The End
Bethlehem.
Seeing the same prickly pears and figs in the markets as I did a year ago tells me that my Palestinian year is nearly up. The seasonality of produce here has been a constant indicator of the passing time, and now the cyclical nature of the seasons means I have reached the end of my adventure.
As I reflect on my experiences of the past year, I struggle to find conclusions. One of the most difficult situations in which I find myself here is when a local person asks my opinion of the political situation. As many of you know, I do not easily hold back in expressing this in normal situations, but when I look into the eyes of someone who’s life has been so directly and adversely affected by the occupation of this country, I find it hard to say that I see little or no hope. Instead I usually blunder around sentences that barely make sense until finding myself back where I started, and hopefully so without actually having said anything much at all. But a few nights ago when I faced this question, I came to an answer that seemed to be better than this. Although I knew the situation well before coming here, I said, by living here for a year, I have come to realise that knowing a situation like this from the inside does not help to understand it any better. I had at last hit the nail on the head. Living here has not helped me understand. But how can this be?
It is because one cannot understand this situation. One can know the history, one can understand the politics, and one can even assume what the motives are on all sides, but this will not lead to an understanding of the entire situation. And the reason for this is that the situation itself defies logic. It simply does not make sense that a situation such as this has been allowed to develop, and it simply does not make sense that it should be continuing to this day. One of the best pieces of wall graffiti I have seen, and there is a lot of competition for that title, is the simple question, simply stated in black letters just around the corner from my house, How can you get away with this? I am no closer to answering this than I was a year ago, perhaps even farther – perhaps much farther.
Before I came here, I laid the blame for this situation at the door of Israel, the USA and possibly most of all, Britain. Historically speaking, these are our prime suspects. But now I would open the list a little wider. It is surely the fault of everyone, collectively, that something that is a clear injustice by any reading of the so-called moral compass should be allowed to be ongoing. It should be a weight on the shoulders of us all, that this devastating act of ethnic cleansing is in progress whilst those free to do so, look the other way.
Thank you for reading my blog.
The End.
