Before coming here, a friend sent me a podcast about how resilience is not so much an intrinsic quality as it is the culture of support you have around you. Who can stay strong when nobody is holding them up?
The podcast was talking about the experiences of people living through illness and disability. How much more true must it be for those trying to defend their land against an entire military and its bureaucracy?
Last night, we slept with the Bedouin shepherds doing “protective presence” to keep the settlers away. Before we went to sleep, an Israeli activist showed the Palestinian women and girls her videos from Saturday’s protests. They rejoiced watching.
The oldest woman called out: “Yes! Free Palestine! Everyone in the world wants us to be free! All the Arabs want us to be free! All the Jews around the world want us to be free!”
Despite everything, knowing that others were calling for her freedom was giving her strength. If it weren’t for international protests, solidarity from Israelis coming to camp with them, and activists worldwide showing their support, she might feel insignificant against the much mightier force of the occupier.
In the morning, we drove over to Umm al-Khair, a Bedouin village where the settlers just razed 12 families’ homes to the ground. Delegation from all around the world were there to denounce these illegal actions and demand international law.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“We are showing them they are not alone, right in front of the settlers. Everyone needs to know the Palestinians are not alone.”
After that, we headed to Susiya with aid packages. Susiya’s economy has been destroyed since Israel withdrew all work permits. We came with food and formula milk to tide them over, as they struggled with having their economic independence taken from them.
In a way, it is a sticking plaster. What they really need is access to their own land which has been taken from them. But the food is also more than food. It is a statement: “Stay strong. Don’t leave. You have the right to be here.”
As long as Palestinians refuse to leave, their fight is not over. As long as people keep supporting them, they will have the resilience to resist.
“If we could just flood the West Bank with activists, I truly believe this place would look so different,” one of the Israelis told me.
He is right. I hope others will come out and join us here in being part of this.
(Seriously, sign up now.)
But everything everyone is doing – all the solidarity from around the world – is giving people the strength to carry on.
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
Sim Lev 