REPORT FROM RAMALLAH by Ginger Kenney

We found the people of Ramallah, Palestine, to be delightful and so hospitable. Everywhere we went people talked freely with us and we were very graciously entertained. In each home it is custom to immediately bring you a cold drink of soda or water. This was practiced even as the nine of us trailed through a home that had been shelled the night before. The owners found it so pressing that when we would not sit down they brought us the glasses outside. These are amazing people. Five of the boys from the Ramallah Friends School worked with us the entire time we were in Ramallah and toward the end of our stay the tensions in the city became much greater and they actually guarded our entire group although they never said a word about it to us so as not to frighten us I suppose. Each of these boys was different but so mature. They really want to promote a better world and are planning to do that. I pray they live long enough to get something done.

Our stay was enriched with the work at the school and with evening speakers most evenings. About six times we were invited to the homes of our new friends for a meal. This was a special treat for all of us. The speakers ranged from a teacher at the school to the top man under Arafat, Marwan Barghouti. In deference to our being a Quaker group, his body guards only brought small guns into the house. The boys from the school were really surprised with that. A few days later Marwan Barghouti was again a target for assasination by the Israelis. Another speaker was Jean Zaru. She is an international speaker on Palestine when the Israelis allow her to leave and she is also the clerk of the Ramallah meeting. So we had so much input that sometimes we were simply boggled.

We also went into Jerusalem. Here we shopped in the empty Old City. No visitors are coming now and business is really hurting with so few people there. We met with the Rabbis for Human Rights and with the Women in Black. In fact we did a Friday demonstration with the Women in Black to try to end the occupation of Palestine by the Israelis. Both of these groups are Jewish Israelis and helped us to learn not to demonize the entire population of Israel. Every speaker told us of this problem and it is so difficult not to when you see your friends being hurt.

Perhaps I should tell you some of the things being done there. The Israeli's have closed most of the roads between the villages (like our suburbs) and there are many check points at which any Palestinian can be turned back. They take most of the water for Israeli use even though the numbers are very small for the Israeli presence. Every night there is shelling and constant hassle to go anywhere in the country or outside of it. On the water subject, we had to severely restrict water use. This meant a quick shower about twice a week if we were lucky and as soon as we ran a wash load we were without water for a day. We had to buy water to cook with and drink. Supposedly water was pumped into the storage tanks twice a week for the Palestinians while the Israelis had swimming pools, green grass and other niceties. Enough to make a person a little angry. The constant hassle over any small thing like trying to go to another village even touched us although our American passports allowed us to go anywhere.

Ramallah is about 10 miles north of Jerusalem and Hebron is about 20 miles south of Jerusalem. This is a trip that should take about a half hour to get there, however, the day we went it took us 2 1/2 hours to get to Hebron since most of the roads are closed. When we arrived it was a very eerie ghost town with absolutely no people out on the streets at all. Hebron was in the eighth day of "curfew." That means 24 hour house arrest for all Palestinians. In Hebron there are about 150,000 Palestinians and 300 Jewish Settlers. This "curfew" is to protect the Israelis from trouble. They and any foreign passport people could go out on the streets during this but the Palestinians cannot. This time the curfew only lasted ten days but in the past year there have been times when the curfew has lasted for 20 days a month. During this time the Palestinians cannot go out to feed their animals (chickens, etc.) or get any food. The Christian Peacemaker Team took us on a tour of Hebron and showed us where we can take pictures and where we cannot. The Settlers are trying to take over even more houses than they already have and there is almost constant strife there. It was like touring another world with all the quietness. Needless to say, the people cannot make any kind of living with these conditions and many are hungry. After we left was when the Settlers shot into a Palestinian car and killed a 3 month child and his father as well as another man. On certain roads, all the good ones, only Israelis can travel on them and if a Palestinian tries to drive on their roads they are subject to arrest or worse.

One week while we were there we went to Upper Galilee to a Palestinian village in Israel. This was Ibilein where Mar Elias School is. We stayed at the school and worked there chipping off tile and cement. This school was started in 1982 by Abuna (Holy Father) Elias Chachour with 80 children. Now it has nearly 5,000 students in it. Of course, the Israeli's have not given permission for any building of school buildings but the Abuna has gone ahead with it. There are Jewish, Muslim and Christian teachers at this school and the money for it comes from donations and the Melkite Church. His vision for schools for the Palestinians children is a living vision and a thrill to be there. Of course, since we were in Israel we could bath each day and drink as much as we wanted. This was nice.

Since our three college students from Guilford College had never been to the area we took in most of the Christian "sights" in both Jerusalem and upper Galilee. And we also went for a short visit at a Kibbutz. We did try to understand what was going on.