From Jerusalem to Ramallah

I feel the difference immediately and the tension leaves my shoulders: I am in Ramallah again and my body knows it. Gone is the tension of the Jerusalem Old City streets; gone is the stress of not knowing whether to say 'shalom' and 'toda' or 'marhaba' and 'shukran'. I'm back in familiar territory and I love it.

But I'm not alone.

It begun mid-last week. I was sitting at breakfast and I heard D. discussing his plans to go to Nazareth: 'I'd love to go to Ramallah or something, but I can't go alone,' he said. Immediately I volunteered to take him.

D. is from a Zionist family - he said that if his family knew what he was doing they would disown him: 'Well, not really, but you know what I mean.' I did.

I brought him into Ramallah last Tuesday and I returned him back to Jerusalem safely. We walked the streets, we met my Palestinian friend M., we saw the tomb of Arafat at al-Muqata and we had a drink at Stars and Bucks. It was a beautiful afternoon. In the old city of Ramallah, which is below the main centre, little children played and called out greetings to us.

D. described the experience of Ramallah as 'shattering', and I think that that sums it up in many ways. We have such a negative view of the Other that to discover their human face and kindness shatters our perceptions and our sense of right.

I know that much of what I have experienced in these weeks in Israel has been very hard for me - the racism, the Zionist discourses, and the arrogant unfeeling attitudes towards Palestinians - but I had expected that. These things have shaken and distressed me, but they weren't shattering. If anything, they confirmed impressions I had built while in the West Bank.

What I have found shattering is the insight into Israeli suffering. I cannot discount this suffering merely because they are Israeli; that would be ludicrous and immoral. However, recognising and accepting this suffering has been shattering for me. It would be so much simpler if the situation here was completely one dimensional, if things were essential in nature: essential good versus essential evil. But that's fantasy.

I have spoken with and heard from a number of international lawyers here about the occupation, the Palestinian Territories and the siege on Gaza, and I have been challenged. I have discovered that many of my previously held ideas about the status of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in international law are potentially problematic. I have been looking at this conflict through a telescope, but one must remember the rest of the world when applying international law to any situation.

I have also heard from people who have friends and family members in Israeli military uniform - I have a friend in the Israeli military uniform. This has been shattering.

I have been given an insight into the suffering of the Israeli population, but I still see a difference. To my mind, the Israeli population have the power and agency to rectify their situation, to ease their suffering. They have an autonomy that the Palestinians, as a population subjected to long-term belligerent occupation, are lacking.


I returned to Ramallah again on Saturday - and once more I was not alone.

This time two others had joined me: A. was volunteering with the ambulance service in southern Israel and had been throughout the siege of Gaza; and M. was from my course. Once more we wandered the streets of Ramallah, passed the children playing in the old city, met with my Palestinian friend, ate some Palestinian falafel and hummus, visited the tomb of Arafat in al-Muqata and took a drink at Stars and Bucks. At one point M. received a call from his mother and in answer to her question said that he was in Jerusalem. He said that he would probably tell her the truth about being in Ramallah, but not now - later.