tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38823023997136107802011-04-21T14:31:11.977-07:00Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-13634954085447520482008-08-09T06:15:00.000-07:002008-08-10T10:53:42.194-07:00

On August 1st, I participated in a small tour through Canada Park, lead by Eitan Bronstein, Zochrot's Director. Canada Park is run by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and lies thirty minutes outside of Tel Aviv in Occupied Palestinian Territory of 1967- ie. the West Bank. For hundreds of years, the land where Canada Park was built was home to the Latroun area villages of Imwas, Yalyu and Beit Nuba

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-41602316175651906342008-08-09T04:16:00.000-07:002008-08-10T10:56:03.065-07:00

Zochrot is the feminine form of "Remembering" in Hebrew and is the name of an organization in Tel Aviv where I volunteered for the last week of my trip. Zochrot [Remembering] is a group of Israeli citizens working to raise awareness of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948.Zochrot does many programs including tours of destroyed Palestinian villages within the 1948 borders of the Israeli

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-40327410623651526742008-08-01T13:29:00.000-07:002008-08-11T09:26:18.123-07:00

Here are some stories / what I learned about the infrastructure of the Israeli State that controls the movement of Palestinian people and maintains a separate and unequal apartheid system...ID cards issued by the Israeli government: Blue ID card- 48 Palestinians (live inside the Green Line) aka "Arab Israelis" or Palestinian Israelis or Palestinians with Israeli citizenship; People with these

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-65488322545146746872008-07-30T13:45:00.000-07:002008-07-31T04:02:12.889-07:00

Yesterday, July 30th, there was a funeral for Ahmed Mousa, the eleven year old who was killed by Israeli Border Police the night before. In the morning, there was a procession from Ramallah to Nl'in, which was put under curfew by the Israeli military which means that no one is allowed to leave their homes. At 6:30pm, I attended a protest in response to this killing in Tel Aviv.The Tel Aviv

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-45507069380130330622008-07-29T12:58:00.000-07:002008-07-31T02:18:19.822-07:00

At around 6pm tonight, Israeli Border Police shot an eleven year young boy named Ahmed dead. Ahmed was a boy full of all the details that boys are. And now he is dead.The Ha'aretz says: "A 9-year-old Palestinian boy died on Tuesday evening during clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces." The International Solidarity Movement which has had volunteers in Ni'lin for over a month,

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-3691138870791200932008-07-29T07:33:00.001-07:002008-07-29T07:58:41.564-07:00

Yesterday, I sat on a patio in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem home for 6 1/2 hours. The home has belonged to the Al Kurd family since 1956 and they are currently being threatened with eviction. The father, Mohammad Al Kurd is partially paralyzed and suffers from diabetes and heart problems. In 2001, the Al Kurd family was away to get Mohommad treatment when a group of settlers

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-68494237477659086802008-07-29T07:22:00.001-07:002008-07-30T13:42:03.191-07:00

Wedding celebrationsgirls in threeswith party favorsmany women gatheredand loud festive musicinterruptedby a fire set by SettlersThe fire is burningI can see it---------------------------On July 27, 2008 Settlers set fire to olive trees in the village of Burin (see Human Rights Report, here). The next day, the settlers burned down a house in the same village.

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-60588747657983130272008-07-29T07:21:00.001-07:002008-07-29T07:23:59.394-07:00

On July 27, I was having tea at the home of a neighbor here in the village of Haris named Isa. Isa was shot by a soldier and is now paralyzed from the waste down. You can read a Ha'aretz article about him here.He and another IWPS volunteer, Andjelka, discussed a friend of his who needs medical support and Andjelika's research about Physicians for Human Rights and other similar organizations. We

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-30066513215216480142008-07-29T05:59:00.000-07:002008-07-29T08:10:22.507-07:00

On Friday, July 25th, I attended a tour of the Musrara neighborhood in West Jerusalem (the Israeli side of Jerusalem) where the Israeli Black Panther Party was born. We were lead by Ayala Sabag, born and raised in Musrara, and one of the leading figures in the Mizrahi (Jews of Middle Eastern/Arab descent) struggle today. The neighborhood of Musrara was originally developed by Palestinians in

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-90804307592517963682008-07-29T05:07:00.001-07:002008-07-29T07:12:24.323-07:00

In West Jerusalem"We are the World"plays in the almost empty Cinematecthe green grass growsthe 'Israel at 60' flags blowJewish boys play under a treea Shofar vaguely soundsin the distanceTears weld upPeople get checked with gunsto maintain this orderAnd I like water can flow overthe border with ease* * *A boy wears army camouflage pantsHe will grow upIt isn't the fault of these Israeli boys,I

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-33587549603891813312008-07-26T03:38:00.000-07:002008-07-29T05:04:49.564-07:00

On July 23rd, I attended a women's demonstration in the village of Nl'in. For a great description of what this protest was about, please read another IWPS volunteer's blog entry about it, here.This young woman was one of theorganizers of the women's demonstration.The banner read, "Women Against the Apartheid Wall".These are 2 of 8 seniors from one Israeli high school who are refusing to serve in

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-72531831810310868382008-07-22T10:57:00.000-07:002008-07-22T13:54:11.919-07:00

An "international"(how foreign solidarity activists are referred to here) can learn a lot by taking a walk from the village of Hares where I am staying to the next village, Kafl Hares. As I and two other internationals walked along many children greeted us by saying "Shalom" (Hello or Peace in Hebrew) and we in turn would answer "Marhaba" or "Salam Aleikum" (Hello or Peace be with you in Arabic).

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-35284599877626509342008-07-22T05:47:00.000-07:002008-07-22T10:57:08.818-07:00

Last night, the International Women's Peace Service (IWPS) (where I am currently volunteering) got a call that Palestinian farmers had been attacked by Settlers on their lands close to Far’ata, Qalqiliya district. We went there to see if internationals could help in some way to stop the attack. By the time we arrived the attack had ended so we visited the Mayor of a neighboring village, the home

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-57781854059216500242008-07-21T09:17:00.000-07:002008-07-22T10:56:49.607-07:00

In 1948, Hana's family fled to Nablus and then moved to Kuwait where they lived until 1993. When the first Gulf War began they moved to Amman, Jordan where many of them remain today. Hana moved to back to Palestine to study Physics. She now lives in the village of Kufrein in the Salfit region of Palestine in the West Bank. Hana lives with her husband and three daughters- Leila (they call her

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-27865003413382928032008-07-18T13:21:00.001-07:002008-07-18T15:06:20.052-07:00

After leaving the market, I then followed our guide to a street with a check point on it. Yes, there is a neighborhood which is closed off by a check point on the street. Palestinians who do not live in that neighborhood can generally not go through the check point- meaning that those Palestinians who live in Tel Rumeida cannot have visitors from outside. The Palestinians I was with knew they

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-62059028215049211982008-07-18T13:19:00.000-07:002008-07-18T14:09:41.450-07:00

This is an unbelievable situation which I cannot even wrap my head around. To explain it I will just tell you about my day there. We entered the city- which is extremely old and beautiful. We got to an arbitrary place in the street and our amazing tour guide told us this was the line between area A and B. In past years, Area A was controlled by Palestinians and Area B was controlled by the

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-76693984087264732452008-07-18T12:03:00.000-07:002008-07-18T12:33:17.712-07:00

I visited an orphanage and a school and a bakery all run by the Islamic Charitable Society(ICS). In the Spring of this year, the Israeli Military invaded their facilities and took all of their equipment- refrigerators, school books, everything- and welded the doors to a new school scheduled to open this Spring. The ICS is fighting the invasions in the Israeli courts fighting accusations of

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-24393198000217608112008-07-18T11:27:00.000-07:002008-07-18T15:10:04.737-07:00

I want to be clear- I don't think I really understood what present-day Settlements were before I got here. People told me, but I don't think I really got it. So I will take a go at saying some of what I've learned. In 1967, the Israeli Military occupied the West Bank, an area of Palestine which between 1948 and 1967 was largely controlled by Palestinians. Since 1967, the Military controls much

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-46039343289207800142008-07-18T11:10:00.000-07:002008-07-18T14:45:01.474-07:00

I met with leaders from Ibdaa Cultural Center and stayed in a homestay with two youth from the Shiira (sp?) cultural center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine near Bethlehem. This is some of what I learned about people's lives there-- The grandparents of my generation, fled their homes and agricultural lands in 1948, they lost friends and family. Near Bethlehem, they then spent 2 years being

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3882302399713610780.post-61832666200609139442008-07-18T10:48:00.000-07:002008-07-18T14:27:42.631-07:00

I have learned a lot in the last week or so here in Palestine. I must thank so many Palestinians who have taken the time to tell their stories and welcome me into their cities, villages, refugee camps, homes and organizations, as well as Birthright Unplugged for helping me learn through the relationships they have built here. Of course my experiences are just on the surface of things. I

Danielle Ferishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04489192140190238286noreply@blogger.com0