Saturday, September 03, 2005
Today was the kind of day that makes me so glad to be in Israel / Palestine and especially in the capacity that I am, i.e. with Zochrot. I am really developing a deep fondness (love?) for the organisation and the people in it. With pride, today, I wore my Zochrot shirt, with "Remembering the Nakba" scrolled across the back in three languages. We had a tour in Akka today, which was incredible. Out of all the places I have been in Israel / Palestine, thus far, Akka is what most filled me with awe of its grandeur and beauty. Although the Old City of Akko (which is Akka) is not nearly what Akka used to be before the Nakba in '48, there is still a whole "city" of Arabic structures and indwelt by Palestinians. They are not the same Palestinians that lived in Akka before the Nakba; they were transplanted Palestinians from other destroyed villages. Out of over 700 villages in Palestine, more than 500 were destroyed in 1948 and out of the million+ Palestinians, between 750,000 and 900,000 were driven out of their land. The others were shifted to different cities, towns and villages in "Israel," in order to be the labourers for the zionists.
There were about two hundred people on our tour today. It was great to see all the faces I have already met, have friendly conversations with people and joke around. I love joking around and my laugh seems to make others laugh, which only makes me laugh more. There was a healthy mix of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. There were dozens of us wearing the shirts. I rode up with Eitan Bronstein in his mini-van because there were way too many to just fit on the bus. As soon as we arrived, he led us to a humous place and he and I broke bread there, before joining the rest of the group. I had the coolest day with Eitan. The walking tour and sign posting (we posted two signs) lasted nearly two hours and then everyone convened in a hall where there was a Palestinian woman singing to us and then testimonies and a lecture.
As soon as I plugged in the camera and got it set up on the tripod, Eitan and I met eyes and slipped out the back door as per our prearranged plans; for we had another thing to do. It may sound awful, but we left the hall and went to the restaurant below to watch Israel and Switzerland duke it out on the soccer pitch. It is World Cup qualifiers right now and Israel is barely hanging on. I was happy to hang out with Eitan and watch some soccer and he was happy to have the company. I videotaped the proceedings in the hall, above us, but with it all in Hebrew I wouldn't have understood any of it. Anyway, "we" tied with the Swiss and have to do some serious maneouvering to make it to the World Cup.
The group was done before the first half even ended and everyone started off on the two hour drive home. Eitan and I stayed in the restaurant, finished the game and took a walk at the Akaa port in the coolness of night; breathtakingly beautitul. I could see churches and mosques and the beautiful arches that are staples in Arabic architecture. There were fishermen and some tourists and people dining at a seaside restaurant. Locals were very interested in our shirts and Eitan gave out some of the Zochrot booklets made up for this Akka tour. I am amazed at how delighted Palestinians are when they see Jews remembering the Nakba - even just wearing such messages on t-shirts. Their faces light up and one man even asked Eitan if he was afraid for wearing the shirt. He said no.
I was a little paranoid about the tour today. It went absolutely fine and smoothly; but we were all preparing ourselves for Jewish protestors and harrassment. You see, some of the eyes in Haifa and Akko that noticed the signs advertising the tour belonged to people in high position. The first two Palestinian tour guides we had hired had been threatened by the Israel Ministry of Tourism and out of fear for their safety cancelled on us. It was really last minute (I think as of yesterday) that we were actually able to find a tour guide that the Ministry of Tourism didn't "get" to. There were also threatening phone calls to Zochrot staff in Haifa and intimidation of speakers on the bill - but amazingly (and probably Sabbath helped) no Jews showed up to cause problems.
Well, not exactly. At one point while Eitan and I were watching the footy match, he had to step out and I heard him say to me, "Ah, there's yelling outside." I never did find out what happened; but obviously some kind of tension. It also helped that we were in an Arab neighbourhood and there are no Jews around (which is why I find it incredulous that the Ministry of Tourism would freak out over our plans when there are no Jews living in the Old City of Akka...which the tourism signs call Acre and advertise it as a Crusader town....omitters!). In fact, regarding tourism, Eitan told me over our humous that you can't even find a tour guide that will tell tourists about the Nakba either because they don't know or they refuse to talk about it. Obviously, our tour was specifically about the Nakba, and we aren't tourists, so that is a different story altogether. We also have many connections with the Israeli-Palestinians.
So, this morning, when I was checking the camera and making sure it was in working order, it wouldn't even turn on. Somehow the battery had been entirely drained and there was no juice at all. I felt the red creeping up in my face and my sweating increased - I apologised to Eitan for not double checking before I went to Bethlehem. That was one of the benefits of stopping for humous - we were able to charge the battery for about fifteen minutes. It only lasted for 10 minutes of me filming stuff - and died just before the sign posting. I was rather upset at not being able to capture on camera much of the beauty around me and the importance of our sign posting. Then I realised that the digital camera that Norma was (wo)manning has video capabilities. I borrowed it off of her for the two signs we posted and I hope that I can use the footage from it to put in my video clip. I just don't know; but I tried and I can hope, right? Anyway, the reactions I got from Eitan and Norma about me thinking I might be able to use the digital camera footage was funny. They were impressed that I was able to attempt to redeem myself for my non-charging blunder.
All in all it was a fabulous day. I really enjoyed hanging out with Eitan so much. He is really a brilliant dude and we had some terrific discussions. We talked a lot, which is great. I got to ask him about his belief system and he asked about mine. He is a wealth of information regarding destroyed Palestinian villages and the covering-up of such things. And we both love humous. I am so grateful that my boss and I get along so well. It really frees me up to experience Zochrot as a supportive and exciting environment to work in.
Tomorrow I start language study (8am-1pm) then I am off to the office to work on the video clip for Akka. The Bir'im clip is finished (finally). I had to learn the software, which is why this clip took so long. I hope to have the Akka clip done this week. If you want to see the Bir'im clip, go see http://zochrot.org/index.php?id=228 It shouldn't take too long to load up...although I am going to set up the streaming deal as soon as I can find the time.
I am going to be so busy with school and work. I have tonnes to do at work, from video editing to fixing up the website, to figuring out how to stream the videos so people can watch them that much faster. I am spreading this slogan around Zochrot: "user friendly." I haven't done anything with the website, itself, since coming here; but have found out that those who are writing code want help with the graphic design and those who are updating it and doing Admin stuff want help with that. I am really starting to fit in well with Zochrot and feel very happy to be so busy. I can barely remember my Krameric life in Vancouver's film industry where I celebrated doing nothing for so long.
Anyway, maybe tomorrow I'll be miserable. Right now I feel fabulous!
All for now,
Burro D Block OUT
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