One more major difference between Palestine and living in the UK is that Palestinians are not afforded the freedom of movement that we generally take for granted. While “the screw has been loosened” recently, as one person explained it, Palestinians still regularly have to pass through numerous Israeli army checkpoints to travel anywhere, even without leaving the West Bank, and can at any point not be allowed through or be made to wait for hours.
In addition, Palestinians need written permission to travel outside the country, or even just to Jerusalem, and requests are regularly denied by the Israeli authorities with no explanation given. (Travelling to Gaza, or getting out of Gaza, is pretty much not an option.)
This all may sound like a bit of a nuisance, but it’s a much more serious issue than that. Palestinians often go months or even years without being able to see family members, and they are often not allowed to travel even to get urgent medical treatment. Many Palestinians, including children, with curable conditions have died due to not been able to access healthcare that in Scotland would be available to anyone.
Earlier this week, while I was in Tel Aviv, some of the international volunteers went to Sinai, including some people who are now very close friends to me. I was worried that they might have a problem getting back into Israel and had asked them to let me know when they got past the border okay. I hadn’t heard back from them for a while, and started to panic that they hadn’t been allowed in. As it turns out, they got back into the country without any major hassle, but this anxiety about potentially not being able to see people close to me gave me a slight idea of what Palestinians go through on a regular basis.
For more of an insight into this issue, please watch this video (link attached below).
http://www.facebookvideodown.com/if-london-was-occupied-hq-35366.html
1 comment:
Powerful video! Very hard to appreciate how this kind of response to a situation could be in any way justified.
We do take our freedoms so much for granted in this country - and exploit it, to our detriment when it is seen as 'decadence' as you have mentioned in s previous post.
A definition of the word 'civilised' would be interesting from the perspective of different cultures, religions and political affiliations. One wonders what common ground would there be, and where such Israeli action - or inaction - would fit in to this?
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