Another teaching week finished, one left to go

I've spent 6 weeks in total in Nablus now and I'm still learning new things everyday. For example as I was walking back from class yesterday an elderly gentleman began talking to me in English. Better English than mine in fact. He is a resident of Nablus and has been all of his life. He remembers when the British were the occupiers and he also remembers when the Jordanians were. Of the three he says the Israeli's are the worst. I suppose that most volunteers here think a little like I do and can't comprehend 60 years of occupation. The Israeli army is in our here and now and as a consequence the visible face of occupation. That this gentlemen remembered so much was daunting but also reminded me that their must be very few people left how can remember a time when there was no occupation.

There are people with parents and grandparents that were born in the same refugee camps that they were. This makes the current 'peace process' and the dragging of heels feel like slow motion to me but to everyone here it is normal. One phrase that keeps cropping up in the things that I read and the words that I hear is that of 'facts on the ground'. Israeli settlements are illegal but they are still there, you can still see them. The longer the pseudo peace processes and accords and whatever else you want to name them continue the more facts on the ground there are. So land that contains settlements with thousands of inhabitants can't become part of a Palestinian state so must be annexed to Israel. The same with the land stolen by the wall or appropriated by other means. It's not in Israel's interests to find a peaceful solution at the present time, not when there is more land to be gained. If peace were in their interests I'm sure it would have been achieved.

I was slightly boosted by reading the interview with the ex-mayor of Nablus, Bassam Shaka. He thinks that international attitudes towards Palestine are changing and that as internationals present in the country we are in a position to influence sentiments back home. This has made me think, especially today, that perhaps I should be trying to make more of my time here and to use it wisely for creating an impact back home. To this end I'm going to devote some time tomorrow to writing some artices and thinking about how I can best utilise what I have learnt in my time here. As I now only have one week left this seems like the perfect time to do it.