Ok, ok, I've been skipping weekends again... actually months. The month of November has been super hectic for us, and I was sick in the weekend that we had off in between (as well as during a lot of Mechina time where I had to rest at home, which was a real bummer), so I haven't been able to write about my latest experiences. But this has been the craziest month yet!
The Mechina's regular routine is challenging, jam-packed, frustrating, unpredictable, and amazing all at once. We started having our three regular classes a day. The classes we've attended are Talmudic Literature, Spinoza (a fascinating philosophy class about Baruch Spinoza), Society in Israel, Islam/Spoken Arabic (each group got to attend one class and now my group is in Spoken Arabic for the rest of the semester - we'll learn about Islam next semester, which is perfect for me because I need to learn basic spoken Arabic now for my volunteer work position), "The Conflict" (about Israeli-Arab relations), "Silhouette," which teaches about trends in culture through art and music, Dilemmas, which is with Arale, the head of the Mechina, and is about current problems in Israeli/Jewish/International society, and Group Dynamics, which is a once a week meeting in our groups (half of the Mechina) with a psychologist to talk about the social processes we are undergoing this year. All of the classes are really interesting, though so far my favorites are Society in Israel, Spoken Arabic, and The Conflict. Each class is about an hour and fifteen minutes long, and mostly in the discussion setting where we have a teacher who comes and we learn from him/her and share our opinions.
After classes (which we have Sunday through Wednesday) we go volunteer. On Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays I go to the center for 1-6 year olds. The center is a 7 minute walk away from the Mechina, which is really convenient. We arrived and introduced ourselves to the current staff, most of whom is Arab - the rest are Jewish. We spent the first two hours playing and meeting the older group (ages 3-6), and then the second half with the younger group (1-3). In theory the center is supposed to be half Arab half Jewish, but in reality this year Tel Aviv-Yafo's welfare system found more Arab children at risk, who are one step away from being removed from their homes, so the majority of the kids are Arabs. They all speak Hebrew but sometimes they speak Arabic with us without realizing - the staff also often speaks Arabic with the kids, so I've already learned a few words, like "hon" (here), "dir-ballack" (be careful), and "mamnoah" (not allowed!). Also in my second and third weeks working there I started using the Arabic I've been learning, which has come in really useful (one of the teachers even thought I spoke Arabic just because I knew how to say here, this one, you, me, and where). All of the kids are really sweet, though some have behavioral issues and don't follow directions or act out hyperactively. Both age groups are wonderful, though I think currently I'm leaning towards working "full time" with the younger group. Already many of the kids remember us and are excited to see us, greeting us with big hugs and bigger smiles. It will be a trying year working with the kiddos, because they require constant attention, both positive and loving yet also disciplinary, but I know that it will be extremely meaningful - though these kids may forget our names and faces a week after we leave, we can help them developmentally and show them love and affection and how adults can be positive figures in their lives. We've already had a birthday party for a really cute girl named Yahli, and I've managed to play with two girls named Jihanna and Alise who were very closed before and are smiling more and opening up more - the main caretaker Amineh says she sees what a good match Alise and I are!
Currently I have one free afternoon a week, which eventually I'll fill partly with being a big sister - it just hasn't been set up yet. However, the caretaker Amineh asked me if I would be interested in teaching her husband's 12 year old daughter English once a week as another volunteer position, because she knows I'm from the states and thinks that as people we'll get along really well!
We've started an ongoing political project about the question of the settlements and the territories, where we go and see the real deal and try to hear every opinion about the conflict that we can. So on two of the Thursdays we've had, which every two weeks is our travel/trip day, we went to Hebron with two different political groups. One is a leftist organization called Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence), comprised of ex-soldiers who wanted to make what they saw and did during their service public in an attempt to alert Israeli society to what is going on in the settlements. The other is a right wing organization called Im Tirtzu which basically protects the Jewish/Israeli claim to the same territories.
So on the first Thursday we climbed on a bus and drove to Hebron, which is about an hour and a half from Jaffa.
Imagine a street, with some small stores at the head run by Palestinians, and then a 2 foot high cement barrier passing through the street. One on side, practically no one. On the other, a few Palestinians.
Then the barrier ends. And the streets are pretty much completely empty, except for Israeli soldiers and the occasional Israeli settler, kippa (yarmulke) on his head and prayer shawl under his clothes.
Pretty eery, huh?
Hebron was always a Jewish city with great importance because of the Caves of the Patriarchs (where by tradition all of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs are buried), until 1929, when it was taken over violently by Palestinian extremists. It grew into one of the biggest Palestinian cities in the west bank. Then, c. 1968 a Rabbi decided to take a group of Jews there for a Passover seder, and pretty much they never left. The city worked in some kind of strange coexistence-resembling-balance until 1994 when a Jewish extremist named Goldstein went crazy and killed over 120 Palestinians. In light of the incident Israel closed down many of the main streets in the city, including a huge part of the market, which was the second largest Palestinian market in existence. Now, there are 700 Jews and 170,000 Palestinians, and the city is divided into two sections. So in half of the city only 1 of 250 citizens can walk freely.
And there are still many many Palestinians who live in apartment buildings that are on the Jewish-only streets. So every window of a Palestinian apartment is covered in an iron grille given by human rights organizations so that Jews won't throw rocks at them. And behind some of the grilles are signs that say "rule of apartheid" or "you are now entering apartheid street." And these Palestinians can't even leave their houses through the front door because they're not allowed on the street, so most of them climb up to the roof and jump along other roof tops until they reach the Palestinian side (where Israelis are not allowed). And then there are some families that have permission to page Israeli soldiers below and exit their houses on the Jewish side of the street, provided they quickly pass through the barriers to the Palestinian side. And of course, no guests can ever visit them.
(You can see all of this in the photos on the left. Top: sign on one of the grilles that says 'Arabs are prohibited. This is Apartheid. Second: Palestinian apartments on the main street with protective iron grilles. Middle: The barrier between the two parts of Hebron. Second from below: the main street in Hebron, completely empty save people from the Mechina, showing how much Hebron has turned into a ghost town... that still has a population of 170,000. Bottom: The Israeli army's barrier between the two parts of Hebron.)
We also visited other settlements in South Mount Hebron (south of the city), which have non-coexistence stories that are just as crazy. And that's where we started the next week when we went to hear the other side. We talked to a lot of different settlers that are all along the political extremity spectrum. It was really interesting to put faces to the ideology that we hear so often. The question of the settlements, especially in the west bank, is really complicated and I could write five whole blog posts about the issue but I won't - I just wanted to share the horrifying image of what we saw in Hebron. This political project will continue throughout the year, so hopefully I'll understand the issue further as time goes on.
Sounds like enough for November, no? Three weeks of volunteering, countless activities, a walking tour of Jerusalem our trip committee put together... but we still had time for two different week long activities. One was a work week to fund many of our Mechina activities, where we went to two different Reform Kibbutzes in the Negev (the southern desert) and worked for minimum wage all week. My group was in Kibbutz Lotan, and we worked in bell pepper greenhouses all week: picking up the rotten ones, reenforcing the bushes, and other upkeep duties. I unfortunately had to leave the week in the middle because I got a fever and was really sick. But the parts I was there for were really fun, and my group that worked together got a lot closer that week.
And then, this past week, we had.... army week! The whole mechina went with a really respected unit of the Combat Engineering Force for a week to try out basic training in a combat unit. I'll be honest - I was really dreading being in uniform, carrying a gun (an M-16), running and doing pushups, sleeping in a tent, doing navigation exercises and the like. Frankly it was a hard week with a lot of trials and tribulations, but I learned a lot and enjoyed the new experiences - the whole mechina also got a lot closer as a consequence.
On the first day we arrived at the army base, we received our uniforms, guns, vests, army coats, and sleeping bags. We went through a few lessons about gun security and how to hit targets during shooting practice, as well as how to navigate new territory. Mostly on the first day we practiced army discipline - how to arrange ourselves properly and on time, how to address the commanders, and so on.
The next morning we took a bus to the Ben Shemen Forest and set up at the army site there. We made tents there and got settled. That night I participated in two shooting exercises, one during twilight and one at night - I failed miserably at both and didn't hit my target at all.
The next day we did a day shooting exercise in the morning, and I managed to hit 4 out of 5 bullets in my target, which was really exciting. After that we had a short lesson in hand combat, where we learned to take apart someone's face with the ammunition holder in our gun. Then in the afternoon we went to do a navigation exercise in another part of the forest. By the time it was my turn with two others to lead the navigation it was nighttime, and I stepped into a chest high pit and sprained my ankle. I went to see the army medic and stayed on for the rest of the week to listen and learn, but I couldn't participate after that.
At the end of the week we returned to the base and gave back all of our equipment. Our last activity was what's called breaking the distance, where our commanders sat with us when we were already dressed as civilians and told us their names and about themselves, and we all laughed with them and broke our discipline. It was definitely a big treat after the strict week! (I didn't have a camera with me during the week but hopefully by the next time I post Arale will have sent me some of the photos the commanders took so I can share them with you all!)
And now we're back at the Mechina. Back to volunteering, learning, exploring... and working hard as ever. My committee, Yafo and the community, is putting together a huge event for the first night of Hanukkah called "Lighting up Yafo." We're going to go through all of the volunteer places we work in and do activities with the kids, and then in the evening put together a big carnival for the kids in the scouts building. I'm one of the main people in charge of the event, so I'm constantly on the phone and in and out of meetings.
So until next post, wish me luck on this crazy journey!
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