The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
I admitted that I had never seen the entire movie from beginning to end, and even that night I only really paid attention to the last 15 minutes. But what a great 15 minutes!
It got me thinking of my 10 days in Palestine. There was a lot of Good, that’s for sure. The majority of my trip was incredible. From the beauty of the Palestinian landscape, to the optimism of the Palestinian people, to getting to know my family better, and of course sharing it all with my mom. And especially walking through my family’s hometown of Al-Bireh and going to Ramallah daily. The Good list can go on and on.
However, although only a small part of my experiences, there certainly was some Bad and Ugly, unfortunately.
Settlements – They suck. No good has come out of the settlement movement. They are actually military installations as part of a wider strategy to rule over 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and limit their growth, freedom and potential as a people. Checkpoints – They suck too. How would you like to be driving from Los Angeles to San Diego and have to go through a half a dozen checkpoints with guards with rifles and machine guns looking at you like you were Public Enemy #1? And at every checkpoint you fear that you will be randomly stopped because of your nationality or the color of your license plate? All in a land that is supposedly a future free state?
The Separation Wall & Separate Roads – The wall built by Israel “to keep the terrorists out,” actually creates an open-air prison for 4 million Palestinians. As the guy on the plane next to me said, “if it weren’t for the bad 2 percent,” the wall wouldn’t be needed. So according to his math (which is a ridiculously high percentage), Israel is restricting the free movement and killing human rights for about 3,920,000 innocent civilians. In addition, they are carving up the West Bank with Israeli-only roads, settlements, check points with high guard towers, buffer zones by grabbing more Palestinian land, plus making it incredibly difficult for all to travel, get better healthcare and improve education — negating even the slightest possibility of growth. All with the intention of trying to douse the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people.
Travel Restrictions – If you are a Palestinian resident, you cannot travel freely to see the Mediterranean See, less than an hour away. You need permission from the Israeli government. If you want to travel into Jerusalem to see the historic holy sites that should be shared by all, you also need permission that you may never get. Same with getting to a better hospital or traveling to another Palestinian town that should take 10 minutes could take an hour. Silly and disruptive and created to break the will of a people.
American Passports Mean Nothing – I was born in the United States. I have degrees from two great U.S. universities. I’ve worked with and for U.S.-based Fortune 500 companies. I played American football and don’t like soccer that much, except when I coach my son’s team. I am a die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and have paid homage to Lambeau Field twice. I pay taxes — lots of taxes. I’ve never been in trouble with the law, and I have a wife and two kids living in an idyllic American neighborhood north of Chicago, one of the greatest U.S. cities. Did I mention I pay taxes? And do you know that our tax dollars go to Israel to the tune of $3 billion in cash every year, plus billions and billions of other military aid. Did I mention I pay taxes? All that means nothing when traveling to Israel. I was detained, questioned, harassed and almost strip searched. These things happened in the Israeli airport twice, and as I visited Jerusalem with my mother. As my brother in-law is fond of saying, “What in the heeeeccccckkkkk?”
Despite all of this, believe it or not, the Good lives on. I was there. And I saw it.
