SCILLYSPIDER: I'm in the West Bank!

Friday 18 November 2016

I'm in the West Bank!

A protest in Bili'n that I took part in today

Via Rome, I finally made it to the country that is controlled by Israel, Palestine. ISIS is just up road from where I am in Syria where we and other countries are bombng innocent lives. I only booked to come to Palestine less than two weeks ago. This was a place that I've been wanting to visit for a long time and I'm not here for the wildlife.
My purpose for being here is to hopefully observe and talk to both sides about the conflict that's goin on down here. I arrived in Tel Aviv early yesterday morning and later on in Jerusalem, just before crossing the border. I spoke to an Israeli mother and son about the troubles and as expected, they just want peace with the Palestinians. Of cause they do, but how is there goin to be peace when your government continues to bulldoze Palestinian homes replaced by Israeli settlements deep into Palestinian land, taking their olive plantations and all the time also in croaching onto their land. The list goes on and on. They didn't mention anything about this. However, their argument was Hamas have got to stop sending missiles from Gaza into Israel then there might be a better chance of peace. The impression that I got was that they don't know the real truth of what Israeli are doing in Palestine. Like the BBC, it's probably propaganda on Israeli news and only show you what they and the government wants you to see and that ain't the truth.

We were in the Old City of Jerusalem and looking at the Dome of the Rock, when a man approached us asking for his photo to be taking with the building. It turned out that he was Palestinian from Hebron and we all were engaged in talking about and wishing that there was peace between the two countries..

The Dome of the Rock and surrounding area.

Palestinian from Hebron talking about peace with the Israeli's I was hanging out with.

Preying at the western Rock

Pilgrims along the path where apparently Jesus walked with the cross on his back

Now the path is used by men armed with guns

I followed the path that apparently Jesus'stook and made my ways to Damacus Gate where I got on a bus through the apartheid wall towards Ramahalla in Palestine where I planned to stay for the night. The rest of my days I have no idea what I'll be doin or staying.The first night in Hostel D was spent with a few us gathered together, including Muhammad, the owner, and talked about the situation of what's happening to Muhammad's country. Only Sweden recognize Palestine as a country. The rest of the world treat it as a observer state. Only being a member of some of the UN bodies. However, they can not participate in the conferences. I had already met Robert from Norway who was an Internationalist staying at the hostel. With other internationalist, he is protecting Palestinians that are being attacked from Israeli settlers in their village. Also in the group were an editor from the Guardian and a human rights worker on slavery. I was very tired from travling but managed to stay awake to listen to everyones views on the sitution. I think we all came away with certain things we didn't know before. Like, my dogs name and the colour are my socks! There was so much to talk about and we went on well into the early hours of the morning.

My first glimpse of the apartheid wall from the bus towards Ramallah

Streets of Ramallah

They've also got a Sabway. Down the road they've got a Stars and Bucks. That's not Starsbucks owned by pro Israeli Howard Schulz who gives a penny for everytime you buy anything from their outlet! I stopped goin there when I discovered that they weren't paying their taxes,

Today I was driven Twenty minutes down the road to Beli'n. There I was involved a peaceful protest that takes part every Friday afternoon since 2005. However, there not always peaceful and can turn pretty violet and Palestinians have been taken away to never be seen again and also shot at and killed!. I ran away from the soldiers twice when we were charged at. There were only about twenty protesters and half of them were Israeli! The reason why the Palestinians protest is to voice themselves and show the Israeli's that they are still here. The Israeli soldiers stand there ground and in a line stop the protesters from passing them as the wall is just around the corner. It gets heated a little sometimes with their passion coming out and one of the protesters was arrested. after half an hour it all died down and we returned the otherside of the valley and I was invited to one of the locals house. Here I continued talking with Israeli's and discovered a lot more about what the Israeli government is up to and got some very good food down me neck! It was an experience, not the food, the protest and in a few days I'll be goin to Hebron. The street that we were protesting on was called 'Freedom Street'