Breaking barriers

Early June...
Ready to hit the road to Tel Aviv at 6:00 am. Evan however called me and told me that he'd be free only on Monday!
Headed soon to office and said hi to Mamoun, he told me a Persian channel had come by needing some help and he'd be coming soon.

With nothing much to do I thought of breaking the barrier, the fear of filming in the main city in Ramallah. I decided to head to Manara and film. Initially I was extremely reluctant to open my camera. I went to the place Evan had mentioned earlier and had 3 pitas, 4 falafels and hummus with olive oil and chickpeas.

I walked down and noticed an animated policeman. Having seen this very often, I assumed it was a common sight and started filming him.

Bored, I decided to do something more ecstatic and headed to Bil'in, the village in the West Bank which has been resisting the separation barrier over the past 8 years and struggling non-violently. Waited for a taxi to fill up. On the way to Bil'in I noticed beautiful landscapes laden with hills and olive trees. Passed by a lot of Arab villages and Israeli settlements and finally landed at Bil'in.

I was extremely scared to go anywhere near the separation barrier or the settlements when I first saw it assuming there would be a lot of snipers around. Bil'in looked like my neighborhood at home without any traffic. Some kids followed me, even leading me towards the wall and we talked about Indian cinema.
They finally took me to a point in the middle of nowhere and didn't wanna come any further.

Suddenly a big minivan passed by carrying a bunch of activists. Most of them were Norwegian activists helping Palestinian NGO's and with them was an enthusiastic Palestinian from the village, Hamde Abu Rhema. I spoke to some of the activists and later on with Hamde. He took me home, offered me thick blank coffee and showed me what he does on facebook. His younger cousin took hold of my camera and started photographing.

Hamde told me a lot about the wall, an existing reality and one of the numerous attempts to create facts on the ground so that Israel can grab more land and keep the settlements in the final negotiations.

There were a lot of olive trees burnt down. Olive trees take 30 - 35 years to grow. Hamde also showed me the spot where his cousin, Bassem was shot by a tear gas canister and killed. Bassem was a very cheerful person who loved kids. This was quite sad.

After a good conversation I headed back to Ramallah and promised to meet him on Friday when they head to the demonstrations. I met Mamoun at the office and showed him the pictures as well as the videos. He didn't seem too interested, I'm assuming he's been seeing this for the past 40 years.

I bought sandwich at a shop below and a crazy person put a sticker titled 'POISON' on my shirt pocket. Palestine has been so interesting, mind boggling to say the least!

Back home, watching King of queens with cherries, bread, milk and zatar. A typical day in June.

Hamde with his nephew

The ever-expanding Israeli settlement of Kiryat Sefer

Hamde's studio

Olive trees burnt down at Bil'in

Muslim?

Early June 2012...
One of the days, a few Israeli soldiers climbed up the Al-Aqsa Mosque and raised the Israeli flag. This move was condemned by most of the Palestinian leaders including the grand mufti. We attended a press conference and filmed the events on that occasion.
Prior to that, I tried entering into the Dome of the Rock, believed by Muslims to be the site where Prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven. A couple of Palestinians who had worked in Bangalore were standing outside told me it'd be safe to enter and see. "In case they ask you, just say your name is 'Ahmed' or 'Mohammed'". I assumed that'll be easy. I stepped close to the entrance of the dome started removing my shoes. "Muslim?", the guard asked. "Ya, ya... Muslim... Ahmed!" I said. "Passport please..." he retorted. This was a shock, even thought I had my passport in my pocket, I didn't want to reveal my Hindu identity. I pretended to be searching for it in my pocket and told him I left it at home. "Ok start reciting the Quran... Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim... continue..." I knew very little about the quran and there were 30 people standing around staring at me. "I'll take a few photographs outside and come back later!", I said and quietly slipped away!
Later on I realized that this was the same morning some of the soldiers climbed the Al-Aqsa mosque and raised the Israeli flag. The guards of the Dome of the Rock became suspicious with whoever came there later on!

The Dome of the Rock

Al-Aqsa compound with the mosque in the foreground

    

Interning with the media

May end and early June 2012...
Had a lot of fun early on working with 'Sky News Arabiya' for a few days. We were broadcasting football matches, interviewing key figures and visiting refugee camps. I was getting a good idea of the Palestinian landscape and meeting interesting people. Unfortunately, I had to leave after a while since I was not offered insurance under their terms.
I was a little disappointed since I initially thought they did not want me, which turned out not to be true later on! Mamoun did not like this approach and cheered me up by providing me with a camera, mike and a tripod. "Go anywhere in Palestine or Israel to film and you can interview anyone!", this got me inspired since I thought crossing between Israel and Palestine would be dangerous and risky.
Whenever I would hit the checkpoints, they'd take time to check the Palestinians and me thoroughly! Despite this, I considered myself lucky and privileged to enter Jerusalem since most Palestinians cannot even go there. I met a lot of interesting people at the old city, no doubt there was a pressure to film everything I see since I'd be here only for a few more weeks!
Some more days passed by, travelling around, eating falafels and shawarma and spending time at home. All these days, I still hadn't met Nadia Habash, the architect whom I got in touch with initially through the internet. She called and invited me over for a music concert happening at a school! A skinny, scrawny, short woman, who was happy to see me and learnt later on that she was and continues to be a key figure in Palestinian resistance...

Cannot miss out this mural crossing in and out of Jerusalem

Height of God!

Evan Hastings at home...

View opposite home

                                     

Mamoun Matar

Initial ignorance

2nd half of May 2012...

Got up early morning and called Mamoun, the director of Wide Media and Nadia Habash, none picked up the call.
Paul Martin called me up soon and he said we could meet for a while at the old city. We sat down at a cafe in the Jewish Quarter and talked about the conflict. I felt he was too pro-Israel!
Many shopkeepers in the old city tried to cheat me seeing that I'm a tourist and I didn't get a good impression of Jerusalem.
The next evening, I had enough of Israel and took a bus to Ramallah. Finally, met up with Mamoun Matar; he showed me around town and his office. The atmosphere was pleasant and encouraging. I enjoyed the markets, streets and my home in Ramallah.
The next few days, we went holidaying in the dead sea, skirting around Jerusalem with Paul and showing my game to many people in Wide Media. I felt proud here and accepted.
   

Off we go...

Towards the end of May 2012...
I went through a lot of mental torture trying to obtain my Israeli visa. I finally had it on May 15th, we booked our flight to Amman on May 17th and we were off. Our flight was from Chennai, a stop-over at Doha and we were at Amman.
The taxi driver at the Amman airport spoke fluent Arabic and did not know English. An eccentric character, he played some dabke music as we drove around the lovely countryside of Jordan layered with olive trees on hills, Bedouin camps in some places and at the far end, one could see the dead sea. I wondered whether Palestine would be similar! "It is, except there are many settlements on hilltops", Evan said.
We reached King Hussein Bridge and after a prolonged investigation of my luggage from the Israeli authorities, we reached Jericho.
Soon we drove down to Jerusalem in a shared taxi accompanied by the Journalist, Paul Martin and another Palestinian who had a view that the attack on the World Trade Center was an American Conspiracy.
Paul took me for a small walk showing me the old city of Jerusalem, the walk ended up being a little long and  in the middle of the night, I was finally at my Indian friend's place. 

The Holy land

Early May...
May 3rd was the day I'd been waiting for. This was the day Evan and I were to fly to Jordan and cross the border into Jericho, Palestine. Since Palestine is not a full member of the UN and not recognized as a sovereign entity by its Zionist occupier, there is no procedure to obtaining a Palestinian Visa. One needs to get an Israeli visa not to mention the problems you face once you tell the Israeli consulate that you're heading to Palestine!
I had a friend studying in West Jerusalem, Israel and she was helping me out with the visa procedures. Ramya, is a student at CEPT (Centere for Environmental Planning and Technology) in Ahmadabad and was on an exchange program in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
My visa was to arrive on May 3rd since that was the day my flight tickets were booked. But guess what?
Yes I did not receive my visa yet and Evan headed off to the airport on his own that night. Could this be another case of my visa rejection? The last time I got admission to the University of Edinburgh, my UK Visa was rejected. I thought its happening again!
I called up my travel agent and asked him to cancel my ticket. Evan felt sorry and he left to the airport. Adding insult to injury, Evan calls me up at 3 in the morning and says "Hey... They're not letting me in the flight, they say my ticket is cancelled!" This was horrible. Not only was I not able to go to Palestine, I was losing out a lot at home as well.  

Internship in Palestine?

April - 2012

Although I've been dreaming of going to Palestine for the past 3 years, I never thought about the practicality of it. As you follow my older blog posts, you'll notice how much I've been interested in the conflict. The name of the blog 'intifadat' comes from the Arabic word 'intifada' which means 'uprising'. In its history, Palestine went through two popular uprisings; one in 1988 called the 'first intifada' and the second called 'Al Aqsa intifada'.

Reading, listening and watching videos of what Palestine is going through, the longest occupation in modern history was extremely shocking to me. However, I wanted to see whether the kind of picture I created in my mind is close to what is actually happening. I did not want to take up any side on the issue unless I go see it and investigate on my own. Is that enough? Perhaps at this age and point in time, it is!

Initially, I did not know any Palestinian and was finding it a little difficult getting in touch with one. Soon, luckily there was a Palestinian architect, Nadia Habash on a web based social forum which my mom was a part of. Could I intern with a Palestinian architect? At this point of time, I was willing to work with anyone in Palestine.

Nadia put me in touch with Mamoun Matar, a media analyst and the director of Wide Media in Palestine. "It is my pleasure to offer an internship with Gautam..." was what I read in my mail when I got up one morning. This was extremely good news. Now, all I had to do was to get an Israeli tourist Visa and cross the border into Jericho from Jordan! Not to mention I'd be travelling and staying with an American faculty and a performer from my university, Evan Hastings! All seemed mellow!