One of our bloggers is spending a month in Palestine working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). In the first of their updates, they talk about their arrival into Israel.
The Passport control was not as rigorous as we had expected and we managed to go through without any problem. We had arrived at the airport of Ben Gurion early in the morning at around 5.30 A.M., and we looked tired, rusty and disorganized. Partly, I think, the time we arrived helped us go through more easily, since there were not that many people and the police controllers looked bored. In addition we had prepared for their questions in advance. The questions were straight-faced without any sign of politeness; what are you doing here?, how long are you staying?, why are you here?, why haven’t you got your expired passport? with a couple of rather obscure questions on how come we were born in different places while being siblings, etc. I didn’t matter how well prepared one was, within every question the daunting eyes of the israeli police controllers made one insecure and dodgy. We went through after 20 minutes of interrogations with our stamped passports and received a minimal smile from the officer while silently uttering the long awaited words: “welcome to Israel”. It is important to highlight though that while we managed to cross the police border some others who were in organised groups and a girl that was going to work with Medicins Sin Fronteirs was stopped and asked to move to the side for further interrogation. I suppose some luck was also involved.
We were willing now to wait for the others, but although we waited for more than two hours after they landed, they didn’t come through. We took the shuttle that drove us to Jaffa gate, and then on by foot to our hostel. It was later that afternoon that we came to meet all the group and finally felt the joy of being in the Old city of Jerusalem; a vibrant, dynamic historic city in which arabic music, prayers, spices and religious of all sorts fed into the environment. Not to say that at all times the military occupation and the tensions between the orthodox jews, muslims, christians and armenians were noticed.
Tomorrow morning the training will begin. A course that trains us with the basic knowledge and organisational skills to function properly within the movement. The time draws nearer to meet other fellow activists, who will be joining the training and others who are now in the West bank as volunteers. I try to remember my motives as often as possible while waiting for the next exciting and interesting days: I am here to stand in solidarity with the Palestians to fight for their self-determination, a sovereign palestinian state within an accepted framework and to fight for a dignified life.