Patron Saints

This past Monday, our classes were cancelled due to a taxi strike in Nablus and throughout the West Bank. Taxi drivers organized the strike in response to huge hikes in fuel prices, as well as the growing general cost of living. This happened amidst increasing unrest the past few weeks in Palestine- shortly after I arrived, I accidentally ran into a demonstration and march and while I was there I saw a Project Hope volunteer marching. His sign said "In America, you try to work; in China, you try to produce; in Palestine, you try to live". The desperation present in the situation here, where one fifth of the population is unemployed, is obvious. Two men in the West Bank have tried to set themselves on fire since Tuesday in protest over their financial struggles, and a teenager in Gaza who couldn't find a job died recently after setting himself alight.

The protests call on those with power in Palestine to drop the economic agreements in place with Israel, set by the Oslo Accords. According to the agreements, Palestinian trade with other countries is handled through Israeli sea and air ports or border crossings with Jordan and Egypt (for example, Palestine is required to purchase all fuel from Israel at skyrocketing prices, instead of neighboring countries that would sell it for much cheaper). The PA placed a formal request with Israel to review the economic agreements, which was, as the Israel National News put it, "pooh-poohed", as everyone expected it would be.

We went to the aftermath of a protest on Monday, the day of the strike. The city center of Nablus was full of young Palestinian men, sometimes chanting, surrounding piles of burning tired. When one began to burn out, they would throw another one on. Eventually the police showed up in riot gear and cleared people away, so we went home, and later got phone called telling us not to go downtown, as the situation had turned violent, with protestors clashing with police throughout the night.

As the next few days continued and we all waited to see how the situation would progress, I was one of the only volunteers who stated that I supported not only the protests but the riots as well. People are quick to condemn them as violent, erratic, aimless; but I see them as a natural reaction against the increasingly dismal situation that is not only caused by the occupation, but by the regime in place inside the Palestinian Authority, all basically self-appointed and in the pockets of the State of Israel. As they continue to preserve the status quo, they continue to drive the quality of life in Palestine deeper and deeper down.

Force is required to push those who cling to power off of their seats. The Arab Spring set that precedence, and in doing so proved to the world that their ideas about the Arab world were false; they weren't going to sit back and allow their lives to be degraded by the greedy interests of dictators and the West any longer. Just as, I hope, Palestine wont continue suffering at the hands of those in power any longer either. The people here deserve to thrive. While creating a better situation would be a long and hard process, it would be a just one. And I would be so excited to be here when it began to happen.