Stream of Consciousness Observations

**(at least in the Bethlehem area, I dont know about beyond) No one wears seatbelts unless they "have to" by Israeli military order. This means that as soon as we enter an area near a checkpoint or where the IDF patrols, everyone puts on his/her seatbelt. The minute we leave that area, the seatbelt are immediately unclicked. It's a small gesture of resistance. I'm all for that but I've gotta say, my life's been in danger more than once due to this form of resistance. Ah well, what's resistance without some threat of danger? :) Hish and Philip had a great experience where their taxi driver, in a newer car with the alarm that reminds you to put on your seatbelt found the man was so adamant about refusing to wear a seatbelt that he prefered the CONSTANT BEEPING of the alarm to putting on his seatbelt. That means 8-12 hours a day of "beep... beep... beep... beep... beep..." Amazing.

**Half of the time the things asked of us at checkpoints (which I should remind all are NOT just between the West Bank and Israel/'48/historical Palestine but also simply between sections of the West Bank for no reason other than control of the entire occupied territories) are clearly only for show to make sure we know who is in charge. "Open this door" and then they don't even end up looking in. or "Where are you from?" when they have a passport in front of them. Or randomly disallowing some people to come through on a given day for no apparent reason.

**The boy who walked us through the old city of Nablus and took us through the martyrs graveyard. He's an ambulance driver. When we passed on grave, he said "This is my cousin". He'd been driving the ambulence that night during the 2nd Intifada and was called to a scene. The victim died on the way to the hospital. Only after reaching the hospital did he realize it was his cousin. His eyes become misty. We keep walking and he quickly changes the subject to ask me if I like football...

**Watch "Bili'in Habibati", a film by Israeli filmmaker and activist, Shai Pollack. It shows in detail the ignorance and detachment of many soldiers and the humanity as well as both the strength and helplessness of the people of Bili'in Camp while protesting the construction of the Wall through their land. Shai did incredible work with this film and has done much to try to further the case for human rights in Palestine and to change the minds of his fellow Israeli compatriots. Watching this movie with a group of Palestinian students from areas including Jenin, Nablus, Abu Dis and Hebron made me also realize that while I'm still shocked by seeing these images they are not--these are somewhat commonplace to those who have grown up with such violence.