Israel/Palestine 09.08.2012 - 22.08.2012

9th of August: Beach, Hummus and Independence Hall

Basel : It’s 2.50 am when the alarm clock went off. For some of us, the trip to Israel and Palestine started early  We shared a taxi to Basel airport because this early the public transport isn’t in service. Very tired but also pumped up for the trip we checked in but one of the girls got a special red security sticker. Until the end we couldn’t find out what it was all about. Next stop : Tel Aviv. Luckily, we had no problems passing customs, and even the one of us with the special security tag made it through? As we walked into the beautiful arrival hall of Ben Gurion Airport, we spotted Fabienne who had been waiting for us. But not only her, but also a journalist and a photographer from Haaretz approached us, and before we even realized it, we were already giving our first interview about the program and purpose of our trip. (Article to be posted asap) We then took a very modern train to the city center, and after having checked into the hostel, we headed straight to the beach and had some ice cream whilst enjoying the sun. We ended our beach session to meet up with the rest of the group who had flown in from Zurich airport. You see some familiar faces but also new ones; Mei came all the way from Hong Kong, so no one was able to meet here in advance. After a short welcome talk we followed Fabienne through the streets of Tel Aviv where we discovered the Independence Hall. Finally we stopped at Suzanna’s where we enjoy our first Israeli dinner. Delicious! On the walk home we were treated to a free open air followed by a swim in the sea and a good night sleep.

10th of August: Shabbat Shalom

Tel Aviv- We started the day with a morning swim in the sea at around 7 am. After we grabbed some breakfast (cinnamon rolls and chocolate croissant) at nearby coffee shop right on the beach we headed to our first meeting , the Swiss Embassy in Tel Aviv. They were holding a really interesting presentation about the relationship of Switzerland and Israel. Even though Tel Aviv is not the capital city of Israel (from the Israeli perspective) all the Embassies are located in the modern city of Tel Aviv. Furthermore there are some diplomatic relationships with the Westbank and the Gaza strip, especially with the controversial Hamas in Gaza, which Israel is not in favour of. Afterwards we headed to Sderot, a small city of 22`000 habitants close to the Gaza-strip, to get an insight of an endangered region of the conflict. On average 3.5 missiles hit Sderot per day and they get also sniper attacks. The citizens got used to the sirens and are always ready to leap for the next bomb shelters, which has to be done within 6-15 seconds. At last our tour guide took us even to the desert border of Gaza. After Sderot our bus driver, Ali, who lived in Switzerland (Zurich) for 20 twenty years, took us to Jerusalem. We arrived during the Ramadan prayers, so that we were welcomed by a huge Muslim group trying to get quickly out of the old town to get home before the sun sets. We are staying at a wonderful hostel lead by a Christian community. We have one of the best views over the Dome of the Rock, the Mount of Olives and the Old Town. Before going out for dinner we went spontaneously to the Western Wall, where the Jewish community held their Shabbat festivities. Some of them were praying like in trance and others were singing, dancing and celebrating passionately the Shabbat. 3 people of the group were even invited for Shabbat dinner by a Rabbi. Now were heading to our dorms with the Muezzin song prayer stuck in our heads.

11th August – the peace village

Having been woken by an unmanned i-phone or the Muezzin song prayer – either way it was an early start to the day. After a simple but good breakfast of toast, jam, yoghurt, cheese and fruit salad, we made our way to the not so busy streets of Jerusalem - yesterday’s, seemingly chaotic walk was a lot easier in the early morning. Having found Ali (the bus driver) just where we left him the day before, we made our way to the village of peace Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. On arrival we were greeted by Bob and Rita. Bob was a post-university “find-yourself” tip traveller, who came to the area to live in this village in 1977 and stayed on to become one of the founding members and later a school teacher there. Neve Shalom/Wahal al-Salam was the brain child of Bruno Hussar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Hussar) in the mid 90 hundreds: his idea was to father an interfaith community. Bob gave us a well-informed talk about the town its hopes, ideas and wants for the future. And then later took us on a walking tour in the 30 degree temperature of the surroundings and infrastructure of Neve Shalom. There after we were treated with a buffet lunch in the community dining hall. Fed and watered we had some quiet time. Some swum in the local pool, some drunk ice tea and ice coffee in the local café and the others took in the view from the balcony. After the brief break we hopped back on the bus and were treated to a tour of the ruins/”re-beautification” of the former Palestine town Emmaus. A part of the re-beautification was to demolish the local homes and plant a small array of European trees. Ruins of the former infrastructure are still visible. With a better understanding of the tragic local history we sombrely entered the bus and returned to Jerusalem. Having gathered our thoughts, feeling and emotions we headed out for dinner. Arriving at our restaurant of choice to find stacked tables, lights out and a locked door we set out on a mission to search a new restaurant. It would seem Armenian restaurants are in abundance in Jerusalem. With full bellies we retired for the evening.

12th August – a day of division

Our second day at the Ecce Homo Guest House, we started with a steady flow of comings and goings from the dining hall. After breakfast, we all convened at the front door of the guest house, where we were meet by our Schaffhausen born city tour guide Moshe Gabay. A very short walk and a view stairs we found ourselves overlooking the city of Jerusalem from the roof top of the Austrian Hospice. In the soft glow of the morning sun we were given much information over the history of Jerusalem city. This information was extremely well presented as our guide, a history student, had a very in depth knowledge of the surroundings. As the day began to warm we made our way through the cool meze of the old city toward the Wailing Wall, where we were delivered more information about the daily life in modern Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the delivery was very one sided. Fighting the raising temperature and lack of shade huddled under an umbrella, this part of the tour was uncomfortable to say the least. Looking for respite we made our way back into the streets towards the church of Holy Sepulchre. This is a very important pilgrim point for Christians, with blind faith; they come to kiss the stone, which is set to be the final resting point of Jesus. Suffering mild heat stroke we made our way to a café for liquid refreshments. Reenergised we continued the tour to the new city of Jerusalem, where our guide left us. After lunch we took an interesting bus ride to the Palestinian university of Al-Quds, where we meet our study group partners for the afternoon. Before the workshop commenced we had a well-informed and well-presented tour of the prisoners Museum. After a brief introduction the workshop was underway and new friendships were being made within minutes. All your typical stereotypes were raised from both sides which was interesting to see how much we were all influenced by modern media. Having smoothed a few of those stereotypes out, our time together came to a close. With Ramadan coming to an end we took a crazy bus ride to the border control between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Three of the students joined us for the trip back to Jerusalem city, followed by dinner once the sun set. After dinner a small group together with our new Palestinian friends entered the chaotic excitement of night time old city Jerusalem during the period of Ramadan. This was an amazing close to an extremely interesting and fulfilling day.

August 13 From the Supreme Court into the desert

After enjoying a very good cup of cappuccino at the cafeteria of the Hebrew University, we had a guided tour of the campus of this important academic institution. Then our group had the opportunity to meet Dr Moshe Zimmermann. He is a researcher of the social history of Germany, in particular of German Jews and anti-semitism. His lecture though focused on challenges in the Israeli society between the different religious and cultural groups. We learned a lot about waves of immigration in the late 19th and in the 20th century and how it affected the Israeli social life and politics. For example he mentioned the huge number of Eastern European Jews having immigrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Also he thinks that the young people nowadays tend towards more extreme views on the conflict and seem to be more nationalistic. After a short lunch break we took the bus to the magnificent building of the Supreme Court of Israel. The guided tour there focused on the beautiful architecture and some basics concerning the Israeli legal system. As we had some time left, most of us decided to explore the exhibition about Orthodox Judaism in the Israel Museum. Its many videos gave us an insight in this special culture, which we had thought to know well. We turned out to be wrong and learned many new things. For example on weddings the bride has to dance with the rabbi and family members having her face covered. They are surrounded by many community members who are singing and celebrating passionately. In the evening we headed towards the fascinating landscape of the Dead Sea region.

14th of August: hot, hotter, Dead Sea

We travelled by bus to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 400 m below sea level and is the lowest spot in the world. The desert was very impressive. The white salt on the sand makes the desert look like a moon landscape. We finally arrived in a hostel close to the main attraction of the region, the fortress Massada. It was very hot, 42 degrees under the shade. The staff of the hotel was not very nice. Next morning we had to get up early: at four o’clock in the morning because later it would be too hot and we wanted to see the sunrise. Then we walked on the top of the mountain. We walked up on a steep way for about an hour. On the top there were already many people to see the sunrise. At about six the sun came up and the people clapped their hands or some sang a song. Then we explored Massada: Massada means “they will never catch us alive”. The story is that the Jewish defended the fortress against the Romans. As they were not able to defend the fortress, the Jewish people inside Massada committed suicide. There are many ruins of the huge fortress on the top of the mountain and we had a nice outlook on the hills of the desert. Some of us went down by feet, others took the cable car. In the hotel we went to sleep or to the swimming pool to relax. At about three o’clock, we continued to bath in the Dead Sea. It was now nearly 50 degrees, the sand was extremely hot and burnt our feet. We went down to the water, it was also very hot, feeling like a hot spring. On the water, we could float very easily. Some could even read a book with both feet and hands dry above water. Floating on both sides is easy and possible. The salt concentration in the water made us notice all little wounds we have on our sensitive skin. We didn’t stay too long in the salty water and rinsed ourselves with fresh water. After that we had some food in the beach restaurant. It was so hot that our cold beer turned warm half way through the meal. Afterwards we travelled to Ramallah by bus.

15th of August: a refugee problem?

In the morning we visited the University of Birzeit, the first institute of higher education in Palestine, which turned from a college into an university in 1975. With Asem Khalil, a researcher and author of important publication on the topic of Palestinian refugees since 1948 and his staff of three girls, who are working closely with the refugees to be constantly up to date about their current situation, their needs, their struggles and their expectations towards the NGOs as well as the Palestinian Authority concerning their future. After a short introduction about their work another guy (Mr. X) , who came back from Harvard University, where he was working, started to give us an overview about the political strategy on Palestinian side during the last one and a half years, especially concerning the UN meeting in 2011, which did not fulfil their expectations in the end and their visions for the future. He stroke out the lake of support by the Western society for example there were about forty UN resolutions not implemented by the responsibles and the UN remained passive. This incident is a blame and somehow maybe an approval for the unwillingness of the involved states to really stay strong in their positions; especially if you compare it to the case when only a single resolution legitimated the Iraq war in 2003. When it came to the question about how the future Palestinian state should look like you could clearly see that even within a group working together and having the same level of education there are different opinions. But in the end whether two or one state solution they all agree in the steps that have to be done, the problems that have to be solved before getting any close to a final solution: refugee problem (UN resolution 194) and the constant occupation of more land by Israelian settlers (mostly legitimated by their state and law). After the meeting at the University the staff took us to the nearby Jalazone refugee camp to have another meeting with two men of the camp`s committee. While sitting on comfortable sofas surrounding the guy`s office table they gave us their impressions about life as a refugee and the difficulties they are facing every day. Even though they couldn`t speak English and the translator had a really hard time dealing with their emotional speech we could clearly feel empathy and understand the full range of feelings they have: desperation, rage, strong sense of solidarity, hope and some kind of black humour, but NO hate towards political nor religious groups or nations. First of all: Our expectations and images in our minds how a refugee camp would look like did not match the reality. Instead of facing exhausted and strained human beings we were surrounded by curious, little children playing in the shade of the houses, which seemed to be built wall to wall using every single inch of ground and space for living. Considering the fact that the camp was supposed to give shelter for around 2000 people, now it accommodates almost 13000 people. Furthermore it is important to know that this place has been rented from 1949 for in total 99 years. And so far nobody seems to know the answer to the question what will happen after. Despite of many obstacles like the waste problem, infrastructure, lack of social activities and slow but constant retreat of the aid organisations, like UNRWA, due to financial issues the refugees find their ways to work around them to improve their livelihood. For example you can find a woman’s health centre, a computer centre, offering courses for the youth and they definitely did not manage to hide their pride about their soccer team winning the local championship just a few days go.

16th of August: Good Morning Ramallah

After breakfast in the backyard of our hostel we make our way to the Barrier Monitoring Unit (BMU). Finally, after having stopped at the wrong UN building, we arrive at the UNWRA office. On the way in we meet Mr Hirschi and Mrs Bernasconi, who are going to join us for this meeting and invited us afterwards in the SDC Office in East Jerusalem. We were welcomed with fresh coffee from the project team which is very nice. The trhree workers from BMU try to collect as much information as possible about the “security fence” which Israel has builtarund the Westbank. With mas and factsheets we follow a presentation about the way the wall was built, the route but most importantly the environmental and economic effects on the Palestinian people living in the area. We then jumped on the bus to see this fence which is supposed to prevent Israel from suicide bombers. Our field trip accompanied by a UN car brings us to 3 different places to show us what the presentation was all about. The wall is higher than expected. Our last stop is in Jerusalem where we here about more sociological effects of the wall. We then go to the SDC Office in East Jerusalem where a great lunch buffet awaits us. Hanspeter Hirschi tells us about the general situation in Palestine and also the Swiss Palestinian relations followed by a presenation of Sandra Bernasconi about the involvement of the SDC in Palestine. After an interesting discussion we head back to Ramallah and enjoy a great evening in Sangria’s the best summer bar in town!

17th of August: Jesus and Health

On the 17 th of August we were very excited to start our day with a visit at the babyhospital in Bethlehem. So our group had to wake up early and take a taxi to the birthplace of Jesus. One of the taxi-drivers seemed to be upset because his speed was insane. So we weren't really surprised as we heard a strange sound coming from the front wheel. He suddenly stopped the car, slammed the door and was somehow able to fix the matter. After depositing our luggage at the holy land trust, we headed off to the hospital. There we got an introduction about the hospital and could learn more about the whole situation and urgent topics. Due to the fact that the hospital cannot install a surgery and emergency department, a lot of severe and life-threatening diseases and accidents cannot be treated at the hospital. As a matter of fact this hospital has to deal with various restrictions - sometimes caused by the wall - and is therefore better prepared for chronic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Very important to mention is that the people of the palestinian territory usually don't have a health insurance and you can only get one under the age of 60. After a break in a restaurant near the church of nativity we had the pleasure to meet Hala and some of her friends again. Fortunately they were very well informed about bethlehem and could tell us more about the ancient church. At 5 o'clock we had a very important appointment at the holy land trust with our homestay families - surely one of the highlights from our trip. As we cannot collect and describe all our various memoirs we just want to add that we got in contact with very kind families with different backgrounds who gave us the impression and the hope that there are at least some people who are willing to make an effort towards peace and still believe in a miracle to happen and - perhaps the most important fact- can forget about the past.

18th of August : another day in Bethlehem

After our first night in the host families we started the day in a coffee shop in Bethlehem to exchange the experiences of our homestays with different backgrounds. For example two of us spent their homestay within a family in the refugee camp. Others stayed in traditional Muslim or Christian families. Afterwards some of us walked along the wall which splits up Bethlehem into two parts to look at the impressive graffiti made by Palestinians. The painter Bansky gives a significant impact of the emotions of the Palestinian population. Others visited the famous Shepard’s field from where the Shepard’s started to follow the star of Bethlehem. In the late afternoon we met some participants of the project “campus in camp”. Campus in Camp tries to work with the difficult situation in the refugee camp. For example one project would like to evolve a recycling system within the refugee camp to improve their standard of living. Furthermore they want to clarify the status of refugees. Hereby we had an emotional discussion about the identity of a Palestinian refugee, their right of return, the different meaning of home and origin and their visions for the future. It was the first time where we really realized the problems of the on-going conflict and that there is no easy solution to it. We then head back to our homestay families for a last time.

19th of August: guided city tour in divided Hebron

After saying goodbye to our hostfamilies in Bethlehem and the essential morning coffee in a restaurant in Bethlehem, we headed off to Hebron, where we were looking forward to our city tour with TIPH. TIPH means “Temporary International Presence in Hebron”. TIPH is allowed to observe and document the daily life in Hebron, but it is not allowed to act in case of any violation of the law. Our tour guide was a young, tough swiss girl who has worked for TIPH for already one year. She told us, that Hebron was such a contested city because of the “cave of Machpelah/The Ibrahimi Mosque”. This cave is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people (after the Temple Mount in Jersualem) because it is believed to be the home and burial place of Abraham. Abraham is told to be the “godfather” and therefore a not only important for Judaism, but also in Christianity and in Islam. Muslims captured Hebron about 700 years ago and declared the cave as a Mosque and forbade entry to Jews. Since 1967 Hebron is occupied by the Israelis (from the point of view of Israel it’s not an occupation but a “coming back” to their old home), the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave and Hebron is separated in a Jewish and a Muslim Part, however, it is de facto controlled by the Israelis, which is also the case for the whole city. Hebron is the home of a huge number of national religious Jewish settlers, for example the Gush Emunin or the Kach Communities. About 600 settlers live downtown, connected to a belt of settlements just outside Hebron. In Hebron Arabs are not allowed to enter the Jewish Part and the other way round, streets are separated with one way for the Israelis and the other side for the Arab population, all observed by Israeli soldiers. In the streets we observe young Arab kids playing and shooting with their toy guns, sometimes also at us. As well young Israeli Soldiers follow the “today we do it my way” rule and do not accept that they are not allowed to scan TIPH workers but rather aim with their (loaded) gun at us. Hebron represents the whole conflict and its overall intensity in a small, brutal way. So, as we became to think we do finally know the conflict, we visited Hebron, from where we got a new, intensive view of the conflict. As long as there will be cities as Hebron, there won’t be any chance for something like peace in this region…

20th of August: Bye bye Jerusalem, hello beach

In the morning of the 20th of August 20we first had to say good bye to the Ecce Homo guesthouse which we would definitely recommend to anybody who wants to stay in Jerusalem and enjoy the unique atmosphere of the old town. After storing our luggage we wanted to take the Tram to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where 3 meetings had been arranged for us. Spoiled by the accuracy of Swiss public transportation, we were confused about a Tram being 20min late, so we simply took taxis. Arriving at the ministry we first had to wait at the waiting hall which seemed to be strongly inspired by an average bus stop, till we got checked and guided to a conference room on one of the lower floors of the building. Our first meeting was about Israel’s economy and held by the responsible for the Asian area. He gave us a good overview about the general economic situation, about their aims concerning agreements with other nations and about the strong and the weak points of Israel's economy. They put a big emphasize on researching and scientific development which is in some way ascribed to the mentality of Israeli people, at least this is what we were told. Apart of the in general good economic situation, we also learned that the economy is facing some national problems they will have to cope with, sooner or later: first of all 26% of the population are orthodox Jews, a religious group that does not work, does not have to do military service and gets supported by the state. The legitimation of this arrangement goes back to the beginning of the state, where there was significant lower number of these people. Not necessarily mentioning that this fact, together with the problem of rising living cost, already led to social demonstrations, it is obvious that today there is no way for a modern economy to deal with this. On the other side, Jewish families and communities from all over the world are an important pillar for the social system, donating a not unimportant amount to universities, schools as well as hospitals, recreation centres and parks. Our next meeting was with the leader of the department for humanitarian help. Even if their budget is really small, only 0.07% of the GDP, they seem to have really good projects, mainly in Africa and focus strongly on sustainable development. Our presenter really made an idealistic impression, the impression to be really into his job and caring about humanity. Only the fact that we all just came back from the Westbank, that we saw that you do not necessarily need to go till Africa to find somebody who is in need for humanitarian aid, that it is maybe enough to just take a look over to your neighbour and ask yourself „how come?“ left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths. Our last appointment was with Ilana Stein, the spokes man of the ministry. It was a very interesting meeting since it was maybe the first time we got a clear insight in the political opinions of Israel. Disagreeing or not with what she said, she definitely gave some good points which made us understand better how the society thinks and feels. A couple of us may had a hard time with a few of her historical and political arguments but it clearly showed us that in the end you can find arguments and proofs for almost every point of view when it comes to long lasting conflicts which involves emotions, religions, power, economical interests, different definitions of identity and personal experiences. We left the ministry with a head full of information and impressions and somehow were happy that we were about to head back to Tel Aviv in the afternoon. There we stayed at the charming Old Jaffa Hostel, located, as you may guess, in Old Jaffa, which was originally a separate town which slowly became part of Tel Aviv in the 20th century with its expanding. We enjoyed the late afternoon at the beach, which was pretty crowded due to Eid and later had dinner with a journalist from Haaretz. Some went to bed after, some explored the old, lively town for a drink and it was a general feeling of just relaxing and not thinking for a while. It became true, what we sometimes heard during our trip: in Tel Aviv, sipping a coffee at the beach, you may easily forget about the whole conflict and so on and that might be the reason so many young people moving there. Even if ignoring the situation in a way seems not to be the right thing to do, this evening we could really understand it.

21st of August: Another refugee problem

The second to last day of the trip and its getting harder and harder to get up in the morning especially as some people had a bit of a short night due to the amount of good clubs in Tel Aviv. This morning we are meeting with ASSAF (Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) in the South of Tel Aviv to discuss the problems of African refugees coming into Israel. Even though Israel played a great part in helping define refugees and their rights in the 1951 Convention it does not act according to these definitions. Life for refugees who have arrived in Israel (most of them come from Sudan or Eritrea) is difficult. Israel does not have a clear policy regarding these people’s status and rights, and there is no official authority responsible for dealing with them. Thousands of asylum seekers are held in custody in detention centres with no release date. Others are living in Israel with no official status; therefore they do not receive any work permits, access to medical and social services, legal aid or housing arrangements. After the general presentation about refugees we go on a little field trip through the South of Tel Aviv where lots of refugees arrive at first and end up staying. We can not just see lots of refugees looking for a day job, sleeping and resting in Lewinsky Park (just close to the bus station where they arrive) but also houses and flats looking a lot different than in the North and centre of Tel Aviv, older and not really looked after. Apparently the municipality does not have the means to do more as they are neglected from the government. For lunch we have some nice Eritrean food, due to language problems we do not get the vegetarian dish we ordered but meat. Most of us still happily eat it though. In the afternoon we meet with a responsible from the African Workers Union and Oscar a refugee himself who tells us his story. We can hear from refugees themselves how hard life is for them. After these interesting presentations we head back to our hostel and most of us go for a swim in the Beach again. Later in the evening we already have our last dinner together and realise that the trip is nearly over… some of us go back to bed and others enjoy Tel Aviv’s night life for the last time.

22nd of August: Time to say goodbye

Today is leaving day. We need to pack and check out before going out for a great breakfast. The first people already have to leave soon afterwards, even though their flight is only at 4. This is due to very long security procedures at the airport, which can easily take up to 2 hours (especially if you mention that you spend time in the Westbank). A few hours later after lunch by the beach the other members of the group have to say goodbye to go back to Switzerland. It was a great trip and sure some of us will come back!