A Palestinian's Life

is too difficult to begin explaining. Yet at the same time, it is very simple to understand.

I've been in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) for a few days now - first in East Jerusalem, now on its outskirts in Abu Dis. The past two days I have heard from local students, lecturers, and people about what they face as Palestinians every day.

I have to be honest. I have only been here a few days, and can't profess to knowing much about the conflict in this area up until now. But what I've learned in the past 2 days, from personal accounts to facts and figures, it is overwhelming to discover that though the political issue runs deep throughout this region and the world, the humanistic one is so severely undertold and ignored that is crazy.

Palestine is under "occupation." Today we learned that the words "colonialization" and "apartheid" or a far greater representation of what is actually happening here. We learned that the United Nations has in recent years described it as such, and have recommended action to be taken. Israel has committed international crimes by forcibly removing Palestinians from their homes, withholding their right to return, and controling many aspects of their life, of their freedom. This is just the surface.

I know my post already sounds anti-Israeli. A lot of that, surely, is that I have only heard these things from Palestinians themselves. I will attempt to remain open minded throughout this process - it is hard, but that is how one must approach something like this in order to fully understand the roots of the problem. For now, my thoughts are this: whether or not Zionists pursue what they believe to be their Promised Land, or whether other countries support these odd claims (odd, because no where else would you ever consider "this used to be mine, so now its mine" an argument for stealing people's land) for political, strategic, or economic reasons - what I have come to understand is that despite all of these reasons for occupation, crimes against humanity are not a justifiable means to an end.

This is quite the rambling post, a far cry from what I wrote previously about my wonderful July 4th weekend. That weekend, I was enjoying the luxury of a beautiful and quiet night sky, full of stars and people celebrating their independence and freedom. The next weekend, I landed in a virtual prison of Palestinians with few rights and no freedom to celebrate. I just can't even come to terms with all that is racing through my head and through my heart. Trying to let my head lead is hard - the history alone is extensive and exhausting to try and comprehend, but slowly, I am learning.

My apologies if this made no sense at all - at least, for me, it is a way to start putting things in writing in the hopes of figuring it out before I can properly explain it.