3/27/2007

Last night I was laying down in my bed, the lights were off and I was happily under my covers. I had just brushed my teeth and the light had been off only for a few minutes. As I was falling asleep I heard a giggle, which at first startled me. It was my roommate Rabeh. He continued to giggle and my natural reaction was to join in. After a few seconds of collective giggling I asked him why he was laughing. He told me that he remembered something from the day that made him laugh. "Every day I replay the tape", he told me, going through the good parts and the bad parts of his day, where he'd made mistakes and where he'd done well. Every night he would give himself a grade. "What grade did you give yourself today?", I asked him. "Maybe…seventy five", he told me. I told him if he'd only won one more game of Turnip he'd have gotten an eighty.

Earlier in the evening a few of my roommates and I went out to a bar in Rafeedia, which is the posh section of Nablus, relative of course. We settled in at an all male café to play Turnip and smoke Argilah. Turnip is a Palestinian game that my roommates had taught me when I first arrived. It's very similar to a game I play back home called forty fives, so I've had no trouble learning how to play. I always enjoyed the company of my roommates. They were always having a good time, always laughing and joking. It was an escape for them, an escape from this "big prison" as they commonly referred to Nablus. "All we can do is joke", Rabeh once told me.

The public relations department here at the university organized which opened today. The exhibition was set up in the university library and was established to put on display many political cartoons, most of which appeared in American newspapers around the time of the last war in Lebanon. The exhibition aims to put on display the extreme bias in the representation of Hezbollah throughout the American media. It was a powerful display. May of the cartoons were objective, but others were amazingly opinionated and not even close to portraying reality. One of the cartoons read, "What is our response to the latest peace proposal?", with a picture of two Arab men looking over a valley and missiles flying behind them. Hezbollah was scribbled on their shirts. Their response was, "We're launching it now". I can't begin to describe how this cartoon distorts the reality. Everyone is entitled to their own opinon however. I hope to find some of these cartoons and post them here in the future.

Just one of the many disturbing cartoons. This one brings to mind the recent use of Palestinians as human shields by the Israelis during operation "hot winter"

The exhibition reminded me of Rabeh and his replaying of the tape each night. Our perception of Islam is completely distorted in the west. Rabeh grades himself everyday so as to become a better person, to make his life more pure and closer to the examples of his prophet. Islam is not a religion, but a way of life. It guides muslims to live their lives by a set of ideals and principles which are based not on violence and terrorism, as westerners tend to believe, but on peace, tolerance, and understanding. I hope that everyone who may be reading this will attempt to educate themselves to a greated degree about this misunderstood religion.

My right eye is slightly infected. I'm not sure why, but I think it's just irritation caused by my contact lense. I'll just have to wear my glasses for a few days and hope the redness goes away, it's really quite bad. One of my Palestinian friends, a girl who works at one of the local refugee camps, was begging me to go and see a doctor, which I don't think is necessary. She told me that I better get it fixed before I go home, because if I don't, she said, "I'll see reports on CNN saying that the terrorists have stolen Jed's eye!".

On a separate note, the United Kingdom is in the process of an enormous human right's violation. I'll let you have a look for yourself, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6498099.stm.

3/21/2007

The last few days have been busy for me. I've seen my responsibilities increase quite dramatically, partially as a result of my own ambition, partly as a result of things finally starting to come to fruition. I'm now teaching three classes, an English class the university, as well as the two classes I'm also teaching at Amideast. I'm also heavily engaged with organizing the student English language radio program as well remaining actively seized of all my projects within the public relations department. Recently I've increased my work in general with the English department as well. I've been, and will continue to, volunteer in the English language lab. This may be one of my most enjoyable activities here at the university.

Yesterday, while holding my drop in hours at the language lab, I was able to sit and chat with a number of English students. Most of them told me how they were frustrated that they never got a chance to speak with native English speakers and they really appreciated the opportunity. I thought for the most part I'd be helping to correct their compositions while volunteering, but it turned out that they mostly just wanted to speak with me in English. I was more than happy to accommodate them. One of the students made a lasting impression on me. We talked about a project that she is working on, in which she is researching the role of literature, in what she called "the consolidation of imperialism". I learned through our conversation that her project is encompasses much more than what her title would have you believe. Specifically, she is focusing on rhetoric from President Bush's speeches, and how this may add to or reinforce a sense of orientalism. She asked that I help her with her project, so over the next few weeks I'll be working with her in order to research our President's rhetoric, and hopefully help to uncover some of this "neo-orientalism". I'm really quite interested in her project and I know that by working with her I'll probably learn more from her than she will from me.

I also learned the student is an author of short stories. She told me that she writes these stories in Arabic however, because there is so much emotion in them, that she believe to translate them to English would dramatically alter their meanings. She did tell me one of the stories, which was quite interesting, which she wrote as part of an assignment with the aim of explaining the idea of "national unity", obviously a reference to the recently formed National Unity Government. She narrated to me a story she had written, about a Palestinian boy, a student at An-Najah who comes to campus one day and is overwhelmed by the different flags and mottos that are on display this day. The flags and mottos are symbols of the different Palestinian political factions, green for Hamas, white for Fatah, and so forth. She told me how the boy was overcome with emotions at first but then remembered his loyalty to a particular faction. The boy was then approached by another boy, who was loyal to a different faction. At first the boys were confused as to their separate loyalties, but through examining the faction's different mottos they discovered by mixing the letters that make up the different mottos, they were able to generate a new motto, which had a similar meaning to both of the other mottos. In the end, the two boys walked away, arm in arm, understanding that they were both of one faction, a Palestinian faction.

I really enjoyed her story and hope that in the future I'll be able to work with her to translate it properly into English. I'm looking forward to our future conversations.
On Monday I finally got to meet my SAT students for the first time. Most of the students speak excellent English, and have aspirations to study in the United States. The meeting was arranged because some of the students were skeptical as to continuing the SAT class, given the fact that their previous teacher was forced to quit, and that the dates for the exam are not flexible at all. I think by briefly chatting with them that I was able to reassure them that I'll be able to properly prepare them for the exam. I hope I don't let them down.

Last night at my flat I lied down to read, as I do every night. I recently withdrew a book from the university library which is titled, A Muslim Primer. Towards the middle of the book I found some illustrations which explained how to conduct the Salat, the Muslim prayer which is conducted five times a day, the second pillar of Islam. As I read my roommate conducted the prayer in front of me, as he frequently does. As faith runs deep in many Americans, and many Israelis, so does it in Muslims throughout the world. I frequently ask Palestinians where they find hope in their current situation, and most reply with a similar response, that they find hope in god.

After reading for just a short period of time two of my roommates asked if I would assist them in writing English resumes, which they will need to apply for doctoral scholarships throughout Europe and the United States. This task was quite cumbersome, as neither of them speaks English well, and my other roommate was only acting intermittently as a translator. After a few hours however we were able to draft two very nice resumes which I hope will help them in their pursuit of scholarships. I feel that my roommates do so much for me, feeding me, making me tea, and just having me as a guest in their flat, any time I have the opportunity to help them I truly cherish it.

Before going to sleep Rabeh and I enjoyed some argilah in bed. We talked about U.S. Security Council vetoes, and he asked me if I were president, would I order the same vetoes. The question was a very difficult one that I don't think can be answered with a simple yes or no. I told him that in most cases I probably wouldn't veto certain resolutions, but that if I were president that I'd hopefully work diligently towards solutions before such resolutions come to vote. Rabeh also asked me about Watergate, which I explained in depth for him. I'd studied Watergate extensively in my final years of grade school, and it's still a topic I'm quite fascinated with. "I always hear "Watergate", and until now I never knew what it meant….I hope to make more argilah for us", he said. "You are a gentle man Jed". I told him I thought the same of him, and laid my head down to rest.

Looking Forward

Over the weekend there were two major developments here in Palestine. One was that the new National Unity Government was announced, which will hopefully lead to an end to Palestinian infighting and also greater international recognition of the Palestinian government. The second development was personal, as I taught my first class at Amideast.

It's worth mentioning that when I reference the weekend I'm not talking about the traditional western Saturday and Sunday weekend that we are all accustomed to, but instead a weekend which takes place on Thursday and Friday. While the western weekend is based on the Christian Sabbath, which obviously takes place on Sunday, the Muslim holy day is Friday. While it's strange at first, after a while it doesn't phase you. After all, they're only Sunday and Friday are only names.

While I'd be stretching the truth if I said my class went smoothly, overall, it wasn't bad for our first meeting, considering my lack of preparation. It wasn't that I purposely didn't prepare, it's that I was told my students had only met once to this point, when in fact they'd met on two previous occasions. When I asked the students to open their textbooks to unit 7 and half of them looked at me in confusion, I knew that something was wrong. They quickly explained to me that they'd already had unit's 6 and 7, and that today they were supposed to be writing their first exam, an exam which I naturally didn't have in my possession. After speaking with the director of the program and realizing that I was responsible for drafting an exam, I returned to inform the students that the exam would have to be postponed until next class. Half of them were pleased and the other half considerably disturbed, however it was a result that I was not responsible for. Despite the initial confusion I felt the class went well. I continued in the students text books to cover unit 8. Even though I'd prepared to teach the use of infinitives and gerunds, I didn't find it difficult making the transition to adverbial clauses. The instructors manual certainly helped.

It had been raining in Palestine for two days, which seemed like ten, as it had barely rained at all since I'd been in the West Bank. When I left the public relations department at An-Najah, en-route to Amideast, I did so when the sun seemed to be emerging. I walked the entire way, about 45 minutes, in the sun. I felt it was a sign that I'd made the right choice to stay in Nablus. Unfortunately when I left Amideast the symbolism had been distinguished by another strong rain. I walked the entire way back to my flat in the pouring rain. I'm surprised that I didn't get sick. I think it's probably the result of all the fruit I'd been eating, it certainly wasn't the chocolate.

The National Unity Government was finally announced this weekend. I say finally because there has been anticipation, since I arrived in Nablus, for the announcement of this government. It took them nearly a month to form the government, which is a result of the Mecca Agreement agreed upon by Fatah and Hamas, in February, in Saudi Arabia. The newly formed National Unity Government will be presented to the Palestinian Legislative Council for ratification shortly. Once it's ratified, it will then be the official government of the Palestinian people.

It may seem that it took a long time to form the government, but it's obviously not a simple task. There seems to be a mix of optimism and anxiety as a result of the announcement of the completion of forming the government. I had a conversation with my roommate Rabeh the other day, in which he expressed both emotions to me. We talked mostly about the job that the incoming interior minister will be faced with. It goes without saying that the political situation here is volatile at best. One of the most important issues to deal with is the fact that all of the political parties have military wings. Just imagine if the the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States had separate armies that were always clashing. Just imagine how hard it would be to make progress if you added bullets to bureaucracy. "It's a major problem", Rabeh told me. He hoped that the interior minister would have success in bringing greater internal security and an end to the infighting. I also hope for his success.

Another major problem is the fact that many states are refusing to communicate with the new government. This, in my opinion, is a ridiculous stumbling block to peace. Our country has refused to recognize the new government, because its highest ranked representatives are members of Hamas. We are setting a dangerous and foolish precedent by supporting democratic elections throughout the world and then refusing to recognize the governments that emerge as a result. The elections which took place here in Palestine, in January of 2006, were elections urged and supported by the United States, and were afterwards ruled free and fair. They were not declared free and fair internally but by an independent organization, an independent American organization run by our former leader, President Jimmy Carter.

The Palestinian people spoke and as a result Hamas was thrust into the international political spotlight. Our country and other countries refuse to negotiate with Hamas, saying that we will not negotiate with terrorist organizations. I've been living here for long enough to understand that Hamas has changed quite dramatically, and their leaders are not terrorists, but they are our only legitimate partners for peace. They certainly are not going to disappear anytime soon. For years western leaders refused to deal with the late President Arafat under the same premise and now that he is gone, which is a point of controversy in itself, we refuse to deal with his successors. Many leaders around the world have acknowledged that Ismael Haniyeh has brought diplomatic credibility to the Palestinian people since taking office. It's not that we should open a dialogue with Hamas, it's that we must, because they are no longer this "terrorist organization" like the American media would have you believe, but they are the chosen political leadership of a people who have seen more than enough suffering.

It disgusts me that we refuse to deal with the elected Palestinian government and at the same time we sit at negotiating tables with representatives of the most oppressive regime in the world in the North Koreans. This double standard is an interesting one to examine. It makes one realize the true effect of becoming a nuclear state. It's no wonder so many states around the world pursue nuclear weapons, it seems our foreign policy suggests this as the appropriate path towards negotiation. I pray that the results are not catastrophic, Inshallah.

The Purpose of this Blog

It's Saint Patrick's Day here in Nablus as it is throughout the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the holiday is not quite celebrated here in Nablus. In fact, Nablus is a city without Alcohol, which is a luxury for some cultures, but for others strictly prohibited. It's been over a month since I consumed any alcohol. It feels quite good.

After my posting the other day I thought more about my extended stay here in Nablus. Before I'd decided to stay my day to day work seemed much different. While I'm only staying here for another month, a mere four weeks, it seems now that I'm not consumed with looking forward to the day that I return. I was never looking forward to leaving Nablus, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends and family, some of which are undoubtedly upset with my decision to stay. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think that in four weeks I would have made much of a difference in the U.S., however here in Nablus, I'll make quite a big difference on the lives of my students, as well as having the opportunity to continue my work on the projects I've been engaged in here at An-Najah.

As I look towards the future, I see this blog site as an opportunity for me not only to communicate with my family, friends, and colleagues back home, but I hope also it will act as an avenue for others to gain some perspective regarding a place and people they are not accustomed to learning about. I hope not to simply write about my day to day activities, although at time this will undoubtedly dominate the text, but I also hope to provide some insight into the problems that plague the Palestinian people, a people that unfortunately many in our country consider synonymously with terrorists. If you learn anything, only one thing perhaps, please let it be that this association is one that must come to an end. The people I live and work amongst are not by any stretch of the imagination terrorists. They are hard working, intellectually minded individuals who every day study, work, and live under a system of occupation that we, as Americans, can only begin to understand through reading and listening. They are a people of high character and high resolve and I'm proud to be here working with them.

Also on this blog you'll find me give my opinion on a variety of matters in regards to the situation here in Palestine. I don't claim to know everything about the crisis here. I'm only one citizen, who has his own opinions. It is your freedom to question my assertions, however I hope you will at least consider the content herein as being a result of a primary source, perhaps the best primary source, not simply as having been constructed through some subjective academic analysis.

Over the next two months I'll be posting not only new entries here, but also entries from my personal journal, which I have been keeping since my arrival here in Nablus. I hope that you find my writing to be if nothing else a bit interesting.

To Stay in Nablus

So after what seemed to be a long mental process, but one which only lasted twenty four hours, I've decided to extend my stay here in Nablus. A few days past I was approached by Amideast with an opportunity to teach for them. At first I was only going to be teaching an SAT prep course, but then I was asked also to teach English, which I think will be more rewarding. Both courses will be challenging, but that's partially why I was attracted to the prospect of staying here in Nablus for longer. I'll be living here until May 12th at which point my visa will expire and it will be time for me to return to the U.S.

Throughout my decision making process I thought of reasons I should leave and reasons I should stay, naturally, and I came to the conclusion that leaving would be as a result of what I thought to be selfish reasons. The students here are without a teacher and I can in fact act in this role. This was the the largest influence upon my decision. Staying will give me the opportunity to learn more about the people, the land, and travails of everyday life for Palestinians here in the West Bank. I'm looking forward to the next two months here.