chapter 4 - roadblocks and goat's milk

Hello to family, friends, St. Louis, Ohio, and beyond:

It has been a busy few days, I don't know quite where to begin.

On Saturday I participated in a direct action in Izbat Al Tabib, a very tiny village with about 300 people who are all recognized by UNRWA as refugees. The Israeli government has issued demolition orders for most of the buildings in the village which has motivated the community - most of whom are very poor, and very tired from life under occupation - to organize. There is only one road into their village, which the army has blocked with a huge pile of rubble (for "security reasons", of course, even though you can still cross on foot and the peope that live in the village are farmers and vendors); the only other road into the village is about 50 kilometers out of the way, so you can imagine how difficult this makes things. To make matters worse, the Israeli government will not grant them building permits to build a school or health clinic, or even to put proper roofs on their homes, so the villagers have to travel long distances for very simple needs like school and groceries. If the road was not blocked, trips that now take hours would take minutes.
Our direct action was to assist the villagers as they attempted to remove the road block, which took hours as we were removing rubble and concrete with our bare hands. During the action, approximately 30 Israeli soldiers and police watched us and occasionally took aim at Palestinian kids who were shouting at them.

In order to prevent military violence a large team of internationals, including myself, formed a human wall between the soldiers and the road block, which kept them from firing into the crowd. The villagers were successful in opening the block and cheered and celebrated as a couple cars drove through. This is when the soldiers ran towards the demostrators and began to fire their machine guns in the air while other soldiers aimed at us, so it looked like they were shooting directly at us. I don't think I breathed for like 20 minutes. Despite all this, the villagers were really proud of accomplishing their goal, even though they knew the army would put it right back up...which they did, about an hour later, making the roadblock even higher than before. You're probably thinking "what was the point? what was accomplished?" Maybe nothing, but I think something: It was a symbolic victory, ...made the the villagers feel just a little less hopeless, and a lot more powerful.
I spent that evening with a wonderful family with three little girls, and they taught me to Indian dance so I taught them some theatre games which they loved. (For all my teaching artists friends: these kids were AMAZING at endowing objects...they took a scarf and became old women, karate masters, waitresses, matadors, you name it). We gave each other little presents - "for to remember", as the oldest daughter explained.

Ok, so here's a heartbreaking Sally Struthers style story, I'm just warning you. There is a family in this village in a desperate situation. The head of the household died a couple years ago, leaving behind a wife, a son, and two daugthers, one of whom has Down's Syndrome. They don't have any income, and their house is barely more than a shack, full of snakes and mice with a leaky roof, and the cost of the kids' schooling is very high because of transportation costs, books etc...since they are not allowed to build a school of their own, they have to send the kids to private schools, which have costly fees....each kid also needs about $1 a day for food and transportation. The daughter with Down's Syndrome is on medication that costs about $50 a month, and is not allowed to attend school, as they have no special ed teachers. To make matters worse, the mother has just received the notice that her house is to be demolished in the coming month. The popular committee of the village have asked me to do what I could to help this family - the village works together to give the family as much support as possible, but it falls far short, and I am in process of contacing a couple organizations in Palestine like Save The Children. If anyone is interested in "adopting" this family and contributing to their financial situation on a monthly or a one time basis, please let me know. I will also be fundraising when I get back. Also please let me know if you have any organizations in mind that may be of help.

I'm sorry to be such a buzzkill, a bleeding heart...I know people don't want to hear about this stuff. I know it horrifies you like it does me, but know there IS something that we can do about it...or we can at least try. After hearing her story, and drinking the tea and goat's milk that she very carefully prepared for us (goat's milk is SO GROSS, but I didn't have the heart not to drink all of it - she milked the damn thing right in front of us, for god's sake, and took an hour to boil and prepare it) I asked her what her dreams were. She laughed a little, and talked softly as she stared off into space, and the translator said: Her wishes are very little: to put a roof on her house, to have a chance to live, to have her children to complete school.

And that's what we all want, my friends, so if you've got a little extra time to research and contact organizations, or a little extra money to send her way (remember that every dollar gets multiplied 4 1/2 times in Palestine, so a little is a lot)...this is how we change the world just a little. I have photos that you can see when you get back, so you can see the proof right in front of you. I told her about the wonderful people that sent me there to hear her story, and she has invited all of you over for goat's milk if you ever find yourself in Palestine....I'm serious.

love you all.

magan