3 Stories

AFSC's Popular Achievement Program in the West Bank, Palestine

By Skip Schiel

IQBAL MAHOUD FASHAFSHEH, FROM THE VILLAGE OF GABA'A

Once or twice each month these three staff members travel from their homes in Jenin to the AFSC office in Ramallah for staff meetings. Coordination is vital and it is best done face to face. Here are the stories of three members of AFSC staff or AFSC partners as I heard them sitting one quiet, serene, glowing morning in the Peace Garden opposite the Ramallah Friends High School.

To come to Ramallah from Jenin, a distance of 90 km, Iqbal arose at 1 am to prepare for a taxi she'd asked to meet her at 2. The driver had checked with other drivers--thanks to God for the mobile phone--for which routes were open and relatively safe, meaning without soldiers.

Jenin has been virtually sealed for all people carrying Jenin identity papers--no one let out, no one allowed in without special hard-to-acquire permits. This dates back many years but has grown more restrictive in the last few months, after the Hamas election victory. Jenin has proven itself a notable site for resistance to the occupation, punished by the invasion of Jenin camp in 2002 when upwards of 80 Palestinians were murdered, some crushed to death when the Israeli army destroyed homes without warning inhabitants.

Iqbal has home responsibilities and finishing these kept her up to midnight. She slept for one hour. She realizes that she may die on one of these trips or may pass with difficulties; she is prepared for both prospects. A particularly treacherous part of the journey is thru a narrow wadi (valley). Soldiers patrol this wadi extensively, realizing it is an overland route often used to skirt around checkpoints. They have shot without warning; even the ailing and the pregnant are at significant risk here. Palestinians avoid checkpoints because of the futility of gaining permission to pass.

To navigate these narrow steep wadis, often the passengers will exit the taxi to lighten it, making its transit more probable. They also turn off mobile phones because apparently the Israelis can track people when phones are on. During the rainy season, extending from November thru March, mud becomes a major factor. Cars get stuck, people slide into the mud.

At one point on this particular trip, Iqbal thought she might not succeed in getting to Ramallah. The driver realized they'd have problems whether they continued to Ramallah or turned back, so why not make the effort?

They circumvented the first two of three checkpoints, but decided to try the last one. Waiting one hour, watching the four cars in front of them all denied entry, convinced now they'd made a mistake in trying to get thru, they were mysteriously granted permission to enter. Iqbal has no idea why.

The remaining route posed a question. Whether to go directly, encountering one more checkpoint. If allowed entry, this required a mere 15 minutes, but they decided to go around, adding two more hours to their journey. They arrived in Ramallah at 6 am, a 4-hour trip that under normal conditions--normal in the Holy Land, under occupation?--would require less than one hour.

Iqbal told me this was the easiest and swiftest of the many trips she's made to Ramallah. On other occasions she's witnessed beatings and shootings. On another journey she accompanied her sick cousin in an ambulance. The soldiers took their IDs and made them wait three hours at a checkpoint. The worst experience is getting to Ramallah late, missing the meeting, too late to return home, having no place to stay, a useless trip. On another trip, traveling with 6 men, she the only woman, they were all searched, including their clothing. A male soldier put his hands on her even after she shouted at him not to, she could have turned out her pockets to show she carried nothing suspicious. Males other than intimates touching females is profoundly humiliating for Muslim women, and often part of the Israeli plan to heighten the pain of occupation. Because she was carrying a camera the entire group was denied entry.

Why do this? I inquired, why subject yourself to the danger, turmoil, uncertainty, and humiliation?

--Life has to continue, she replied, should I just stay at home doing nothing? And the risk is just about as great at home as on the road. Soldiers crash thru doors of homes claiming to be looking for militants. They shell and demolish and restrict and harass and target assassinations. Death reaches everyone, sooner or later. I must challenge the occupation in whatever way I can and this is given me to do.

How does your family feel about your work? I asked, knowing that traditional Muslim culture frowns upon the independence that Iqbal demonstrates.

--Initially they tried to stop me from taking this job and traveling alone. But now they trust me (she is 25 years old) and respect me. Besides, I'm the main financial support for the family now. They respect me for what I know, that I can travel when others feel they can't. I phone them regularly to reassure them. I have limits, I would resist if those limits were breached, if men took sexual liberties with me for instance. Each situation successfully completed gives me strength to continue, so that I can surmount the next challenge, even tho more dangerous, more easily. If I allow fear to occupy me that would be the most damaging occupation imaginable. God is with me, I know. My mother told me, you my daughter are equal to 100 men.

What's the risk going returning to your village? I asked.

--Similar to coming to Ramallah. I can be beaten, I can be detained, I might have to stay overnight in a village where I know no one. But I can always sleep in a mosque.

YOUSEF SHALABI

Yousef is the director of the Jenin Creative Cultural Centre, a partner organization. He travels to Ramallah about once each month and when he arrives and visits with his colleagues, he "forgets the pain of living under occupation." Comparing the trips to an imposed adventure to another country, he calls each trip a "nightmare." He reminded me that soldiers can fire at any moment and told me about an occasion when he saw a car fired on at a checkpoint. He left at 2:30 in the morning, arriving in Ramallah at 8:30.

Jenin, he feels, is sealed because it has been a seat of resistance. He has strong views about Israel and the occupation. "Israel is creative in making enemies," he believes. The "siege of Palestine"--a continuing humiliation, a form of collective punishment, and contrary to international law--must end. There can be no viable Palestinian state if the checkpoints and settlements remain.

Resonating with one of my reasons for working in the West Bank, he says part of his motivation to continue making these trips is that "I like the challenge." A Muslim and "follower of Jesus" (since Jesus is regarded by Muslims as one of the prophets), he wishes to remove the "darkness of the occupation," spread lightness, and build hope.

WAFA KIMAH

Wafa coordinates six groups in the Jenin area. She is married, with five children, and must finish her work at home before sleeping and then arising early to make the trip. The night before this last trip she finished her housework at 11:30, then shocked to find soldiers confiscating part of her house because of its strategic location. They pushed her and her husband out, allowing the children to remain at home (but in what psychological condition? I wondered) while they looked for suspected militants. She told me that the army often arrests youth, male and female, when they are in their final high school year. Reason? They'll be in jail during the period of the national exams, thus unable to qualify for university and losing at least one year of schooling.

The soldiers captured some youth, arrested them, blindfolded them, and cuffed them behind their backs, with their heads forced down. They took the females away in a tank. Then the soldiers withdrew. Needless to state, Wafa had no sleep that night.

Leaving at 3 am, traveling along roads in rotten condition--sandy, hilly, narrow, rutted, ditched, I have been on them many times myself, a jarring experience, this alone--she had to frequently walk over circuitous routes to avoid checkpoints. Even so she had to pass thru 3 checkpoints. They were able to pass safely, she believed, because she rode in a car with all women. She arrived in Ramallah at 6 am and promptly found a place to sleep before the meeting began at 8.

One of the groups she coordinates is at a school for the blind. Five in the group are totally blind. The others have impairments. At first she was scared to coordinate this group. But she was heartened when, at the fist meeting, one of the boys said, I hope you are not like the other groups and never come back. Those words erased Wafa's doubts.

After being challenged to pick some project that would benefit a community, the group decided to remake a garden path, tailoring it for blind people. This would benefit not only the kids in the group but any blind people at the school. Following one of the guidelines of Public Achievers, finding community support, they invited the director of the municipality to visit the site for the garden path. He came, they made and served him coffee, and he pledged support, despite the erosion of the economy in Palestine.

Another requirement of the program is for the group to find funding. They refused to "beg for money" as they put it, and instead located a friendly Hamas partner who agreed to seek money from his religious community.

Besides Wafa as the coordinator, and the coach, the group meets regularly with a social worker, psychologist, and special translator that uses sounds to indicate signals. Everything takes double time because of the visual impairments. She senses this is one of her strongest groups, with a powerful commitment, and that the children can break limits imposed by their physical problems. It is Public Achievers first group with impairments and bodes well for a future direction.

The group decided to call itself the "Eagle of Palestine." The kids explained their choice: "The eagle can see far, and we can see far also, but in a different way from most people."   Fida, the director of youth programs in the West Bank, calls Wafa, "my hero."

The Eagles of Palestine

Hand of Fida Shafi, director of AFSC's Youth Program in the West Bank

Other photos and writing

LINKS

Services for the blind in Palestine

Public Achivement internationally

Popular Achievement of AFSC in Palestine

AFSC in Palestine and Israel

"Notes on my Quaker connections in Palestine," Skip Schiel, 2004