When the group got back together and compared notes I had to explain to the friends who stayed in Israel what Palestine was like. They had no clue. I had to loudly and dramatically explain to them that we had no water, no electricity and no peace of mind. Our every waking moment was consumed with wondering when the next bomb would fall, where the next meal would come from, how we would get by.
My friends who stayed in Israel had had no such experiences. They had watched TV, talked on the phone, ate regular meals, accessed the internet and lived a relatively uneventful life. It was like night and day. I realized after talking to them that it was as if we had lived on different planets for a week (Is it like that for Israelis? Do they just have no idea what it is like to live in Palestine?)
After our one-week experiment we all returned to America but my friends noticed I was having a much harder time re-adjusting to my home life because I could not help worrying about the Palestinians.
This really was a dream. I didn't make it up. But I did get to wake up. After waking up, I find I am still worried about the Palestinians. As an Indigenous person, I am sympathetic to the plight of any colonized people.
When will the colonization of Palestine end? When will they wake up from their nightmare ?
