visit Palestine

it’s a really hard place to live and you will change for sure. i promise

Everything I had hoped for & more.

All my fears confirmed.

All my prayers & efforts re-inforced.

Going to Palestine in April but concerned now, after today’s Jericho jail raid. More unrest, political posturing by Israel, questionable (lack of action) by the US & Britain, western hostages, etc.

I’m with the English teacher who - after his release today by Palestinians who had held him hostage - stated, “I’m supportive of the Palestinians!”

I’m making the flight reservations tomorrow. I’m thinking about this CONSTANTLY, which tells me that I need to go now.

I rec’d my acceptance letter to go on the late spring trip to Israel/Palestine. I’m SOO excited.

Now I need to look into flights & $$$...

Doesn’t look like there will be a regional team, which may knock me out of consideration. Trying not to be too disappointed. Sure there will be other opportunities.

Now it’s out of my hand whether I ‘make it’ or not and earn this opportunity.

I`ve been to palestine twice, and would really like to go back. Although Palestine of course have a lot of problems, people there were incredibly friendly and welcomming, and I visited so many great places there. I hope the palestianians will have their own country and a peaceful future, and hope to visit again.

I’ve got about a month to complete the application for a Bethlehem trip next spring. Undoubtedly I’ll keep putting it off a while. Essay stuff, yuk. Pretty sure I’ll be considered at least to the regional level.

I lived for almost two years on the Gaza Strip working as an art teacher for an International School. I like to tell anyone who truly wants to understand the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that you have to go there to understand it. Simple. The stretch of concrete you have to walk through the Erez border to access the Gaza Strip from Israel is only a few hundred meters but you might as well be crossing the chasm between two different worlds. On the Israeli side are pristine roads, malls and casinos and suvs—in Gaza are 1.3 million people squashed in an area about 14km long and 7km wide, in which 60 percent are unemployed and 30% live below the poverty line on less than two US dollars a day. The people of Gaza live in the world’s largest prison, under constant threat of incursion by Israeli forces by land, sea, and air. Many die or lose their homes daily, and this says nothing of the fragmentation of what’s left of Palestine by the ‘security wall’ they are building.

The situation is tragic but the people are warm and full of humour despite the impossible life they have to live. The experience changed my life and the way I see the world.

(image taken from documentary I made: What’s Written on the Walls)