Internationals for Justice in Palestine
Delergation Report Backs - Tracy01
PALESTINE IS AMAZING!
My first week I mainly hung out with a family in Beit Sahour. I also got to see some of the infrastructure built by Palestinians in Beit Sahour, and took a quick trip to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and saw where Israeli soldiers shot and bombed the church.
Since I have joined the rest of the delegation, we have had some amazing meetings with a group in Haifa. They gave a very good description of the group’s activities and the forces that they have to contend with in the '48 territory. Haifa is a segregated town, with Israelis and Palestinians not conversing. Palestinians were very welcoming, but the Israelis were not. There have separate schools, and areas of living, and you can see that the illegal government in control is doing nothing for Palestinians. We went to meet with a group working for Palestinians displaced within Israel, and heard the story of a village called El Ghabsiya. El Ghabsiya's story is a very good example of how Israel has destroyed villages and given no options for displaced Palestinians. We also met with a prisoner solidarity organization that gave us a very good idea of the situation for Palestinian political prisoners and the horrors that they endure. We also have seen one of the unrecognized villages, where Palestinians are forced to live across the street from Israeli high-rises, with no running water or electricity.
From Haifa we traveled to Ramallah and into a different world. The Qalkilya checkpoint is a testament to the audacity of Israel in using the auspices of security to justify horrific conditions and abuse. In Ramallah we have met with students from Birzeit University who showed the energy of a population under siege. We joined the students for a protest in solidarity with the political prisoners of Palestine, who had started a hunger strike to get the word out about the abuses they’ve endured, and the rights that either were never given to them (like a fair trial in some cases) or those that have been taken away from them (like family visitation in some instances). The protest was exhilarating.
We also met with leaders from the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the General Union of Palestinian Women. Both do amazing work in both the National struggle (as they called it), and the social struggle to increase women’s value in society.
This is a VERY BRIEF idea of what we have seen and done so far. And I am very honored to be amongst such brave and amazing fighters.
In solidarity,
Tracy
Internationals for Justice in Palestine—A delegation project of the
Palestine Solidarity Group