Carp Alex - Palestine speaks : narratives of life under occupation

PALESTINE SPEAKS

Creative assistant

TIMOTHY FAUST

Additional interviewers

ABEER AYYOUB, JENNY BABOUN

Transcribers

ALESSANDRA BAUTISTA, KYLIE BYRD, TYLER DOYLE, MARIE DUFFIN, LOUISA DUNNIGAN, KERRY FOLAN, ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT, RUBY GOLDBERG, WILL GRAY, KAYE HERRANEN, MAGGIE HUANG, MARIA LATTANZI, JESSICA MCHUGH, CAYLA MIHALOVICH, JOEY NARGIZIAN, NAOKI OBRYAN, SORAYA OKUDA, ANN READING, ALEXIS SATTLER, ABIGAIL SCHOTT-ROSENFIELD, VALERIE SNOW, ROSANNA STEVENS, ILARIA SABINA VARRIALE, SALLY WEATHERS, KEZIAH WEIR

Translators

AMJAD ALAWI, IYAD ALI, ABEER AYYOUB, JENNY BABOUN, GEORGE GHANTOUS, WASSIM GHANTOUS, NIDAL HATIM

Copy editor

VICTORIA ALEXANDER

Fact checker

HANNAH MURPHY

Proofreaders

ARIELA ROSA, WILL SEFTON, SHANNON SMITH, KAZIAH WHITE

Additional assistance

KYLIE BYRD, KERRY FOLAN, KAYE HERRANEN, MARIA LATTANZI, NAOKI OBRYAN

This book goes out to everyone fighting to be seen, heard, or simply recognized as human.

VOICE OF WITNESS

McSWEENEYS BOOKS

SAN FRANCISCO

For more information about McSweeneys, see www.mcsweeneys.net

For more information about Voice of Witness, see www.voiceofwitness.org

Copyright 2014 McSweeneys and Voice of Witness

Gazas Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israels Siege reprinted with the permission of the Journal for Palestine Studies

Map and illustrations by Julien Lallemand

Front cover photo by Cate Malek

All rights reserved, including right of reproduction in whole or part in any form.

McSweeneys and colophon are registered trademarks of McSweeneys Publishing.

ISBN: 978-1-9404-5070-4

VOICE OF WITNESS

Voice of Witness is a non-profit organization that uses oral history to illuminate contemporary human rights crises in the U.S. and around the world. Its book series depicts these injustices through the oral histories of the men and women who experience them. The Voice of Witness Education Program brings these stories, and the issues they reflect, into high schools and impacted communities through oral history-based curricula and holistic educator support. Visit www.voiceofwitness.org for more information.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & EXECUTIVE EDITOR: mimi lok

EDITOR: Dave Eggers

MANAGING EDITOR: Luke Gerwe

EDUCATION PROGRAM DIRECTOR: Cliff Mayotte

EDUCATION PROGRAM ASSOCIATE: Claire Kiefer

PUBLICITY & COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT: Alyson Sinclair

FOUNDING EDITORS

DAVE EGGERS

Co-founder, Voice of Witness; co-founder of 826

National; founder of McSweeneys Publishing LLC, and award-winning author

LOLA VOLLEN

Co-founder, Voice of Witness; founder & Executive Director, The Life After Exoneration Program

VOICE OF WITNESS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MIMI LOK

Co-founder, Executive Director & Executive Editor, Voice of Witness

JILL STAUFFER

Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Director of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Concentration, Haverford College

KRISTINE LEJA

Senior Development Director, Habitat for Humanity, Greater San Francisco

RAJASVINI BHANSALI

Executive Director, International Development Exchange (IDEX)

HOLLY MUOZ

Musician & songwriter; Co-founder of the Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute

IPEK S. BURNETT

Author; depth psychologist

CONTENTS

by Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke

Crossing into the West Bank requires passing through a series of barriers. For example, to get from Jerusalem into neighboring Bethlehem means navigating a twenty-six-foot concrete wall that spans the horizon. To pass through on foot, individuals must walk through a maze of security screenings known as Checkpoint 300, one of numerous heavily guarded crossing points set up along the 440-mile-long, partially constructed barrier snaking through the West Bank.

As one approaches Checkpoint 300 from Jerusalem, the landscape is green, almost idyllic, filled with olive trees, wild flowers, and the occasional grazing sheep. But closer to the wall, in a militarized no-mans-land, trash and barbed wire litter the sides of the road. The checkpoint itself is marked by a squat concrete and metal structure. At the entrance to the checkpoint is a large red sign warning Israeli citizens that entering Area Athe small portion of territory within the West Bank controlled by Palestiniansis against Israeli law, and dangerous to [their] lives.

Beyond the Checkpoint 300 is a room, often filled to capacity, that feeds into pedestrian screening lines. Above these screening lines are metal walkways, and looking up, pedestrians sometimes find soldiers peering down at them, guns in hand, boots directly overhead. The first screening station is an ID check. Here, Palestinians must record their thumbprints electronically to prove they havent overstayed day-long work permits. International travelers need only show their passports. Pedestrians then go through a long passageway, a monitored turnstile, a large empty parking lot, one more ID check, another monitored turnstile, and another long passageway before finally spilling out near Bethlehem.

Compared to the eerie austerity of the checkpoint, Bethlehem is pulsing with life. Taxi drivers, dwarfed by the wall behind them, offer rides to the people coming through the crossing. Vendors call out the prices of fruit and sweets. People stop to greet friends or buy cups of coffee. On this side, the wall itself is coated in layers of colorful graffiti.

The contrast between the grim realities of the wall and the brisk liveliness outside of it was one of the things that first struck us about the West Bank. Cate moved to Bethlehem in 2009 to work for a non-profit tourism group that offered walking trips throughout the West Bank, as well as other regions in the Middle East. As part of her job, she traveled on foot through major cities and rural villages, meeting Palestinians from countless different backgrounds. Cate had previously worked with Mateo on an in-depth human rights story, and the two soon realized that Cates newfound connections in the West Bank could be the beginning of a powerful new reporting project.