July 27, West Bank

July 27, West Bank

The road barricade is down, but day 3 with no water. There is such a sense of community & cooperation here everyone helps everyone. Walid told stories last night of the 40 day curfew if one family had food they would throw food to their neighbors to eat. Mahmoud’s Dad built a huge cistern so they had enough water but they shared with their neighbors until eventually they were out too. Perhaps that is why they are such a kind warm people with such a strong sense of community

It is hot & beautiful everyday, a couple of American girls arrived yesterday from New York

At the school I’m at we do discuss such issues of what they have endured but there is a theme of hope and resolution. Stories in the West of terrible things done by a radical few do nothing but irritate the issue and give people an excuse to keep these people oppressed.

What I try & get across is that if they are patient and go about this in a peaceful way eventually they will have their own state. It will never be pre-1948 but if they can be patient it is my belief that eventually this has to end. Every attack as I have repeated puts them back to square 1.

Of course it’s easy for me to say since I leave in a few weeks hopefully I’ll be surfing in Tel Aviv and enjoying beautiful Israel next week. I feel so guilty that as a foreigner I have more rights than these people & I will be having fun while these people remain imprisoned.

Having said that, some people argue that if they are quiet, the world stands by & does nothing. That sentiment is repeated over & over again, how long should we keep silent? Examples are given of times & situations that violence achieves an end. My rebuttal to that is a Dr. Phil….’how has that worked for you so far?’ It seems as though they are damned if they do & dammed if they don’t.

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