Email #6: Some reflections on being back in the USA

Well, here I am back in Brooklyn, trying to readjust to American society. I am newly appreciative of the privileges of my life, like how my pipes are better than those in the West Bank so I can flush toilet paper instead of putting it in a trash can next to the toilet, and like how I have enough water to take as many showers as I want and do my laundry whenever. But even though I am enjoying these things, I am unsettled. Everyone should have these things. Water is not a luxury. Electricity is not a luxury. Safety and freedom of movement should not be a luxury.

Coming back into my everyday life means that I am no longer surrounded by people who agree that Palestinians are experiencing huge injustices and that something must be done to change this. I look forward to engaging with people and being challenged on my beliefs, but I am not coming away from this trip with a sense of authority. I do not think that I have all the answers; I just know that I saw unspeakable injustices, dehumanization, and racism and that there is a power imbalance between Israelis and Palestinians that is unconscionable. I am coming away with Dunya's (a leader of the trip) words in my head: "There can't be peace without justice."

I am reentering my life with the knowledge that my government funds the occupation of Palestine and that the tax dollars and complacency of me and my communities makes this occupation possible. I feel a responsibility to the dozens of people who took time out of their lives and opened themselves and their families up in order to show me the injustices being done in Palestine. I owe it to them and to myself to do something with this knowledge. Some projects I plan to work on are to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, continue educating myself and my community, fundraise for groups working against the occupation, and learn Arabic. I also plan to keep working against injustice here in the US because it is easy to criticize a society and a government that is not my own, but there are so many injustices going on within this country that I am also implicated in... If anyone wants more info on Palestinian solidarity projects in the US or wants to work together on anything with me, let me know.

There are many things that happened on my trip that I did not get a chance to email about. I'll give a short description of one here:

We had a teleconference with Gaza Community Mental Health Program. They talked about the trauma that their community and especially the children in their community are experiencing because of the terrible conditions there. Since Israel pulled out of Gaza it has been like prison, with Israel and Egypt not allowing people to cross freely through their borders, around 65% of people living in poverty, 40-65% unemployment (different numbers from different sources), and most people relying on international aid which has now been cut off. A women who works for the Mental Health Program told us some heartbreaking stories which have really stuck in my mind. She told us about a child in Gaza who asked his parent, "Please hide me back in your abdomen. Can I get back in your womb?" She described how when there is danger you have to move people to safety, but there is nowhere safe to move people to in Gaza. She said that she can't tell the children she meets with that they will be safe because she does not know that they will and she cannot give them false assurances. The mental health workers sounded like they felt so isolated and deserted; when I asked what they wanted from us listeners one employee said, "Just tell the truth. That's all. Tell the truth about what you have heard." This is what I am trying to do.

I plan on doing a report back where I talk a bit about my trip, answer questions, and have some discussion of these issues, so look out for that soon. Also I have posted my emails on a blog at http://mytriptopalestine.blogspot.com if you want to forward it to anyone. Thanks a million to everyone who read my emails and to everyone who wrote me responses. As always, I'm open to your thoughts and criticism. Take care,
<3 rachel