Experience in Palestine
Cages in the Holy Land
Where is Ahmad?”
The soldier called for my name while we were stopped at the last illegal checkpoint on the way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. I am a Palestinian-American who holds both a Palestinian and American passport; however, once in Palestine, I am no longer recognized as an American. So, that same solider then proceeded to kick me off the bus as I attempted to make my pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I was only in Palestine for three weeks, but the approval process to visit Jerusalem was backlogged months – the fact that I, as a Palestinian born in Palestine, still need “approval” by an Occupying force to visit my own land while European settlers venture every day is not lost on me.
It has been five years since I was last in Palestine, and since then illegal settlements I once saw as sporadic homes have now become full cities – enclosing Palestinians from all sides, effectively annexing us from our land. This all takes place under the guise of “democracy” and “peace” when the only true objectives are occupation and the genocide of Palestinians. In fact, the day after U.S. President Biden visited the Occupied territories, the Gaza strip was bombarded with bombs and a few days after parades of bombs took place in Nablus City, West Bank.
In the last few years, there has been an accelerated effort of normalization to obscure and legitimize Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Nations that were never at war forge “peace agreements,” while the Palestinian people are suffocated by a settler-colonialism and military occupation. During COVID-19, this problem is made worse as families forcibly removed are forced to move into refugee camps or are unable to reach their families in other cities due to checkpoints and heightened lockdowns. The Israeli Army has been conducting night raids on Palestinian towns since 1967, either in hopes to disorient families while they attempt to demolish their homes or to dismantle their movements towards liberation and equality. Soldiers break down doors in the middle of the night for no other reason but to try and suppress the Palestinian spirit - little do they know our spirit is not going anywhere.
The day starts early for many Palestinians, communities of farmers who wake to care for fields of olive trees and dates. For them, the trees are symbols of resistance. Their roots deeply embedded: into the fabric of history and culture. Though, for hundreds of Palestinians they sometimes awake to their trees being burned by military forces - their livelihoods now ashes – in 2020, Israel burned 1,000 PALESTINIAN olive trees in the first three weeks of the harvest season. Agriculture is the largest sector in the Palestinian economy, informally employing 90 percent of Palestinians in the labor force, and for those in Gaza, provides lifesaving means for food.
For other Palestinians, and any person not Israeli, in ISRAELI-CONTROLLED cities like Jerusalem, they start the day differently, their lives filled with checkpoints, walls, patrols, and military posts which restrict their human right to movement. These checkpoints meant to dehumanize and disconnect the Palestinians to their land, while also “protecting” the illegal settlers colonizing their land. Since the 1967 war, over 600 armed checkpoints have been built, separating Palestinian cities from one another and from settlements. Palestinians have different license plates and IDs and can be denied entry through checkpoints for no reason; often, this leads to Palestinians being unable to work, unable to reach sick loved ones, and unable to access their right to movement. DURING COVID, these checkpoints make it difficult to transport necessary medical equipment and aid from humanitarian organizations, as soldiers can dispose of aid and medicine whenever they choose. These checkpoints are essentially herding the cattle, Israel funneling Palestinians into lines of acceptance or rejection, monitoring their behavior as if they are animals.
With dwindling resources, a global pandemic, broken infrastructure, and depleted hospitals, Israel has created the perfect trap to kill Palestinians. Israel has gone so far as to murder one of the strongest voices of Palestinian resistance – Shireen Abu Akleh.
Shireen carried the voice of Palestinians in mainstream media, one of the last familiar Palestinians in the news, for 20 years, making her a target of Israel; her inconvenient truths of the brutality of occupation needed to be silenced. If Palestinians cannot protest their own Occupation, there will never be a way forward for peace. If we are gunned down for holding signs and throwing stones, there will never be peace.
For Palestinian Americans, like myself, our existence is a political statement. A constant protest and symbol of resistance that we exist, that our lives DO matter. Everywhere we look we have to be constantly reminded of the tremendous support of our oppressors. We must carry the burden of knowing no matter what we do, America will always side with Israel. Even the new Biden Administration, has vowed to keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem – showing how many Democrats are “Liberal except Palestine”, which is not liberal or progressive at all.
I will not forget my first home or the people I came from. Within me is their tenacity in times of immense destruction and sorrow, to thrive in a world where they can be free. But I will not forget my duty to stand up for what is right. I will continue working for a future where all Palestinian children will be able to close their eyes and see freedom in every direction. That they will open their eyes and see the future they have built together – one not clouded in Checkpoints, Ethnic Cleansing, and Catastrophe