Where do I stand?

Currently I am attending a Master's program in Social and Cultural Anthropology through which I have been able to spend a three months research period concerning a topic and country of choice. Because of my Moroccan roots and love/hate relationship with the country I ended up being in Rabat, even after having over thought many other options. After hearing, reading and seeing the stream of information concerning the 'Arab Spring' revolutions I became more curious about this topic. Even more when the demonstrations reached Morocco and it was soon labelled as a ‘Moroccan exception’, I started questioning myself whether that was true. Even though Morocco has witnessed an economic and social growth during the past (now almost) 14 years of King Mohammed the sixth’s reign I could not believe the entire media portraying of this exception.

After having read many scientific articles, books, websites and hearing stories from people of various stands in Moroccan society I have come to learn that there is no such thing as a Moroccan exception. Just like many facets of Moroccan culture, there is always a ‘but’ halfway through the story. When the demonstrations started on the 20^th of February 2011 the King quickly responded with a highly exceptional public speech on the 9^th of March 2011, in June 2011 the new constitution was acknowledged with an enormous high acceptance rate of 98%: one which has never been reached in the history of any democratic structure. According to the (inter)national media the Moroccan demonstrations stopped, as almost the entire population was in favour of these top-down reforms.

But.. what the media hardly covered were the demonstrations which frequently proceeded and expanded in amounts of 25.000 participants in Rabat, after the King’s 2011 speech and constitutional reforms. As the new constitution legally acknowledged the freedom of speech and public mobilization, human rights were being violated in front of the Moroccan parliament in Rabat. Through the use of Baltajya (poor Moroccan citizens who receive a daily payment to beat demonstrators while official policemen look the other way) counter demonstrations are being held in favour of the new constitution or prevailing system of rule.
                Now, almost two years after the first demonstrations I have come to hear about some of the activists’ stories. How they have been beaten by police men or illegally paid counter demonstrators in order to weaken their movement. I have come to know how current activists are being suppressed through various manners and how complete authoritarian rule remains to exist. Activists are being mentally, physically and emotionally shut down through beatings, spread of personal sensitive information during public demonstrations, prison sentences under the heading of ‘disobedient behaviour’ towards officials and other forms of daily threats.

As time proceeds in Rabat the list of Moroccan paradoxes becomes longer and longer as I have to prevail my objective position within this entire stream of provided information. People now start to ask me what my opinion on these happenings is. The answering of me not being able to give an opinion about this is no longer sufficient as I have come to know more people within the movement, their stories, past happenings, fear of suppression and brave struggles to proceed their activism. Conducting an anthropological research in my country of origin and entering debates my parents have never introduced me to makes me realize a lot. Not only am I experiencing how to conduct research, but even more how little I know about Moroccan history, daily struggles, challenges, shortcomings and heroism.

Where do I stand?

Like life in the Netherlands has always taught me to shift seats from being an ultimate feminist Dutch to a ‘traditional’ Moroccan while developing a balanced path for myself, I have come to realize that this ‘shifting’ comes of good use in Rabat. As I have to shift from being Moroccan to a privileged Dutch citizen and upcoming Anthropologist I am still in search of a balance. One which equalizes my feelings of ‘guilt’ for not knowing enough about Moroccan daily life and its accompanied struggles to the status of having to conduct a professional research while maintaining my distance. Even though this is a little debated field in anthropology I wish past pioneers would have written and taught us more on what happens to researchers while being in another environment which stands so far away and yet so close to us.

Where do I stand? In a circus of Moroccan make belief while balancing on a rope which is called ‘conducting research’.

Choices

Choices. We all face them in life, whether it is from how to plan our day, career, housing, investments till politics and friends. The notion when years after you have entered a street or turned a corner and question what would have happened if you hadn't taken that lane or had chosen another instead? Point made that we can never travel back in time to replace one happening by another. Instead we have to learn to live with our errors, blessings and gained wisdom instead.

But what happens when you cannot find your tranquility and the itching feeling of incompleteness remains to exist? Many decide to live in the past while holding on to coupled feelings of happiness, success, sadness or mistakes of that time. It is a waste of a lifetime when one does not acquire lessons from these happenings, but rather decides to re-live them everyday instead..

I would like to hold on to my notion of life as something that should never be caged. When you do so, you decide to live in 'another time' and will never be able to learn, enjoy and live in the present while blocking possibilities which could be offered by the future. Lesson learned that one should let go, live now, enjoy, learn, cry, laugh, dream about- and realizing our aims. Life is not made to be spent in the past, it builds on what you do now and goals which you love to achieve tomorrow..

Hoe groot is Nederland?

Hoe goed Nederland het ook doet op de internationale, economische en democratische agenda, het blijft een klein land. Niet omdat het geografisch gezien een stip op de wereldkaart is, maar om de manier waarop veel Nederlanders denken: klein. Toen ik van de week zag dat de Hema hoofddoeken verkocht dacht ik: leuk, niet de mooiste hoofddoekjes. Maar goed, ik draag dan ook geen hoofddoek en smaken verschillen. Hetzelfde zou bij mij kunnen opkomen bij het zien van een minirokje of uitdagend lingeriesetje: niet altijd mijn smaak. Bottom line; het blijft een kledingstuk, een stijl en een keuze. Eentje met religieuze motieven maar wel een keuze en in een vrij land als Nederland moet het toch kunnen. Of niet?

Wanneer houdt het vrij zijn op? Wanneer een oer Hollandse keten als de Hema zich met ‘religieuze’ kledingkeuzes gaat moeien? Waarom mogen hoofddoekjes wel op de markt worden verkocht en niet in de Hema? Waarom mag fruit wel in de supermarkt én op de markt worden verkocht? Misschien is het omdat iedereen er gebruik van maakt en in Nederland niet iedereen een hoofddoek draagt. Maar indien dit het geval was zouden alle speciaalzaken in Nederland een kwestie moeten worden, voor zover ik weet maakt de massa daar ook geen gebruik van.

Enfin, de enige vraag die wij onszelf allemaal moeten stellen is: leven wij niet in een samenleving waarin een ieder vrij is om te kopen wat hij/zij wilt zolang we daar een ander maar geen pijn mee doen? Zolang dit niet het geval is zou ik voorstellen dat Nederland de marktwerking gewoon zijn werk moet laten doen: er is vraag en daar is aanbod! Soms lijkt het wel of we in Nederland problemen creëren omdat er een tekort aan gespreksonderwerpen heerst. Gelukkig is dat niet het geval en zijn er genoeg zaken die onze energie veel harder nodig hebben; zaken die er echt toe doen en de samenleving vooruit kunnen helpen. Wat dachten jullie van de economische crisis, (inter)nationale politiek, ontwikkelingslanden en duizenden mensen die dagelijks verschrikkelijk lijden aan honger en tig andere martelingen. Willen we onze energie echt zo lang steken in een stuk stof dat bij de Hema verkocht wordt?

Dus mensen, kunnen we het allemaal alsjeblieft weer ergens anders over hebben?

 

Leaving Palestine

I have left Palestine. Physically I have left Palestine about a week ago, mentally Palestine still is very much alive. During my journey I had little time to process all the given information.
So when returned to the Netherlands I felt as if someone had put me in a blender, mixed my head up with overloads of (unbelievable) new information and a mad product was created.
In two weeks’ time we had gained so much information, images, personal conversations and emotions on the Palestinian – Israeli conflict which eventually influenced me in the following manner:

During the two weeks in Palestine I had the honor of meeting the bravest, courageous, sweetest and most peaceful people that I have ever met. Our local volunteers, external guides, professors at the University, students, taxi drivers and many other people we have met in between have been so welcoming and open towards us. Able to answer any given question about Palestine’s current status as an occupied country by applying many situations on personal examples, which must have been very hurtful for them to speak of. Most people we’ve met had never been outside the West Bank while growing up, maybe to Jordan and back but not much more. Either way their reach and ability to meet other people from abroad hasn’t been that varying or easy accessible. I realized that a group of 37 people, from 15 nationalities must have had a great impact on their contact with the outer world. Still i believe that all the Palestinians we've met had even more impact on our lives!
At the end of the summer camp it didn’t just feel as if we had only taught our students some English grammar or had provided them information on our countries of origin. All the people that have been involved with organizing, coordinating and attending the summer camp had become friends in gaining and hopefully spreading knowledge on the actual situation.

During our final evening in Palestine we had the opportunity to say goodbye to each other through a farewell ceremony, speeches, pictures, music and dancing on Palestinian ‘Debke’. We shared knowledge, fun, laughter, sadness and eventually tears with each other. Saying goodbye to my Palestinian friends wasn’t only about thanking them for two wonderful weeks, it was much more.
It had to do with our responsibility to share our gained knowledge to ‘the outer world’, it had to do with our wanting to ever see them or the country back again. It is sad that we can't invite them to ever visit us, just for fun or to ‘guest speak’ on Palestine in any other country. Sentences as ‘I will never forget you’, ‘you have taught me so much’, ‘please, don’t forget about Palestine, come back now you have many homes here’ and ‘please, do tell others about the actual situation here’ made it even harder to say goodbye..

 'So long' Ceremony:

Right then more than ever I realized that the country,  its citizens and rich information are captivated. I realized that this has been an influence of the ongoing international politics for centuries. The media has been painting Palestinians of as terrorists, a scary country that you should never visit if you love anything that’s dear to you. Factually the roles have been the other way around  and internationally we have been closing our eyes because it ‘seems to complicated’ to understand. When factually it isn’t hard to understand, we were able to understand in less than two weeks’ time. Being there made it much easier to understand the mainstream of unfair and false information we have been provided in the media or even in schools these days.

I could write on and on, on how unfair the situation on Palestine is. Factually it comes back to the basic truth that one will never fully understand how their lives look like. Not if they are shut down from speaking the truth and the ability to internationally transcend the actual every day Palestinian happenings.  Not as long as our eyes remain shut from reality.

A few weeks ago awareness raising started small with 37 internationals, they will transcend their messages to 37 others and so on. Up until someday hopefully enough people will know the actual truth in order to make a real change that favors the people that have been suffering for decades.
After return I promised that same thing to myself; raise a little awareness..!
I realized I didn’t attend a farewell ceremony last week, I attended a ‘so long’ ceremony because I will return to Palestine and try to engage in other activities.

From our safe homes and countries it is easy to forget what we have seen and learned in the past weeks because it all seems so hopeless. We are small citizens that could never influence in international politics. Yet, change, revolutions and development never happend with people doing nothing and giving up before they even got started..

Through this post I would like to thank all our sweet volunteers, students and other involved people for being patient, sweet, honest and understanding with us. It mustn’t be easy to share years of suffering with people which had no clue at all. Thank you for opening our eyes and ‘so long’!

Life under occupation - The local case of Hebron

I understand that it must be hard to understand some of my blogs. Especially because I have started writing in the middle of the current situation and it must look like I am this hippy that promotes world peace, wear a bandana and walk around with a peace sign all day. But no. I am just a human being like you and many others that is interested. Likes to travel and chose Israel and Palestine as a destination. A beach holiday can be boring after a week so I decided to participate in this work camp and teach local Palestinian students the English language. Why not travel to the most contested destination on earth and try to understand better, learn more and share with others?

So after being here for two weeks I would like to take you back to the beginning in order to understand the situation better and take you away from the mainstream of media information that we have received for many, many years. I will try to make clear what life under occupation looks like.

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Let’s take start by explaining what the meaning of occupation is:
- An activity that serves as one's regular source of livelihood; a vocation.
- The act or process of holding or possessing a place.
- The state of being held or possessed.
-  Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces.
- The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.

All the above mentioned definitions of occupation apply on the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’, the official naming of a country that is merely known as Palestine in order to hide its actual status as an occupied country.
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Palestine isn’t officially nor internationally acknowledged as a state. So what must that mean? Palestine is under official Israeli administration which means they decide which laws they are allowed to implement, who’s allowed to enter or exit the country, who may live in his/her house,  militaries allowing to which side of the street you may walk or if you’re even allowed to go outside at all. Curfews: sometimes they decide at which time of the day you are allowed to go outside and be back home. Can you imagine? Difficult to digest, right?

But it becomes worse. Imagine various separation walls through the small pieces of land the Palestinians have left over: Gaza and the West Bank. These separation walls have resulted in Israeli’s and Palestinians living in ‘apartheid’ which are physically and mentally separated from each other. In order to get behind these separation walls you have to enter a gate, door, portal which are blocked by armed militaries.

After you’ve entered the gate there are more militaries who tell you on which side of the streets you’re allowed to walk, which blocks you may enter and if you’re allowed to use the front or back door of your own home.

The left side of the street may be used by Israeli’s only, the other side by Palestinians. The homes on your left hand are Palestinian. Because they are not allowed to use that side of the street they have to jump over their neighbours rooftops in order to get home. When a Palestinian walks on the left side of the street he will risk beatings and imprisonment. When a Israeli walks on the right side of the street he risks nothing.

It’s difficult to truly understand how life under occupation must be like, if you haven’t lived it you will never understand. The restrictions on your freedom, not being able to leave the country you live in, to be restricted from attending classes in school because there are hundreds of little military cubicles on many corners which approve your movement or not. The abuses, loss of loved ones, being forced to leave your home and forced settlement in refugee camps. But most horribly of this all is the international support. 

Can you imagine children growing up without knowing what’s actually happening around them. Not knowing that millions of children in other parts of the world don’t live like this and that it truly isn’t normal! No human being with a beating heart should ever have the right to imprison innocent people in any of these manners and internationally close their eyes for it. I truly believe it’s time for people to open their eyes and see the truth of every day Palestinian life!

The wall of shame

Raise the awareness!

I have to admit, alongside many other millions of people, I haven't understood the Israeli and Palestinian conflict for a long time. Aside from what I was taught at school and at home I hadn’t really expanded my knowledge on one of the most controversial issues on earth. Up until a few years ago..

Palestine - Israel, Israel - Palestine.. It's never good to hear about people being killed, bombs being thrown, having the rest of the world watching without actually knowing what's going on. In this case it doesn't matter whether you support the Israeli's or Palestinian's, I am pretty sure that every human being wants to live in peace. But we shouldn't stop to wonder who suffer most in this case and at what expense? Should we let our vision be polluted by the ongoing and false political discourse we get to hear in the media?
We're used to grabbing our remote control and changing the news to an amusing program over coffee or switch the radio off when it doesn't interest us. The greatest sin one can ever impose is to cut one another off of knowledge. The Israeli/Palestinian disinterest has been capturing our daily life for years. It seems as it has been an ongoing discourse on the same issue: Jews, Muslims - back and forth.. I can factually tell you that 20% of the whole 'Palestinian - Israeli issue' has to do with religion, the remaining 80% has to do with freedom, honesty and justice.

Do you believe me?

Awareness. That's where it starts. We have to know and share our knowledge with one another. Do you know that Palestine officially isn't acknowledged as a country? Do you know that the state of Israel has been founded in 1948 and Palestine has been under occupation since 1967. Do you know that people are still forced to leave their homes and properties in the name of the Israeli state under international support? Do you know that there are many separation walls between Israel and Palestine, that cut off thousands, if not millions of people to enter their own territory. Do you know that international laws are being inflicted upon the Israeli and Palestinians, when actually all they want is mutual peace. Do you know that many Palestinian Christians are forced to live in exile as well and are being discriminated by the Israeli government, while working closely with the Muslims? Do you know that thousands of students annually graduate in Palestine: but due to their lack of citizenship, the economic gap and shortage of work they are forced to work in other countries.

Did you know all of this?

Can we remember? Can we remember the Berlin separation wall and how awful this has been. People that have been living in separation and forced to pass checkpoints in order to enter the other side of the city? Can you imagine that the same method is being used in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. Streets, areas and cities are divided in two: one for the Jewish and the other for Muslims. Armed militaries sitting in cubicles on many streets and judging you on your religion and appearance and having the right to decide on which side of the streets we may walk? Can you imagine this happening every day and NOT hearing about it on the news or being taught about in schools?

If we have managed to develop ourselves in a manner that we judge war, dishonesty and living in daily separation, then why do we accept this? Exactly, we shouldn't! Share this knowledge with others in order to raise awareness and open our minds for knowledge and change!