The Palestinian Flowers By Rachel Swartz

         When I first heard we were traveling to the Middle East, I imagined a place straight out of the Disney film Aladdin. I thought it would be a vast land caked over with dust, and sand dunes in the foothills; I expected no vegetation could survive at all in these conditions. However, upon our arrival, that concept completely blew away with the sandy wind. I found flowers everywhere- growing out of dry earth, in a place where water is so scarce and limited, flowers blossomed and overtook the fields. How do they do it?

           

            We visited a refugee camp today for the first time and I felt as if I stepped into a time warp or some sort of war movie. There were armed guards everywhere and loud speakers to project government messages to the Palestinian refugees. Yes, they are Palestinian citizens living on Palestinian land, but they are considered refugees. Riddle me that. They were forced out of their old homes and to reside in these buildings, funded by the UN, yet they are considered refugees; today a majority of Palestinian citizens are refugees. If you don’t belong in your own homeland then where do you belong? These buildings were supposed to be temporary but have lasted since 1948. In an extremely cramped area, built around an Israeli military base and the infamous “wall,” the camp originally housed only 150 people. Today that number has peaked to almost 5,000. When hearing just the facts, it seems almost inconceivable, right?

           

            Despite crowded and unsanitary conditions, the biggest problem refugees face is a massive water shortage. Actually, massive isn’t a strong enough word… more like astronomical. When the Israelis began bulldozing Palestinian land and creating their own settlements upon it, they also gained control of the Palestinian water supplies. To this day, they control the amount of water Palestinians and Israelis get; those in the camps, a majority of Palestinian people, remember, only receive 17 % of this water. Water comes every few weeks or few days, and the people must collect it in jugs and save it. Today, alone, we saw many children travel to a pipe in the street where they gathered water for their families, filing dirty bottles with all their little hands could carry. The times when there is no water, filthy clothes and dishes pile high in the house, and the people go without bathing or drinking clean water for lengths of time. If this is not the definition of a human rights issue, I do not know what is. The human body is composed of 75% water. If one cannot give themselves that water, what becomes of him?

             The more I learn about this land, the more I seem to be amazed. Under such harsh conditions and adversity, the Palestinians band together and remain strong; without water, land, a place to call their own, they thrive. They find some good in life, something to live for, a reason to hope. I was not expecting to learn any of this when coming on this trip, just like I was clueless to Palestine’s flourishing vegetation. I have come to realize these are just like their flowers- with little water, during hardships, they survive. They thrive. They come together to form something beautiful, the Palestinian culture.

            At a shop in the camp today, a few of us wanted to purchase a shirt that read, “Free the Palestinians.” I immediately grabbed in it my size, by one of the girls said it could be really controversial in America, meaning it might not be safe to wear. Dropping my shirt in the realization that they world is not on the same page as us, I sighed, wishing there was something more I could do. America was helping to fund the Israeli army after all, in turn supporting this kind of living for refugees. I wonder if anyone went around with anti-holocaust items before or during WWII? I changed my mind. I think I should have bought a shirt.