back to normal
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after the illusion/fata morgana of akaba it's back to normal - means to the conflict; that is the real thing people go through here.
after yesterdays rocket attacks on rantisi, the political leader of hamas, everybody knew it is a matter of hours that revenge in form of a suicidal terror attack in israel will take place. that israel carried out a murderous attempt on a politician in the middle of bush's advocated 'peace-process' is proof that the us-administration does not put real pressure on sharon and the israeli government to come to an end of oppression, occupation. their policy of liquidation of the leaders of the palestinian national movement - if we like them or not - is clearly a roadmap to killings - not peace but deathly silence. as israel's government is so much dependent on support from the US sharon is obviously certain to have still bush's backing even he carries on with such bloody rocket attacks. it seems to be a bad game.
for two days I had as a guest - german writer norman ohler - in my flat. traveling the region he came from jordan with an israeli car - the yellow number plates, clearly indicating it as such - which puts him a bit at risc in this area, at least that his car gets smashed or stolen..., especially at night. so we were happy that we were allowed to put it in the back-yard of my landlord.
after film-maker frieder schlaich it was already my second guest in jenin. that is nice, having guests here. in the morning norman joined me to my workshop. four tough kids from the refugee camp came. discovering his mobile phone and digital camera they grasped and played with it, undoing the battery, pressing all the buttons etc. it took norman completely by surprise (normally nobody here touchs your stuff) and he had a short argument with the boys. again they were testing their limits with us...
than: an hour into our workshop at a sudden everybody was listening to the small radio in the office next door: "attack on rantisi..." people here (in jenin) received the message of the assassination attempt quite calm - I was astonished. nobody took to the streets. after some 15 minutes we continued work. but discussions and news-reporters were to be heard everywhere.
in the evening norman and I visited a familly - subhi's familly. they keep two horses and I wanted to take photos of them to study/learn the horse's anatomy for my project. we were presented a male and a female horse - they adored eachother and the male started neighing and got an errected, dripping penis, - everybody was laughing (we were only men!) but not without respect for its massive dick. but it didn't come to the intercourse because she is three months pregnant and was not keen on him...
after showing us a short ride on the back of the horses we were asked to take a seat in the garden and we were brought lovely arab coffee (and later on tea) and it began a lively debatte about the actual political situation. the father, subhi is in his late sixties or even seventies. he was born in haifa (now israel). during the nakbah (the paelstinian catastrophy in 1948) his familly was forced to leave their home. they came to jenin and he became a teacher (english for beginners).
subhi has got five children, his eldest son was a freelance photographer and journalist. in july last year when on duty, taking photos of an israeli tank during the military incursion he got shot in his leg from the machine gun on that tank. as the ambulance was forced to stay away and the doctors not allowed to rescue him he bled to death. when the father briefly went into his house his youngest son showed us photos of these moements: someone from jenin took photos of him with his own camera shortly after receiving the bullet, bleeding like crazy, but obiously he was still fully conscious and keeping his fist onto the wound. the photos were shocking, as you can see him alive but suffering from his wound. ....firstly shooting (from a tank!) at a civilian, secondly stopping the ambulance to rescue this wounded civilian... - clear methods to clamp down terrorism...!
asked what solution of the conflict might be acceptable from their point of view subhi made clear, "we have to give away half of the apple in order to get the other half...", that means: the 67 borders without any settlements within the palestinian state, a compensation for the famillies who got evicted from israel after 1948 (like he himself), the full citizenship of the refugees (lebanon, jordan, egypt...) or if they prefer to come to palestine (not israel) the right to do so... and of course east jerusalem as part of palestine. clearly a reasonable compromise from the palestinian point of view. and this meets with all my experienced conversation so far, they know they have to arrange themselves with israel. so far I didn't hear any statement like: "as long as any jew will live on palestinan soil we'll fight them" - which I was told would be hamas' language/position. I doubt. strongly sympathetic to hamas subhi's soul - and I would say the palestinian soul in general - is split: they have a anti-jewish and a anti-racist one. "in haifa till 1948 we lived side by side with jewish neighbours... we haven't had any serious troubles..., any jew can stay with us in our house and feel save, he can sleep side by side to my daughter in the same room and nothing will happen to him..." - but on the other side, I heard such comments like:"hitler wanted to protect his country from dominant jewish influence... if you see how the jewish settlers dress themselves, they look like apes and wild tribes..." I made very clear that I do not share his view and that the problem is racism, the thinking any race would be superior to another one. hitler followed this propaganda and the jewish settlers / orthodox' and the islamists pray it...
but even they are not free of racism it is a matter of fact: the palestinians are extremely hospitable and do not lock themselves up (like the settlers) - they are very much welcoming strangers and seem to respect our differences.
thursday, june 12
at work during our lunch I asked about yesterdays suicide attack in a public bus in jerusalem. not easy this one, but quite important to let them know, that someone like me, coming from europe in clear solidarity with their issue rejects such an attack as terrorism. one man got furious about my statement - he lost one son and a second one was severly injured by the israeli army and could just leave the hospital some days ago... hearts filled with hatred - fully understandable..., - and I wished I could ease and share their sorrow and pain..., but I insisted that all the suffering does not mean that methods like this are politically acceptable. I said I believe they are not leading to any positive result for their aims.
even it got a controvers debatte I had the feeling they very much respect me.
the workshop goes well, hard work - the shape / sceleton of the horse is to be seen. we collected more metal rods - yesterday at the palestinian ground zero, the centre of the refugee camp, where the israeli army destroyed about 300 houses! samir, my assistant lost his house here, too! today we got the okay from the palestinian red halfmoon (similar to the red cross) to integrate in the horse parts of the destroyed ambulance car in which a well-known local doctor got killed on emergency duty!
I hope we can carry on working in the next days, but I expect more difficulties (i.e. curfew, israeli army...) to come. the shooting (guess it is training) tonight was the most extended one I heard so far...
best thomas
Note: Text by Thomas Kilpper, Jenin