Imagine the perfect day spent outside. Going for a walk in the park. Enjoying the beautiful greenery, the beautiful fragrance of trees and flowers. Sitting down for a picnic with family or friends, you savor the moments where your other worries in life fade away. We all need this kind of relaxation to give us energy for the rest of our days.
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| Photo c/o cremisan.org |
Now, imagine a life without this. Imagine a life without parks, without green areas of pure nature where you can go and forget about the rest of the world. Although for most of us, it seems futile to imagine away parks, greenery and free space because it seems like an impossibly sad scenario, this is exactly the kind of life that threatens Bethlehem and most of the West Bank.
Cremisan is one of Bethlehem's last green spaces where people can get away from the business of the city and enjoy relaxing time with friends. It is this area, however, that Israel will soon confiscate and segregate it by the separation wall.
Since the planning of the route of the wall, the area of Cremisan was designated as area that would be confiscated and located on the Israeli side of the wall. The wall, however, was also planned to be built in two phases, so Cremisan remained in the Bethlehem area and as a respite for many residents there. Building of the wall, however, has renewed. The nearby village of al-Walaja has already lost many olive trees as construction on the wall has begun there. When that area is done, Cremisan will be next and Bethlehem residents will lose one of their last green areas.
While the world focuses on the latest big news in negotiations between Israel/Palestine, or the Palestinian UN Statehood bid, or the prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, it is the everyday lives that constantly undergo suffering and recurring limitations on freedom and sanity that people forget when talking about Israel/Palestine. While the world watches, they allow the Israeli government to take away the parks of adults, children, and generations to come. How long will we sit and watch as the Israeli government slowly forces the whole Palestinian population into overly crowded urban centers from which they cannot move, also known as ghettos? How long will we do nothing in the face of suffering and injustice? A professor of mine once told me that hate is not the opposite of love. The opposite of love is apathy.
