Imagine this..

 Being here is harder than I could have ever imagined it to be. Having the opportunity to start my journey in Tel Aviv was the best way to get started my travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Not because I was very charmed with the city, but because it made it possible to analyze and understand the situation a little better. Only knowing the region from books, articles and television doesn´t begin to explain how you feel when entering the countries. The Israeli´s working at the custom are allowed to use every force or invasion of privacy in order to understand why we want to visit the country. I found that most ironic because I, and probably many others with me, still don´t understand the legitimization of their being in ´the promised land´.

Imagine Tel Aviv as the city that tried to capture many pleasures in life: beautiful houses, paved streets, booming nightlife, luxurious bars, restaurants and one of the most beautiful coastlines covered with the best beaches you have ever seen. The sand feels as if satin hugs your feet every time you take a step towards the clean, bright and heaven blue water. They don’t come anything short, enough showers to wash yourself off at when you’re finished swimming and the most expensive hotels  cover the boulevard of Tel Aviv. While walking through the city, you can find everything one pleasures in life these days, except one very important component: peace of mind.

It seemed as if the people living there carried a type of worry, sadness and knowledge over them. Something they all shared, but no one spoke about. Whenever sudden sounds or police cars would occur I could easily see their faces become more worried and question each other on what was going on. Life in Tel Aviv is all supposed to be about fun, forgetting what is really going on in ‘the promised land’ and try to enjoy all the luxury the west has built for them. Yet, at the end of the day they didn’t enjoy the most important facet in life: mental peace. Somewhere deep inside they very well know at what expense they are living, little did I know about how these expenses would actually look like..

When crossing the check point in order to enter the West Bank I rapidly saw the situation change. The Israeli flat and fruitful land made place for many high and dry mountains, some of which were exploded in order to build new homes in what is now called Palestine. The houses all carry that same mountain grey color, simply because it is their only access to stones in order to build their homes. Imagine Nablus, the city where I am now, as a grey and sad looking city without all the luxurious components Tel Aviv has, nothing more than only the absolute basic needs in life. Basic commodities such as housing, a few basic stores and parks here and there. People here, constantly remember  you on being careful with water and electricity, considering everything can just be cut off for days. What a bitter pill when remembering the many showers and artificial created neon installed palm trees at Tel Aviv’s beaches.

When finally starting to teach classes in Nablus I came to realize that most of the Palestinians are imprisoned in their own country. Many of them don’t carry a legal citizenship and have never been outside the West Bank. Imagine it, never outside the West Bank into Israel,  the country where their ancestors used to live and where banned from. Sadly, they never had the privilege to go to the beach and let their feet be caressed by the silky sand and summer heated water. Never!
Being here and looking over the mountains makes me realize now, more than ever, that there is an imprisoned country and it is called Palestine. We frequently hear about it on the news, are taught multi sighted stories about In schools. But a majority will never really understand out of fear for what we might come to know of if we would actually listen, open our eyes and visit the region for just once!