Aboud, (the City of Flowers) is the home town of one of the members of our group. He and his wife were greeted by family and friend they had not seen in 14 Years. The Priest in the Greek Orthadox Church, which was built in 335 asked us to pray for the Israelis that peace will enter their hearts. The village prepared a delicious Palestinian Snack for us.
Farayak (savory cookie), Khabisa (Carob pudding) and Harissa (sweet almond cake)
The Greek Orthadox Church
Our first stop in Jenin was the Freedom Theater, which was started in 2005. http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org. Jonatan Stanczak, Managing Director gave us the history of Jenin, the refugee camp and the theater program. After a video on Journey of a Freedom Fighter, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of lentils and bulgar wheat, and salad.
The mission of the Freedom Theater is to present the stories from communities who have been adversely affected by the occupation. Breaking the fragmentation through engaging and connecting. They want to create a safe space for change. The biggest problem is trust. Israel is the master of creating distrust. Distrust allows the occupation to oppress a population without making a large sacrifice of treasure.
The Freedom Theater will be presenting Suicide Note from Palestine in NYC in September.
Jenin Refugee camp
Jenin Refugee Getto (It does not seem right to call it a camp, it has been in existence for 60 years. It reminds me of how the Jews in the Warsaw Getto are shown in movies).
It is 1 square kilometer where 24,000 People live. It is mostly provided by the UN.
Wherever we walked through the getto, children followed us. I greeted and shook hands with at least 50 children. They could have been my grandchildren. Even in this constricted, restricted area, they were full of joy and mischief and laughter. I spent most of the day with tears in my eyes.
We ended the day at Nazareth with dinner followed by a talk on Israeli politics by Hannan Zoughby, a member of Israeli Knesset (parliament) at our hotel the Rimonim Mary’s Well.
We closed the evening with Arabic music from Nazareth, which is called Mawal and Zajell.
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