Back in Nablus

I got through security with the minimum of fuss. This was quite suprising as I had been up for the best part of 36hrs when I arrived at Ben Gurion. For once I wasn't taken aside for a chat and my lies when I was asked about why I was in Israel seemed to flow quite freely despite how tired I was. I got to Jerusalem earlier than I thought so decided I'd better find somewhere to sleep as it was far too long a wait to just sit around. This was much more difficult than I thought and the police didn't appreciate my wandering around the old city at stupid o'clock in the morning. So more questions and more lies but I managed to pull off the bungling englishman in the middle east with the minimum of any real drama. In the end I had to pay for a ridiculously overpriced hotel for what was effectively half the night but I figured that I needed to get myself off the streets and away from more questions.

Travelling from Jerusalem to Nablus all seemed very normal and routine. I knew where to catch the bus, I knew which bus I needed next and how not to get ripped off paying for taxi's. I was glad to be in Nablus and once I had gone through Huwarra checkpoint I was happy. Back to insane taxi drivers and sign language conversations... Being back at Project Hope was also like I had never been away. The same people in the same place talking about the same things. Had I posted this when I first started writing it in the early afternoon it would just have been a case of the same old same old...

Nablus has surprised me each time I have visited. The first because of the novelty value the second because I realised that the first visit wasn't long enough and this time because of the talk that some of the Palestinian staff gave this evening. The talk was about the invasion of the city in 2002. I saw photographs of this when I went to a Palestinian literature festival back when I thought Amnesty International was the way to save the world and teaching Citizenship Education my calling in life... It was very different seeing the images tonight and having the scenes described in detail by people that were there. People I now call friends.

The situation was truly horrific and the PH staff that were there weren't through absolute hell as red crescent volunteers. They saw people die through lack of resources and were effectively under siege despite their neutral status. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to tell someone that is dying that there is nothing you can do for them. The city was surrounded by 450 tanks supported by F16's and Apache helicopters. The staff themselves admit that it was bizarre seeing children with rocks trying to confront this terrfying arsenal. The field hospital they had set up prior to the invasion was given no special status and the removal of the dead and injured from within was not permitted. The medical services were regularly targetted and they all expected to die, even going so far as to get a camera crew to film their final wishes. Trying to put what they experienced into words is tremendously difficult and my attempts at hearsay a poor substitute. Like the guys giving the talk said the experience should not be forgotten and remembering it each year by explaining it to others who can also pass it on is important. The talk finishing with the worrying point that things are not likely to get better any time soon and that similar occurences are far from unlikely.

On a more positive note I have spoken to a few of the students that I worked with last year and we have agreed to meet up over the weekend. I also have some English classes arranged and plan to do some work on the social justice project. I know that there is relatively little that I can do in the ten days that I am here but being here is the most important thing. Standing at the checkpoints pointlessly waiting for hours on end is the closest I can get to knowing what it feels like to be Palestinian.