tight friends with Israel. At first I thought like that too. But not really. Egypt only sucks up to Israel when it has a clear political or financial interest to do so... so not a case of true and warm friendship. Political opportunism at the expense of suffering Palestinian civilians.
Why would Egypt not open the border and why would Egypt allow Israel to bomb the tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt? It seems irrational if you realize that Egypt would gain a lot from opening the borders and is gaining a lot from the illegal tunnel trade. Business in Al Arish is benefiting from the dire situation in Gaza. When the border was blown up last year people from Gaza flooded into Al Arish to do shopping and spent their money.
Israel knows that and that's exactly why Tzipi Livni, the monster herself, went to pay Hosni Mubarak (the Egyptian president) a visit with Christmas...only days before the Israeli invasion of Gaza. If Israel wanted to have Egypt's approval for this war it needed to 'compensate' Egypt for the financial losses this war would bring for Egypt, in terms of lost trade revenues. So you get this amount from the tunnels? We will double it if you can assure us that you keep the borders closed. Great! Everybody happy... and the Palestinians?? Ah.. well if anyone asks we will just say how much we like them... BUT not from upclose/ BUT from a distance/ BUT only when locked away. The Egyptian love for Palestine... heartbreaking...
So that's how the Egyptian police showed how much they liked my Palestinian friends...they locked them away. Me and Henry were put in the street after a few hours. We decided to take the morning bus back to Taba, because we had already planned that and we didn't know what else to do. In the bus I felt horrible... slightly guilty out of an irrational feeling that we caused these problems for them. One of their friends called me: Hi how are you? When I said not too happy... he didn't understand why. He didn't know what happened and apparently no-one knew. I tried to tell him that his friends were in serious trouble but he patronized me, saying that I shouldn't worry and it would probably be nothing. I told him that he needed to take me seriously and that I knew what I was talking about, but he just kept on 'shush-ing' me as if I was a little girl that needed to go to sleep. One day later he called me again slightly more aware of the situation... he asked me a lot of questions about what happened exactly and finally came to the conclusion that they were in deep shit. DUH! What have I been trying to tell you all this time? Some Palestinians can be so annoying for not taking women serious and treating them like cute little creatures that you just have to pet a little if they make any noise.
In the meantime he mobilized everyone to find out where they were. They also called the brother of two of the guys in Cairo. In the end... this brother and a friend of him spent 2500 pound (around 350 euro) and three days of putting pressure on the police. The result two of my friends were released from prison. In the meantime I had found that the one without the passport had already been sent back to Gaza.
When I was in Cairo, one of my released friends called me to tell that he was in Cairo as well. To see him again was great. I had worried about them a lot. Their entire lives seemed fucked... in a few days they lost everything: their house, their freedom, their future and everything else.
But thanks to the corrupt Egyptian police they were released from prison. Their brother told me that if he and his friend hadn't had spent all that money that they wouldn't be freed and they would probably have been locked away for a long time. I realized that in the end it was a good thing that me and Henri were there when they were arrested, because without us no-one would have known what had happened to them at all.... damn.
In less than two weeks I've had a rather fair introduction to what it means to be a Palestinian from Gaza. My head is empty now of words to describe how experiencing this and meeting these people has impacted me, so let me share with you a poem that I've written a few days ago:
Gaza - Beyond imagination
you are
bombed into my heart
so close and yet so far away
as if even my heart got uprooted
when I stood by and watched you cry
by the silent tears and passive fear of my friends
your damaged children
the night their house, their home was mutilated by F16's.
I was there and I wasn't.
A distant witness to your sorrow
as if distance makes the pain dissolve
it doesn't
as I saw in their eyes
you were there that night
present in their prayers
even though the world has tried to lock you away,
ignorantly
unaware
that you are so much more than a piece of land.
You are a spirit...
Oh, you abused daughter of Palestine
you remain safe and sacred,
no matter how violence has befilthed your destiny,
in the minds of your children
in the mind of justice
you are seen
I can promise you
I was there that night
even though I wasn't
He also told me how he had been in prison for 1 year and 8 months until five months ago. There he had been mistreated considerably, with the Israeli guards tying his arms and legs to a chair every day for 12 hours, 40 days in a row, forcing him to admit that he was Hamas and that he was making qassam rockets. The first being not true, but the second was. Damn... Welcome to Gaza, where violence is just interwoven with daily life.
In the days after, me and another volunteer from Nablus that had come to Al Arish as well, hang out with our newly made 'tunnelfriends' a lot. They helped us considerably, taking us to the border with Gaza and by just being nice and opening their house for us. We had so much fun, almost as if there was no war in Gaza. Their behavior seemed normal, they were laughing and joking around. In the meanwhile, the police was posting outside of the house, most likely because it's not normal for them to hang out with internationals, but possibly as well because they were Palestinians. Just enjoying life and hanging out is a tricky business here in Egypt and not entirely without risks...as I said: welcome to fascist Egypt, where the state determines who can be your friend.
So their house became like a happy little bubble, devote of the outside reality of the war in Gaza and the Egyptian totalitarian police. But as is the thing with bubbles, sooner or later they crack. And so did this bubble. The first little crack showed up the night me and Henry were invited to sleep in their house. When I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I saw two of them sitting in a dark room, anxiously making telephone calls. The air was tense and I knew that something was wrong. When I walked up to them I saw the despair in their eyes, leaving not much behind of the happy "tough" guys from before, these were five-year olds in the bodies of grown ups. Israel was bombing the area where they lived and had destroyed their family's house. Never before have I seen fear in such a pure and intense way, but in their eyes it was there. They couldn't reach their family, because the telephones there were hardly working and with every attempt I saw their fear grow and their bodies shrunk. In the end they managed to get a hold of them, using my Palestinian Jawwal sim, instead of their Egyptian ones. The family was fine, home-less... but fine.
The final burst came after a few days. While we were listening to music the doorbell rang... within no-time the house was filled with Egyptian secret service agents questioning us. They arrested the Palestinians and me and the other volunteer were also taken to the police for interrogation. Serious trouble...
In the police station I was questioned first. The police man was quite nice and polite and assured me that we as internationals would be fine.. Yes of course, the perverse power of a Western passport. At a certain point the officer told me that I shouldn't be hanging out with Palestinians in Egypt in the future, because it puts me in danger. I replied that I wouldn't change my behavior. He looked at me slightly surprised by such straightforwardness. I explained him: I like Palestinians, they are great people and I don't think there's anything wrong with hanging out with them. He replied: yes.... I like Palestinians too, but...
AH! The Egyptian 'but'...BUT not really, BUT only as far as it pays. As I've said in my previous post, the official 'but' is: we need to protect the security of our country.... Yes... BUT, and I take full credit for this last but, this is not the entire story.
Many people would say that Egypt is tight friends with Israel. At first I thought like that too. But not really. Egypt only sucks up to Israel when it has a clear political or financial interest to do so... so not a case of true and warm friendship. Political opportunism at the expense of suffering Palestinian civilians.
Why would Egypt not open the border and why would Egypt allow Israel to bomb the tunnels connecting Gaza with Egypt? It seems irrational if you realize that Egypt would gain a lot from opening the borders and is gaining a lot from the illegal tunnel trade. Business in Al Arish is benefiting from the dire situation in Gaza. When the border was blown up last year people from Gaza flooded into Al Arish to do shopping and spent their money.
Israel knows that and that's exactly why Tzipi Livni, the monster herself, went to pay Hosni Mubarak (the Egyptian president) a visit with Christmas...only days before the Israeli invasion of Gaza. If Israel wanted to have Egypt's approval for this war it needed to 'compensate' Egypt for the financial losses this war would bring for Egypt, in terms of lost trade revenues. So you get this amount from the tunnels? We will double it if you can assure us that you keep the borders closed. Great! Everybody happy... and the Palestinians?? Ah.. well if anyone asks we will just say how much we like them... BUT not from upclose/ BUT from a distance/ BUT only when locked away. The Egyptian love for Palestine... heartbreaking...
So that's how the Egyptian police showed how much they liked my Palestinian friends...they locked them away. Me and Henry were put in the street after a few hours. We decided to take the morning bus back to Taba, because we had already planned that and we didn't know what else to do. In the bus I felt horrible... slightly guilty out of an irrational feeling that we caused these problems for them. One of their friends called me: Hi how are you? When I said not too happy... he didn't understand why. He didn't know what happened and apparently no-one knew. I tried to tell him that his friends were in serious trouble but he patronized me, saying that I shouldn't worry and it would probably be nothing. I told him that he needed to take me seriously and that I knew what I was talking about, but he just kept on 'shush-ing' me as if I was a little girl that needed to go to sleep. One day later he called me again slightly more aware of the situation... he asked me a lot of questions about what happened exactly and finally came to the conclusion that they were in deep shit. DUH! What have I been trying to tell you all this time? Some Palestinians can be so annoying for not taking women serious and treating them like cute little creatures that you just have to pet a little if they make any noise.
In the meantime he mobilized everyone to find out where they were. They also called the brother of two of the guys in Cairo. In the end... this brother and a friend of him spent 2500 pound (around 350 euro) and three days of putting pressure on the police. The result two of my friends were released from prison. In the meantime I had found that the one without the passport had already been sent back to Gaza.
When I was in Cairo, one of my released friends called me to tell that he was in Cairo as well. To see him again was great. I had worried about them a lot. Their entire lives seemed fucked... in a few days they lost everything: their house, their freedom, their future and everything else.
But thanks to the corrupt Egyptian police they were released from prison. Their brother told me that if he and his friend hadn't had spent all that money that they wouldn't be freed and they would probably have been locked away for a long time. I realized that in the end it was a good thing that me and Henri were there when they were arrested, because without us no-one would have known what had happened to them at all.... damn.
In less than two weeks I've had a rather fair introduction to what it means to be a Palestinian from Gaza. My head is empty now of words to describe how experiencing this and meeting these people has impacted me, so let me share with you a poem that I've written a few days ago:
Gaza - Beyond imagination
you are
bombed into my heart
so close and yet so far away
as if even my heart got uprooted
when I stood by and watched you cry
by the silent tears and passive fear of my friends
your damaged children
the night their house, their home was mutilated by F16's.
I was there and I wasn't.
A distant witness to your sorrow
as if distance makes the pain dissolve
it doesn't
as I saw in their eyes
you were there that night
present in their prayers
even though the world has tried to lock you away,
ignorantly
unaware
that you are so much more than a piece of land.
You are a spirit...
Oh, you abused daughter of Palestine
you remain safe and sacred,
no matter how violence has befilthed your destiny,
in the minds of your children
in the mind of justice
you are seen
I can promise you
I was there that night
even though I wasn't
Friday, January 16, 2009
Welcome to (fascist) Egypt!
Welcome to Egypt visitors. This is the sign you'll find a few hundred meters after leaving the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Visitors? What visitors??! Maybe they are talking about the few heavily bombed nearly dead Palestinians that are brought to Egyptian hospitals. But I don't think these people are capable of opening their eyes to see this sign of so-called Egyptian hospitality. The Rafah border crossing, operated by the Egyptians is closed and has been closed for a long time. Depriving the already deprived Gazans of yet another right: The right to flee violence and seek a safe shelter. This is not the only conflict in the world and in terms of fatalities not the most severe, but even in the bloodiest conflicts civilians are able and allowed to flee the war violence... whereas the people in Gaza can do nothing else but await the rain of bombs and pray that God will spare them, just for once, making this one of the most detrimental humanitarian disasters in this world.
No-one can go in or out... except for around 30 of the most seriously wounded people each day and a team of 10 aidworkers that got very lucky and was allowed to go in. And for the rest: no matter what a great docter or journalist you are. The doors remain shut.
So yes... welcome to Egypt. In the nearly ten days that I've been here I've been questioned by the Egyptian secret service 4 times and than I'm not even considering all the times I've been questioned at the many checkpoints that are now allover the country (mainly because of the situation in Gaza now... at least so I've been told). I was sent away from the hospital in Al Arish where I wanted to visit some of the victims with an Egyptian nurse that I had met on the beach. The secret service checked my passport, questioned me in detail and then send me away... as if visiting wounded people in hospitals is some terrorist act threatening the security of the state of Egypt.
Ironically, every time after they were done questioning me they told me: Welcome to Egypt! Uh?! You guys don't really make me feel welcome at all.... But indeed: Welcome to fascist Egypt. In such a short time I've met regularly with the true face of Egypt, beyond that of the pyramids, the beaches of the Sinai. This is Egypt as it is... welcome! A true fascist country, where the 'security' of the state is deemed more important than individual lives and any feelings of humanity, especially in the case of severe human suffering, are severely oppressed.
"Yes, people in Gaza are dying...but we need to safeguard the security of our country. This is our land, you know". This is how it was more or less literally said to me several times by different people.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Final Destination GAZA
With the situation in Gaza totally spiraling out of control and my Israeli visa expiring I was faced with a difficult dilemma. I didn't want to leave Palestine and the situation in Gaza to go play the blond tourist in Egypt... but I had to leave. That's why I decided to go Egypt and try to get to Gaza, at least as close to Gaza as I can get, which means the Egyptian city of al Arish and the border town of Rafah (Rafah in Egypt... the town has been divided into an Egyptian part and a Gazan part)
Coming from Sakhnin, where a massive demonstration for Gaza was held by 100.000 to 150.000 Palestinian Israelis (in a town of 25.000 people) I took the bus to Eilat in Haifa at eleven in the evening.
The bus ride made me feel very nervous. Surrounded by Israeli people and society it almost made me forget about Gaza and about the purpose of my trip. It was like as if I was on a school trip, but then one with fat russian ladies sitting next to you, scaring the hell out of you with their occasional loud snor every 10 to 15 minutes. At every stop we made people came up to me, curious to find out where I was from and what I was doing. It's not nice to say that you're a tourist to their lovely country now with the situation in Gaza.
Driving past Beer Sheba, I was confronted again with Gaza. It was so surreal to realize that Gaza was close, while being surrounded by Western Israeli society where live was just going on as if Gaza didn't happen. But then two trucks drove by, both carrying two army tanks on them. No-one seemed to notice except for me. I was terrified. These tanks were obviously going to Gaza and obviously not for fun or peaceful purposes... Tanks are made to kill and even though the bus ride had made me forget a little that was what Israel was doing while I was trying to get some sleep on the bus to Eilat.
We arrived in Eilat at 5 am. So there I was in the bus station, having to wait for the Egyptian embassy to open at 9, to get my visa to get the hell out of this fascist country, where guns and violence are so normal and accepted. The public transport is filled with young soldiers going home or their army bases, often carrying their (huge) guns carelessly, as if it's some sort of accesory.. like a bag or a mobile phone.
While waiting I enrolled in several conversations with other people that were waiting. One guy told me in broken English that his friends are now inside Gaza. And that he believes in God, so that he hopes they will be okay. I didn't know how to react to that, so I just nodded, feeling disgusted and lonely, because my concerns were not the concerns of the people I was surrounded by.
A little later when I was standing outside to see the sunrise I met three Israeli guys. Two of them were here to go to court, because they had been smoking hash and the other was here with his cousin, to travel back to Belgium where he was studying. We had nice, stupid conversations about nothing, life, music etc. It was not until we talked about their army experiences that I found out that the Belgium guy was a Palestinian Israeli from Nazareth. The two Jewish Israeli guys didn't seem to matter at all, they were curious but after a few questions the conversation went on.
Knowing that one of the guys was Palestinian I felt a little more comfortable to tell about what I had really been doing in the past few months. I openly talked about how I had been inside the West Bank and how I liked cities like Ramallah and Nablus. One of the Jewish guys told me how he, when he was in the army, used to go eat humus and falafel in Ramallah after his army shifts. Humus and falafel... we engaged in discussions about where the best humus of the entire country could be found. The jewish guys claiming that it was in Akko, the Palestinian that it was in Nazareth and me saying inside the West Bank. The atmosphere was pleasant and everyone seemed open to listen to what the other had to say. When the subject changed to music again, one of the jewish guys began to sing a song of Umm Katum an Arabic artist. He was a big fan of her music.
Later on the cousin of the Palestinian also came outside and there I was... with two Palestinian Israelis and two Jewish. It reminded me that the conflict is not about two people hating each other. The people get along fine, if they are willing to leave their prejudices aside. It's the political level that has manufactured this situation of complete oppression of the Palestinian people.
After 9 o' clock we said goodbye and after I got my visa I went straight to the border crossing. I was somewhat nervous, but the girl sitting behind the desk was actually smiling at me for a difference. After she made a phone call that scared the hell out of me, I was free to go and cross to the Egyptian side. There I had more difficulties... Not because they were asking me the same difficult and annoying questions as in Israel, not at all... just because my visa number was not correct: they had two number 23's... welcome to Egypt! I couldn't help but laugh at their attempts to come across as professional serious guys. Even their moustaches gave me a feeling I had ended up in some sort of comedy show.
Outside I didn't really know where to go, since I hadn't really planned this trip. A bedouin cab driver that insisted on driving me (after thorough negotiations about the price) took me to the busstation where we drank coffee and had a look at the map of Egypt. It was not possible to go Al Arish straight. He told me I had to make a huge detour and change busses several times, but that I couldn't do it today anymore, since I would arrive there at night. I agreed to let him take me to a beach camp close to Taba on the coast of the Red sea.
At the beach camp I was welcomed by a young guy that ran the joint. I didn't see anybody else. Later I found out that I was indeed the only guest. The only other people there were the two other guys working there. While we had initially agreed that I would pay 20 pounds (3 euro), they told me at dinner that they not only didn't want me to pay for the food, but that I could even stay there for free. I was amazed. I had been warned by everyone to watch out for the Egyptians always trying to get money out of Western tourists, and here I was as the only source of income in a deserted beach camp not being allowed to pay. Maybe it was because I told them about my plans to go to Al Arish, or because I spoke a little Arabic. Anyhow, I was touched by their hospitality that wasn't different from the Palestinian hospitality.
I had a great time there, being on a deserted beach, with the beautiful red sea a few metres away. At night, I sat with the guys around a camp fire on the beach, drinking tea and talking about Palestine and the Arabic world. We sat under a palm tree hut until 4 am and finally fell asleep around the camp fire, with the relaxing noise of the sea. The next day I stayed with them as well, because I had missed my six o' clock bus to Suez. It was truly a relaxing and short vacation, being completely away from the stress of life.
With a promise to come back, I finally took the bus the day after. In the evening I arrived in Al Arish after a long and exhausting trip through the entire Sinai. I was shocked to see the many Egyptian checkpoints all over the country. Great... just another fascist country, where I felt for some reason that it was better to tell that I was going to Cairo. More stories about Egypt and Al Arish to come. So far it has been great and without problems, if only the Egyptians here spoke a little English...
Coming from Sakhnin, where a massive demonstration for Gaza was held by 100.000 to 150.000 Palestinian Israelis (in a town of 25.000 people) I took the bus to Eilat in Haifa at eleven in the evening.
The bus ride made me feel very nervous. Surrounded by Israeli people and society it almost made me forget about Gaza and about the purpose of my trip. It was like as if I was on a school trip, but then one with fat russian ladies sitting next to you, scaring the hell out of you with their occasional loud snor every 10 to 15 minutes. At every stop we made people came up to me, curious to find out where I was from and what I was doing. It's not nice to say that you're a tourist to their lovely country now with the situation in Gaza.
Driving past Beer Sheba, I was confronted again with Gaza. It was so surreal to realize that Gaza was close, while being surrounded by Western Israeli society where live was just going on as if Gaza didn't happen. But then two trucks drove by, both carrying two army tanks on them. No-one seemed to notice except for me. I was terrified. These tanks were obviously going to Gaza and obviously not for fun or peaceful purposes... Tanks are made to kill and even though the bus ride had made me forget a little that was what Israel was doing while I was trying to get some sleep on the bus to Eilat.
We arrived in Eilat at 5 am. So there I was in the bus station, having to wait for the Egyptian embassy to open at 9, to get my visa to get the hell out of this fascist country, where guns and violence are so normal and accepted. The public transport is filled with young soldiers going home or their army bases, often carrying their (huge) guns carelessly, as if it's some sort of accesory.. like a bag or a mobile phone.
While waiting I enrolled in several conversations with other people that were waiting. One guy told me in broken English that his friends are now inside Gaza. And that he believes in God, so that he hopes they will be okay. I didn't know how to react to that, so I just nodded, feeling disgusted and lonely, because my concerns were not the concerns of the people I was surrounded by.
A little later when I was standing outside to see the sunrise I met three Israeli guys. Two of them were here to go to court, because they had been smoking hash and the other was here with his cousin, to travel back to Belgium where he was studying. We had nice, stupid conversations about nothing, life, music etc. It was not until we talked about their army experiences that I found out that the Belgium guy was a Palestinian Israeli from Nazareth. The two Jewish Israeli guys didn't seem to matter at all, they were curious but after a few questions the conversation went on.
Knowing that one of the guys was Palestinian I felt a little more comfortable to tell about what I had really been doing in the past few months. I openly talked about how I had been inside the West Bank and how I liked cities like Ramallah and Nablus. One of the Jewish guys told me how he, when he was in the army, used to go eat humus and falafel in Ramallah after his army shifts. Humus and falafel... we engaged in discussions about where the best humus of the entire country could be found. The jewish guys claiming that it was in Akko, the Palestinian that it was in Nazareth and me saying inside the West Bank. The atmosphere was pleasant and everyone seemed open to listen to what the other had to say. When the subject changed to music again, one of the jewish guys began to sing a song of Umm Katum an Arabic artist. He was a big fan of her music.
Later on the cousin of the Palestinian also came outside and there I was... with two Palestinian Israelis and two Jewish. It reminded me that the conflict is not about two people hating each other. The people get along fine, if they are willing to leave their prejudices aside. It's the political level that has manufactured this situation of complete oppression of the Palestinian people.
After 9 o' clock we said goodbye and after I got my visa I went straight to the border crossing. I was somewhat nervous, but the girl sitting behind the desk was actually smiling at me for a difference. After she made a phone call that scared the hell out of me, I was free to go and cross to the Egyptian side. There I had more difficulties... Not because they were asking me the same difficult and annoying questions as in Israel, not at all... just because my visa number was not correct: they had two number 23's... welcome to Egypt! I couldn't help but laugh at their attempts to come across as professional serious guys. Even their moustaches gave me a feeling I had ended up in some sort of comedy show.
Outside I didn't really know where to go, since I hadn't really planned this trip. A bedouin cab driver that insisted on driving me (after thorough negotiations about the price) took me to the busstation where we drank coffee and had a look at the map of Egypt. It was not possible to go Al Arish straight. He told me I had to make a huge detour and change busses several times, but that I couldn't do it today anymore, since I would arrive there at night. I agreed to let him take me to a beach camp close to Taba on the coast of the Red sea.
At the beach camp I was welcomed by a young guy that ran the joint. I didn't see anybody else. Later I found out that I was indeed the only guest. The only other people there were the two other guys working there. While we had initially agreed that I would pay 20 pounds (3 euro), they told me at dinner that they not only didn't want me to pay for the food, but that I could even stay there for free. I was amazed. I had been warned by everyone to watch out for the Egyptians always trying to get money out of Western tourists, and here I was as the only source of income in a deserted beach camp not being allowed to pay. Maybe it was because I told them about my plans to go to Al Arish, or because I spoke a little Arabic. Anyhow, I was touched by their hospitality that wasn't different from the Palestinian hospitality.
I had a great time there, being on a deserted beach, with the beautiful red sea a few metres away. At night, I sat with the guys around a camp fire on the beach, drinking tea and talking about Palestine and the Arabic world. We sat under a palm tree hut until 4 am and finally fell asleep around the camp fire, with the relaxing noise of the sea. The next day I stayed with them as well, because I had missed my six o' clock bus to Suez. It was truly a relaxing and short vacation, being completely away from the stress of life.
With a promise to come back, I finally took the bus the day after. In the evening I arrived in Al Arish after a long and exhausting trip through the entire Sinai. I was shocked to see the many Egyptian checkpoints all over the country. Great... just another fascist country, where I felt for some reason that it was better to tell that I was going to Cairo. More stories about Egypt and Al Arish to come. So far it has been great and without problems, if only the Egyptians here spoke a little English...
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