21st January
Bethlehem.
For the first time since arriving in Palestine at the end of August last year I am beginning to feel affected. I know this because I just sat through almost all of a quintessentially all-American romantic/slapstick comedy film called Three to Tango, starring Matthew Perry – and this is not normal behavior. Ironically, this has come about as a result of the situation in an area that seems a world away, yet is just a short drive from where I sit presently. It seems a world away because as I write from within my centrally heated, double glazed, wireless internet apartment, Gaza is suffering its second night without power. It may as well be a world away because I, like almost everyone else, am not allowed to go there. I cannot write about the situation there, as I know of it only through the same news that you see, but as I look out into the cold dark night it is hard to truly believe that such a place exists.
The only added connection I have with Gaza as a result of living so near it is to hear the sound of the euphemistically named Israeli Defence Force fighter jets on their way to bomb it, and occasionally catching glimpses of them as they glint across the large skies over the West Bank. It reminds me of watching the impressive sight of RAF jets practicing over the West Highlands of Scotland, but knowing the difference in mission makes this current sight an uncomfortable one. And it becomes even more so when the breaking news an hour later is of further air strikes on this tiny strip of land. I have even begun the morbid game of trying to imagine the people who are about to be killed each time I hear these sounds. On seeing the reality flashed across my television screen a few hours later, I am never correct.
The aspect of this whole affair I find the most depressing however, is not just the obvious concern for those involved at present, but that what we see in Gaza today is the future. I am sad to say that I now believe the future of the West Bank is pretty similar to that of contemporary Gaza. Call me a pessimist if you like, but I see no reason at all for optimism.
