I started teaching english at a really charming school in the Askar refugee camp just outside of Nablus. The kids are 1st through 3rd grade and they're extremely cute. Another volunteer and I painted faces there last week, which was my first experience painting faces. The spiderman's turned out looking pretty creepy, but this tiger was my proudest accomplishment.

The school sits on a hill and looks out over beautiful fields and farmlands that appear typically Palestinian except for the red slanted roofs clustered together to form an Israeli settlement. Settlements always stick out, and not on accident. Designing Civic Encounter, an urban development project in Palestine, has pointed out in the past the deliberate disconnect between the settlements design and architecture and traditional Palestinian culture, which is obvious in a scene like the one at the school. Architecturally, settlements are literally containers meant to hold and guard people, and as such their architecture is distinctly colonial. They are often atop hills, dominating the landscape, and I'm interested in the visual power that gives them and how Palestinians resist it. In this photo, the image is unmistakably Palestinian, the settlement hard to spot to the untrained eye. But looking out from the other side of the building, the landscape becomes dominated by the settlement itself.

Settlements themselves are some of the best visual representations of the dominance of the occupation over Palestinian land, tradition and lives. They themselves push the occupation from military to civilian, from political to personal. They create the event of a West Bank bus stop where settlers wait under the shade of the bus stop, while Palestinian men and women wait in the hot sun fifty feet away. I'm interested in instance such as this of visual authority imposed by the settlements, and by the occupation in general. Hopefully I'll get to writing more about it while I'm here.

Photography class 09/19/2012

Hebron

We visited Hebron last weekend as a group- me and six other volunteers. Hebron is well known (relatively) because since 1994, the city has been split up between Palestinians and Israeli settlers. This was after Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a settler, opened fire in the mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, killing 29 and wounding 125 Muslims as they prayed (his grave is still venerated by settlers today). Following this, the city was split into H1 and H2, H1 where Palestinians can live, and H2 where both Jews and Palestinians can live, but Palestinians movement in the are is severely restricted. In this area, about 500 settlers live (the total pop. of Hebron is 250,000). There are 4,000 soldiers stationed to protect the settlers.

We had the pleasure of being toured around the city by a local girl named Sundas who a friend had referenced us to. Sundas lived with her family in H2, with settlers homes looking over her own. She told us when we arrived that she had been arrested the week before. A settler had tried to run over her 13 year old brother in his car, and when he failed he exited his car and began to beat the boy. Sundas tried to help her brother but couldn't, and eventually attracted the attention of some soldiers who stopped the fight. The settler claimed that Sundas and her brother had attacked him, and Sundas was arrested. She was detained and released without much trouble, because the particular settler was known for his aggression towards Palestinians. It was a shocking anecdote of everyday life in Hebron, where there are almost daily incidents of violence and property abuse from the settlers. We asked Sundas if anything happened to the settler afterwards, and she said of course not. "He is a settler, he is free".

In the old city, we saw the netting above the market, put in place to block the garbage, human waste, and acid that settlers thrown down onto the Palestinians. We saw streets that we could walk down but Sundas couldn't. We saw a settler in H2 carrying an automatic rifle on his back nonchalantly. We saw the synagogue in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is now split in two, and when we entered the gate Sundas was stopped as the soldier said "But you're an arab". She waited for us outside, and afterwards we walked the long route home because the direct street that would take us home is for settlers only. After the tour, her mother cooked us a delicious lunch with coffee and tea.

Comparatively, Nablus now seems so separated from the extreme struggle of daily life faced by other Palestinians. I've known about Hebron for some time, but witnessing it has an indescribable effect. The abrupt and unapologetic apartheid is shocking, to say the least, even enough to make you sick.

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.

Yesterday I had a photo class with several university students- a few girls and about five guys. They're all very nice, and know more about photography than I expected them too. I tried to explain the rule of thirds- even though I don't think it's an important or necessary thing to understand in regards to photography. You can compose a beautiful photograph regardless of the rule, and I hate to even call it a rule. But I decided to go over it because it's a basic thing that most photographers know. So I began explaining it, and one of the kids let me know that they were already familiar with the rule of thirds, and that actually, it's more of a theory than a rule. This was the first of many times they amazed me during the day.

It became apparent that the first thing we needed to do as a class was go and shoot some photographs, because any of the limited information I could teach them through our language barrier would probably not be of much aid until I could at lease see what they knew so far. I figured it was better to start with some photographs that they had taken, and discuss with them how they wanted to improve and grow from those. So we decided that next class we would all meet at the City Center and walk through the Old City taking photos. Two students however, Montaser and Masuood, were available to go to the Old City with me yesterday, so we jumped in a cab (which generally costs 2.5 sheckels, or $0.68 each person) and went down there. For two hours we walked through the Old City, and Montaser gave me a narrated history of the Old City. This included a sweets factory, a spice mill, a site of an Israeli massacre of a family during the Second Intifada, the city water pump, and of course, Kenafeh, the dessert Nablus is famous for.

One interaction I've become familiar with and fond of is the lone Palestinian who sees you walking with a group, and comes to join you with a pointed interest of asking how you've found life here in Palestine. Has everyone been pleasant? Have you been able to find your way around? Have you tried Kenafeh? What do you think of Palestinians? And most importantly, will you be sure to tell everyone when you get home what it is like here? This happened while we were in the Old City, and has happened a few times since I've been here. Another example of Palestinian hospitality, and they're acute awareness of how they are perceived in America as exactly the opposite of that.

I came home and loaded the photographs that the two students took onto my computer, and was really astounded. Here are a few of them, the first three by Masuood ( you can see some Kanafeh in the third) and the last two by Montaser.

Nablus Laundry, Call to Prayer

The sound doesn't do it justice.

I’ve been lax in creating this blog, because I’m historically bad at keeping blogs, but I told many people that I would and so here I am, and here it is, we’ll see what becomes of it. I’m beginning it as I live in Nablus, Palestine, where I’ve been for ten days now and I’ll stay for another two months. I’m here working with Project Hope, a Palestinian grassroots organization that brings international volunteers to Nablus to teach English and art to Palestinian children and adults.

Project Hope is more wonderful that I thought it would be. The organization is truly Palestinian, as opposed to other NGO’s in Nablus; those that might be better funded, but operate based on the wishes of an international board of director’s, not the wishes of Palestinians themselves. Project Hope is run by and for Palestinians. It bases itself in the context of existing amidst an unjust occupation, and as such it opposes it and refuses to normalize the conditions it exists in. And it exists to offer skills and tools to Palestinians who are denied many opportunities because of the occupation. I was reminded all of this on my first day, during a short induction that all volunteers undergo; I was so tired and jetlagged I think I just stolidly nodded, but I actually feel strongly that this is the experience and environment that I was hoping for. The organization may be disorganized at times, the equipment may not be excellent, and the funds may be limited; but the fact that something effective and beautiful has been created out of the madness is what makes Project Hope truly Palestinian, and what has made me fall in love with it.

Nablus is still breathtakingly beautiful after ten days. It’s a sea of white buildings resting in-between two hills. I’m not sure, but it must be the acoustics created by the hills that allows for a really beautiful and echoing call to prayer that I’ve been obsessively recording on video during the sunset hours. We live in an old house with large balconies that overlook the northern hill; just beyond the top of the hill is an Israeli settlement. I still haven’t seen it but I don’t often forget that it’s there. I’m especially reminded when I take the briefest of showers, which come pretty sparsely these days. If we use too much water we will run out and not have our tanks refilled until the end of the week; this is because the supply is severely limited by the allocation of West Bank water. Of the water available from West Bank aquifers, Israel uses 73%, and Palestinians are allotted 17%. Israeli settlements use 10%. I imagine that in the settlements, they shower comfortably.

Palestinians in Nablus, living in this crumbling and beautiful city, are incredibly kind and hospitable. Food, embraces, broken English, opinions on Obama, and Palestinian anecdotes are given in great quantities. Their integrity and humility is inspiring. It creates a unique motivation to live up to the standards of veracity here, although I don’t think my own could ever compare.

I also have the company of several intelligent and energetic international volunteers, who I have no doubt will end up good friends.

For those of you who helped me to get here through generous donations on my kickstarter, I can’t thank you enough. Today, because of you, Project Hope has four new cameras and a new laptop, and there is still more money to use. My photography classes are just getting started, but soon I’ll have a separate blog or flickr page where we’ll upload the work we produce. I’m certain it will be beautiful.

I’ll continue to post my own thoughts and photos. I’ll try to keep it updated regularly.