Untitled
Waking up: the first step in the cycle of liberation. I feel as though I have had numerous experiences in my life that have further changed my understanding of what I believed was to be true. I have been taught from a young age that I was born into a life with both privilege and a lack of privilege. My whole life I have understood that I have been benefiting from a system that prefers the color of my skin and my nationality, and have been been working to further educate myself and stand up against such systems. And although I have always had this understanding, this past year I had an experience that really shined light on my privileges. Earlier this year, in March, I had the incredible experience of traveling to Israel and Palestine on a dual narrative trip through an organization called Hands of Peace. Hands of Peace is an interfaith organization that brings together Palestinian, Israeli, and American teens to use dialogue and relationship building to cultivate youth leaders for peace. I participated in the Hands of Peace summer program for two years and it really shifted my way of thinking about the world, myself, the United States, compassion, trust, equity, empathy, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, America’ role in it, and my role as a peacemaker. This experience really opened up my eyes to what’ going on in the world and shifted my way of thinking. This was the start of my deep involvement in social justice and change. After learning so much and being so inspired by all the teens that came during the summer program, I wanted to do more. I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Israel and Palestine and learned so much about the history of the land and all of its people. While I was there, I had a couple really transformative and educating experiences. One day we were traveling in the city of Hebron. Hebron is a really interesting and unique city. It is split into two areas, H1 and H2. H1 is controlled by the Palestinian authority and H2 is controlled by the Israeli military. And any Palestinians living in H2 are under military law, whereas any Israelis in H2 are under civil law. When entering the city, we had to stop and let our Palestinian tour guide get off the bus because as a Palestinian he was not allowed to be in certain areas of Hebron and was forced to meet us in an area where Palestinians were allowed. We then walked through an area that was technically under Palestinian Authority, but did not allow for people to live there because it was so close to where some Jewish settlers lived. We continue walking and get to this street where no one lives because Palestinians aren’t allowed in the area and Israelis are heavily advised not to live in this area anymore after people were attacked too many times. As I walk down this street it is a view like I’ve never seen before; Israeli flags are hanging all along the upstairs apartments, Israeli military propaganda is plastered all over the buildings, Israeli soldiers are standing at their posts (as young as you and I) with huge machine guns, and a completely deserted area filled with only soldiers and no one else. I was shocked by what I was seeing. I didn’t understand why there was all of this holy land to be used that was taken under control by the Israelis for their people, yet no one was even there, furthering the amount of Palestinians living in smaller areas of land. And yet, my amazement and dismay didn’t end there. We then entered the area of Hebron inhabited by many Palestinians through a small checkpoint where we were greeted by our Palestinian tour guide. He took us through the marketplace and shared the history of this city and how Israelis, Palestinians, and laws had changed throughout the course of the past couple decades. After we finished touring the marketplace we arrived at another checkpoint that led us to a shared synagog/mosque. There was a shared place of worship among Jews and Muslims and the building was on a schedule so that people of all faiths in the area could use that space to pray. When it was time to exit through the checkpoint there were already a few Palestinian men trying to get through in order to go pray at the mosque. And what happened next shook me to my core. First, the men had to take off their jackets and shoes. Then they had to lift up their shirts and pants in order for the Israeli guards to check and make sure they were not bringing any weapons through on their bodies. After basically showing the Israeli guards everything, the men then had to walk through a metal detector and were forcefully patted down by the Israeli soldiers. Once the Israeli soldiers were done searching their bodies, they then interrogated them on their reasoning for coming through the checkpoint and only after that were they allowed through the checkpoint and into their area of worship. This whole process took about 10 minutes. Right after they were allowed through, our tour guide walked up to the Israeli soldier and told him that we were an American tour group visiting all of the holy sites in the land. The Israeli soldier smiled and immediately let us through the gate withouting even going through the metal detector. This whole process took 30-60 seconds. Wow. I was in shock. All I could think was that the men who just wanted to go pray in their place of worship were just harassed because of their Palestinian identity and yet I was allowed to pass through with no hassle because of my American identity. At this point, a mirror was held up right in front of me reflecting back all of my privilege. I was appalled by what I just witnessed and realized as much as I wanted to stand up and fight for what is right, I wouldn’t be able to make a difference at that time. At this moment, I had a deepened understanding of my privilege than I ever had before and it really opened up my eyes to witness people’ privilege and lack of privilege in my everyday life even more than I had before. I can’t ignore the privileges I do and don’t have in my life and have to do something beneficial with the privilege I do have to stand up for social justice.