Again I apaologize for the lack of updates. We were able to get out of Gaza without any issues, and I spent the next few days in a houseboat on the Nile. I know, it was amazing. Jen, Luke, Nathaniel, Wolf and I were staying there as the guys had lived there and were crashing for a few days with the new tenants. We soon found out at that Sarah, an incredible British filmmaker who we had seen at the border with the Project Hope convoy but who was turned back in the terminal, was staying in the houseboat next to us, so over the few days we spent a lot of time with her. I saw the museum and the mummies - creepy but cool things. I unfortunately never got around to seeing the pyramids, I don't really know why, I guess I preferred to stick with as much non-tourist activities as possible. We got together with the students from the group on the second and had a really great time. I'm really missing Gaza though, and am frustrated at how close it is and yet how inaccessible it remains.
I spent a day in Dahab after Cairo with Jen, Luke and their two upstairs neighbours. What a beautiful little place. I went snorkeling for the first time and saw coral and beautiful fish. I think I also swallowed half of the red sea.
Yesterday, after Dahab, I headed to Taba to cross the border into Israel. The plan was to meet three of the other students in Jerusalem and spend some time in the West Bank. However, when I got there I was promptly told to go to a special area because they needed to do some "investigating." I was then interrogated by a not so nice police officer who wanted to know everything about what I did in Gaza and what I was planning to do in Israel (this interrogation was expected because of the Rafah stamp on my passport). So I told her as much as I could, not offering any more than requested but being truthful. I then had to wait outside for a while, and was called back in and told that they knew why I was here, that I was going to a Codepink demonstration in Tel-Aviv. I actually had no idea what she was talking about, but when I told her that she insisted that I was lying. I even pulled up my hostel reservations in Jerusalem for the next two nights, but that apparently wasn't good enough. I then had to go out and wait for a few more hours. Luckily, they had really good food at this terminal.
Eventually I was called back into the police officer's office and handed a form that said that I would not enter a Palestinian territory while in Israel without the permission of the Israeli army. I was furious, but did a good job at holding it together. I told her that my full intention was to spend a lot of time in the West Bank, and asked whether or not there was any way around it. This was actually a different officer from before, and this one was a bit nicer and called the Ministry of Interior to find out. Again, I had to wait.
I used this next little while to start making phone calls. I called a friend who told me that the American Codepink group leaders were coming through Taba today and that I should call them. As luck would have it, her phone died before she could give me the number. I called my mom to see if she had Sandra's Toronto number, which she didn't, but she soon texted me a number of a Codepink woman in Israel. I soon found out that my mom went home, called some random Codepink person in the states who then gave her the Israel number. I also apparently worried her so much that she came home from work pretty upset... I guess I would be too if my daughter was crazy enough to try to cross the Israel border with a Gaza stamp on her passport, alone.
Finally, through the woman in Israel, I got the number of Medea, who said that they had just gotten into Taba and to wait until she got there. I actually didn't up seeing her or Tighe for a while because they had two extensive searchings of their bags, which contained some exceptionally, let's say, provocative material that wouldn't be welcomed in Israel. But I met with Ann, Annie, Pam and Billy while we waited for the other two, and it was quite comforting to be with others who understood my predicament, as they were all being interrogated as well.
I was eventually told that there was no way out of signing the paper if I wanted into Israel, and if I didn't sign it I couldn't get in. They wouldn't tell me why I had to sign it (as the three students who had gone through the border earlier didn't have to). I decided not to sign it until I found out if my new partners in crime were getting in. They went through their interrogations with yet another police officer, this one significantly more mean that the first two. She asked them if they believed in God, and told Pam that unitarian wasn't a a real religion, and Billy that he had to choose a religion since he said he didn't have one. Quite the interesting time.
13 hours later, we were all in. We skyped, got really good free food, and saw a beautiful sunset over Israel, Jordan and Egypt while waiting - who would have thought the border could be so frustrating and so much fun at the same time?
The 30 or so other delegates arrived from Tel-Aviv late in the evening where they had participated in a demonstration. Patch Adams and other clowns are leading the way, and it's so much fun. Did I also mention that I met Norman Finkelstein on my last day in Gaza? Who would have known I would meet so many celebrities!
No comments:
Post a Comment