Settling In and Home Demolitions

Hello All.

Well I haven't written really since I got back to Jerusalem, so I thought it was about time to give a little update.

I'm settling well into my new life in Jerusalem. After a couple slow months, my Masters program in Middle Eastern studies is starting to pick up and I'm really enjoying my classes. I'm so glad to finally be learning written Arabic intensively and my reading ability is increasing dramatically. If you don't know, written Arabic is what unites all of the Arabic speaking world. Everybody reads the same Arabic and the media also uses the classical written Arabic when they report. In daily speaking, however, Arabic is different for each area. North Africans speak differently from Egyptians, who speak differently from Palestinians, who speak differently from Lebanese and Syrians, who speak differently from Iraqis, who speak differently from countries in the gulf. Sometimes the differences are even closer than that. People from Bethlehem speak differently than people from Beit Sahour, which is a neighboring town only 1 km away and now connected!! So although I feel like my reading Arabic is getting better, my spoken Arabic seems the same as before. So I should probably start working on that soon.

Now that I am studying my Masters at Hebrew University, I feel like I am in the right place. Although it took a couple months to get settled, I'm finally settled in my apartment and even have a job teaching conversational English at the East Jerusalem YMCA. I'm very content with life!

Since I have been getting used to my new life here, I haven't been focusing on politics a lot. I do not attend as many political events as I used to and my thoughts have been away from politics for the time being. Recently, however, I have been reflecting about certain issues. Often when I talk with people, we focus on the big events in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. It's very easy to argue about these issues forever and think about who started what first and who is to blame. But when you get caught up in big events, you forget that the occupation of Israel by Palestine is something that effects people's lives everyday.

One of those ways is through Home Demolitions. I am signed up for a text messaging service where I get text messages anytime there is a threat of home demolition by the Israeli army on Palestinian homes, businesses or structures. I have talked about Home demolitions before, but here is a reminder of the basic issue with demolishing homes. Often Palestinian buildings are demolished because they are built illegally according to the Israeli government. The reasons they are built illegally, is it is because getting a permit to build is nearly impossible for Palestinians in areas that the Israeli government controls. It costs thousands of dollars and after a family has spent those thousands of dollars, they may not even be able to get a permit. In some areas, the Israelis government has declared specific areas green zones. These zones are areas that Israel wants to set aside for parks and national reserves. The government, however, does not care that there are Palestinian families living in these areas. So for these families, it is impossible for them to build to make room for their growing families. No matter how hard they try to get a permit, it is impossible because these areas are closed for building.

East Jerusalem is one of the most susceptible places to home demolition, because the Israeli government wants to keep the Palestinian population in Jerusalem from growing. One neighborhood in particular stands out for me now. Isawiye is a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, near Hebrew University and near where I live in French Hill. I had not even heard of this neighborhood until I moved here. Recently the Israeli government has increased the threat of home demolitions in Isawiye, demolitions two places in the past week.

Not only have homes in Isawiye been demolished, but buildings near the separation barrier just outside of Jerusalem have been demolished, and bedouin structures in the Jordan Valley in the past couple of weeks. Often home demolitions get overshadowed in the media by new about "peace talks" and other big news. But it is just these events, that are so draining on the spirit of the Palestinian people and effect their daily lives. They fail to see the humanity behind the people who live in these houses and need them for their livelihood.

Read more about the demolition in Isawiye here: Bulldozers demolish home, workshop in East Jerusalem.