Feroza (UNITE BCAH Member)
I am writing my reflections on my visit to Palestine – the freedom to speak openly about the reality of the everyday brutality of the illegal occupation is a privilege that many Palestinians are imprisoned for.
This was the reality for a gentleman that I spoke to, who was imprisoned for 12 years for giving a lecture on the illegal occupation of Palestine.
To speak truth to power is what we must courageously dare to do.
Palestine Day 2024 – Reflections from Feroza
My experience of being in Palestine I can only describe as incredibly dystopian. I travelled to Palestine this summer. It was always a place that I had wanted to visit but the opportunity had never arisen.
As a Muslim and someone quite active in the Pro Palestine movement, going to Palestine during the ongoing genocide of Gaza felt even more important and meaningful. I was going with a tour group so in some ways, was limited in what I could do whilst there, however what I could do was have conversations with Palestinians, and even minimally, experience and be a witness to the apartheid, the brutality, injustice, discrimination and oppression that Palestinians face as part of their everyday existence of living and being in Palestine.
Before I travelled, I had to make sure that I changed my SIM and brought a new phone. There was nothing wrong with my own phone however I knew that if the IOF or Israeli border security were to look at my phone, as they sometimes do, I would not be able to get into the country. I refused to delete all my Palestine content, the photos, videos, the whatsapp groups from my phone, so thought it best to get a new one. Being pro-justice, pro-human rights and pro-Palestine makes you persona non-grata to Israeli security.
We crossed over the Allenby Bridge which is the Jordan/ Palestine border. I was quite lucky with the security at the border; they let me through right away. I was travelling in a group of 50 people. Not everyone was as lucky. About 10 people in our party were stopped and interrogated for 4 hours. This was more of a psychological game than anything, that the Israeli border force security like to play on visitors to Palestine. They interrogated them as to why they were travelling. To visit Jerusalem on a faith visit was the standard answer, yet they asked again and again, leaving the 10 people alone to consider their answers time and time again – for 4 hours – before deeming them to be non-threatening.
The rest of the group had to wait on the coach for those who had been stopped. 4 hours. When we got off the coach to stretch our legs, we were ushered back onto the coach by the soldiers, with their big guns. No fresh air allowed…sit on the coach and wait…that is what we had to do.
*Getting to the Al Aqsa*
As a Group I have been told that it is usually quite easy to access the Al Aqsa compound. However, this was not the case when we went as a group to attend morning prayers. All the gates to the Al Aqsa Mosque are manned by at least 3 armed IOF soldiers. We were all turned away on approach to the gates. We decided to split and with my head down, a submissive posture, I was lucky to be let through the second gate. Some in the group weren’t as fortunate.
One of the most infuriating comments that the armed guards asked of people in the group was “Where are you from?” Upon hearing that they were from England, the soldiers replied, “Go back to England; go back to your country” and then they were denied entry to the Al Aqsa Mosque to pray. This language of going back to your country is very familiar. We have heard this time and time again spouted by racist and fascist thugs in the UK.
The next few days, I joined up with elderly Palestinian ladies and walked hand in hand with them through the gates. One told me that she was not frustrated with the UK, but neighbouring Arab countries that were doing nothing to prevent this genocide. Another lady said she was so angry. Her family in Gaza had been displaced 12 times over the last 9 months. They have every reason to be enraged. Another said she felt that the Palestinians had been abandoned and there was an acute realisation that nobody in the world cared about them. I reassured her, that although governments were not doing nearly enough, regular people did care and were out marching and protesting and putting pressure on governments to take meaningful action.
Elderly Palestinian women are not deemed as much of a threat compared to international young men, or Palestinian youngsters. The women were so lovely and very welcoming of me; telling me to invite others; encouraging us to not stay away and to also visit this beautiful place with its beautiful inhabitants.
I was so excited to be able to see the Qibli Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and I excitedly told a gentleman that it was my first time being here. He told me that he was from Jerusalem and it was the first time in 40 years that he was permitted access to pray in the compound.
There was also a teenager in our group, who was mistaken by Israeli guards as Palestinian. He was ordered by Israeli security guards, guns pointed at him, to stop and raise his hands above his head. When someone in the group reiterated that he was from the UK, the guards asked to see his passport and let him go. This is how Palestinian teenagers are viewed: with suspicion and as a threat…
This was another thing that we always had to do; carry our passports and be ready to show it. On one occasion, whilst walking to the Al Aqsa compound, I was asked where I was from. I told the Israeli guards that I was from England. He asked where I was really from? Which country were my parents from – Turkey? he suggested. I said India. He barked “ No. Turkey.” I didn’t argue with the armed guard…I didn’t feel I could…He let me through.
You walk down these old cobbled streets of Jerusalem and think of the history of these paved streets and who has walked there…Yet you look up and in all these winding alleys, you see installed security cameras, watching and hearing…you are always being watched and listened to. You are always a suspect…
*Travelling to Hebron*
Going to Hebron was an experience I will not forget. Travelling to the West Bank you are faced with the spectre of the apartheid wall that you only see images of. Its overpowering, tall and imposing, cutting into Palestinian villages and fields; a stark reminder that the privileges and freedoms, the freedom to move and travel without permits, the freedom to build and the freedom to access water, electricity, food, internet and new facilities and resources are denied and curtailed to the Palestinians on one side of the wall. The ugliness of the occupation and the apartheid is symbolised by this wall. It is a heavy and formidable symbol of oppression.
There were many armed security guards in Hebron and we were told that the army, at their will, sometimes come and shut Hebron down and put it into complete lockdown for months. This meant that no workers, no visitors, no residents would be allowed in or out for a period deemed acceptable by the Israeli security.
I know that over the last month, Hebron has been under lockdown and thousands of settlers have stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque, holding concerts there and banning Muslims from using it for worship.
On the way to Hebron, you can see a lot of the illegal settlements being built. You know that these are being built on stolen land, they will have their verandas and swimming pools and yet these illegal settlements will be built and is being built on the blood of Palestinians and on the ruins of ethnically cleansed Palestinian neighbourhoods and villages. Their motorways too, in stark contrast to the Palestinian roads…in your face apartheid and ethnic cleansing…
Whilst in Hebron, we went to the Hirbawi factory. After purchasing kefiyyehs, we were told not to wear them as this would antagonise Israeli security, so to wear them when we were back in the UK. Again – you don’t have the freedom to express yourself and express solidarity with Palestine.
On the way out of Hebron, we had to pass through security checkpoints. We all had to get off the coach and were told to stand in a line, facing the front, with our passports ready to be checked. The armed guards checked all our documents and checked the coach and we were deemed safe to pass through. Again, we had to be submissive, unassuming, and not do anything, which extended to not looking the IOF soldiers in the eye in order to be deemed as non-threatening.
What I found most challenging but also most disconcerting and unsettling was the incongruent existence that you have to live whilst being in Palestine. You have to strip layers of your identity and your confidence in order to be perceived by the Israeli guards as non-threatening.
You have to create a new persona and inhabit the persona of the other, of an unworthy human – if not, a gun is pointed at you, hate for you is what you will see in their eyes; hate for what you are and hate for what you represent…
*The Airport*
It did take me longer to pass through Tel Aviv airport and the Israeli security officials threw away my migraine medication, my eczema cream, and my foundation. “Tough – it is going in the bin” the Israeli officer said – this is their way of asserting power over you – they act this way because they can…zero empathy – did I expect any different?
I was sitting next to a zionist on the plane on the way back. She asked as to why I had come to Israel and then said God promised the land for Jewish people 3000 years ago. I asked her how she would feel if she had her own home and someone knocked on her door and said that their ancestors owned that land or were promised that land 3000 years ago? Would she be happy to share her house or relinquish her rights to it. I gave her some book suggestions – I felt I was speaking to a brick wall.
Why did we go through Tel Aviv? I asked the tour leader. He replied “we are showing the Zionists that we are not going anywhere; we won’t be intimidated. We are still here.” Going through Tel Aviv airport was an act of defiance; an act of resistance!
For me, on closing, I would like to reflect on what I have not mentioned already: the peace, serenity and calm that you witness and feel when you are in sacred sites in Palestine. This is the potential of what things could feel like everywhere in Palestine if there was not an occupation, an apartheid and there was no ugliness that has become manifest over the last 76 years.
We work, we campaign, we yearn and pray for peace for the whole of Palestine and for its potentiality to be an abode of serenity and freedom, free of injustice and oppression.
Free Palestine🇵🇸
Warmest Regards.
Feroza
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