Motherland

The minibus speeds precariously close to the edge of the steep hills, once in a while we pass motorists who misjudged the space, forced to stop and examine the damage. I can’t help thinking that this is a journey that the Palestinian driver is keen to finish. Every journey here has the potential to become a news story, everyone is keenly aware that mundanity is a luxury.   

It is easy for some moments to forget, to look at the rows of olive trees and houses perched on endless hills and believe all is well. Until your eyes fall upon the rows of soldiers pacing the hills, small against the sky but even from this distance clearly dressed for battle. Helmets, guns, hands forever ready to point and shoot. You realise then the houses were those of settlers, defying international law, knowing that they will be protected by watch towers, roads and soldiers wherever they choose to “settle.” This is the West Bank, Palestine and we are speeding from Abu Dis, near Jerusalem to Jenin in the north. In the car, myself and another teacher from the UK think ahead to what stories await us in Jenin Camp. We've already been to schools in Abu Dis and heard from teachers and students alike about how the occupation chokes them, stifles them each day, that whilst I, a foreigner can for some moments forget the politics and enjoy the hills bathed in sunshine, they cannot forget their father in jail, their uncle that was killed, their cousin taken by soldiers in the night. They cannot forget for a minute that they are not allowed into Jerusalem, that a coloured card controls so much of their life.

Beside me a lady also heading to Jenin holds a rosy faced baby in her lap. He catches his mother’s eye and gurgles-safe and secure. I cannot help but wonder how this child will fare under the occupation, how many checkpoints will he have to navigate on a daily basis? How many places will he not be allowed to go because of a coloured card in his pocket?

He is also a child of Palestine, and I wonder if he will ever feel safe and secure in his motherland.