Speaker 1: All Zone media.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcomed to It could happen here. This is
Speaker 2: Sharene and today is part one of a two part
Speaker 2: series where we talked to someone who was on the
Speaker 2: ground in Palestine, in both Lesse and the West Bank.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say Lesday because that's how you say
Speaker 2: in Arabic, but that means gaza for those who are unfamiliar.
Speaker 2: Ever since Israel began bombing the people of Lesa in
Speaker 2: October of last year, it has been virtually impossible for
Speaker 2: AID to get into Lesse. Both the Israeli government and
Speaker 2: its citizens, acting on their own initiative, have blocked AID convoys,
Speaker 2: destroyed life saving medical and food aid, and harassed people
Speaker 2: for supplying aid. AID workers who even can get into
Speaker 2: Rasse have been bombed, shot at and killed. And it's
Speaker 2: not just AID that can't get into Lessee. It's extraordinarily
Speaker 2: hard for information to even get out. Cell Phone signal
Speaker 2: is scarce, and understandably people there use it to contact
Speaker 2: their families, not foreign journalists. So to get a good
Speaker 2: sense of what life is like on the ground. In
Speaker 2: the Dafa, we spoke to Ava, one of the mutual
Speaker 2: aid volunteers who at great risk to her own life,
Speaker 2: traveled into lesday to help the people there.
Speaker 3: My name is Ava. I am a nurse and street medic.
Speaker 3: I'm Jewish of European ancestry and was raised in Pacific Northwest,
Speaker 3: on the traditional lands of the Chinook, Tualitan and Clackamas
Speaker 3: and many other First nations what is commonly called Portland organ.
Speaker 2: Ava was able to send us some voice notes describing
Speaker 2: her day to day back in April. She told us
Speaker 2: what she saw, what she experienced, what she heard. Understandably,
Speaker 2: there is some background noise in some of this audio,
Speaker 2: but I personally think it helps ground us in the
Speaker 2: moment that she's experiencing.
Speaker 3: So here I am the morning of Friday, April nineteenth.
Speaker 3: This is the start of my second day in Lazza.
Speaker 3: I spent a full day yesterday at Aja Hospital in
Speaker 3: the emergency department, getting introduced to the staff there. The work,
Speaker 3: the equipment, the patterns of illness and injury, the shortages, struggles,
Speaker 3: the pain, the happiness is really quite beautiful and hard,
Speaker 3: and a mashup of everything I've experienced in occupation, things
Speaker 3: I've experienced as a new nurse to a floor, and
Speaker 3: things I haven't experienced before, which is being a site
Speaker 3: of an active war zone and genocide. Ajar Hospital is
Speaker 3: located very close to the Rafa border crossing. It's also,
Speaker 3: I guess, one of the areas more heavily impacted by
Speaker 3: violence right now in Rafa, which is still much less
Speaker 3: so than areas to the north like Communis, et cetera.
Speaker 2: We asked Ava to explain the situation in the Dapha
Speaker 2: at the time of this recording and where she was
Speaker 2: within it. The following conversation with Ava took place on
Speaker 2: April twenty ninth.
Speaker 3: I mean, I will first locate myself on Cla, which
Speaker 3: is the only part of Flaza that I have ever seen,
Speaker 3: and I have only been in the Gaza during the
Speaker 3: last two weeks. I've been in Palestine twice. This is
Speaker 3: my first time in this area, and I haven't seen
Speaker 3: Adina Haza. I haven't seen a hone yness. I haven't
Speaker 3: seen the destruction up there, and I think that that
Speaker 3: is from the people who I have met who are
Speaker 3: refugees from those areas, healthcare workers, members of the public.
Speaker 3: There's really uh oh yeah, that's just a moto. Sorry.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of rumblings and things that happened periodically,
Speaker 3: and a lot of them are explosions that I think
Speaker 3: is just a motor but yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 3: really interesting because I arrived at a when food stuffs
Speaker 3: had just started to cross in a little bit more regularly,
Speaker 3: and I was told that basically in the week before,
Speaker 3: like street markets had reoccurred, which hadn't been a thing
Speaker 3: for months, And that's like a big part of my
Speaker 3: experience in the West Bank. And so it was really
Speaker 3: great to see people, even if it was just like
Speaker 3: a little bit of food selling food on the street.
Speaker 3: Starting to see bread being baked and distributed, seeing people
Speaker 3: out and about was exciting. There is rampant signs of
Speaker 3: destruction everywhere. There are lots of standing buildings, but there
Speaker 3: are lots of piles of rubble in streets the sites
Speaker 3: of former buildings. People have done a remarkable job clearing space,
Speaker 3: but there's sense of destruction everywhere, and I think in
Speaker 3: some ways the most painful sites are where buildings aren't
Speaker 3: completely destroyed and you can see into people's bedrooms, kitchens,
Speaker 3: bathroom and things like that, see artwork still hanging, seek
Speaker 3: fragrants of their homes and lives. There are tent cities everywhere.
Speaker 3: I am currently speaking to from within a house that
Speaker 3: is one of the houses that are rented by NGOs
Speaker 3: in the area from generally people who have managed to
Speaker 3: escape that'sa and who are renting their homes for a
Speaker 3: bit of income and to decrease the likelihood their house
Speaker 3: will be bombed. And in this particular house, we're in
Speaker 3: the neighborhood of Tel Sutan, and there are tense cities
Speaker 3: all around us. So it's one of those weird situations
Speaker 3: of staying in a somewhat palatial home where there are
Speaker 3: people sleeping in very rudimentary tents and structures, sometimes completely
Speaker 3: uncovered in one hundred plus degree weather. I think the
Speaker 3: highest temperatures we've seen where a couple of days where
Speaker 3: it was about four to eight degrees centigrade, which is
Speaker 3: about one o seven fahrenheit. There are a lot of
Speaker 3: sick people, a lot of struggling people.
Speaker 2: Longtime listeners of the podcast will remember our interview with
Speaker 2: Tadic Lobani, one of the inventors of the three D
Speaker 2: printed tourniquet, as well as the founder of Glia, a
Speaker 2: medical aid charity. Ava, who was also a medical professional,
Speaker 2: is working with them.
Speaker 3: I've been working with an organization called Glia that works
Speaker 3: with primary care clinics and with maternity and like natal clinics,
Speaker 3: and has also been starting to work with at least
Speaker 3: one emergency department. And I've been working at the hospital
Speaker 3: al Naja, which is used to basically be a community
Speaker 3: tertiary hospital with basically an urgent care clinic, that has
Speaker 3: basically become the only remaining general public emergency department in
Speaker 3: the RAA. There are other there's like an maternity emergency department,
Speaker 3: hospital department, there's an emergency department run by MSF and
Speaker 3: like these other ones, but like this is the only
Speaker 3: general public one. And I've been there just you know,
Speaker 3: for two weeks most every day to day off when
Speaker 3: I was sick and took off the day to day
Speaker 3: to see some different parts of some other clinics, which
Speaker 3: is really good comparison.
Speaker 2: We asked Ava what kind of injuries she sees and
Speaker 2: what the medical situation is like in the l's.
Speaker 3: But I will say that it's wild the variety of
Speaker 3: you know, injuries and illnesses that you'll see in that space.
Speaker 3: That is true of any emergency department. But depending on
Speaker 3: the hours, I have foundering the day. Most of the
Speaker 3: illnesses and injuries are more usual except exacerbated by the
Speaker 3: lack of resources, lack of primary caricter resources la celebated
Speaker 3: by the lack of medications, exacerbated by the lack of
Speaker 3: clean water and sanitation. Occasionally injuries like from bombings or
Speaker 3: shootings at night when I have not been there. I
Speaker 3: have heard of many missile strikes, whype, we got entire families,
Speaker 3: large numbers of people murdered. I have seen, you know,
Speaker 3: several people killed in that way come to the emergency deburbon,
Speaker 3: but in no way representative of what's been happening, and
Speaker 3: it's been a vi all account better these weeks than
Speaker 3: it has been before, though number of missile strikes and
Speaker 3: things are kind of increasing. There has been word given
Speaker 3: that there is likely going to be evacuation orders starting
Speaker 3: in the next in this next few days to a
Speaker 3: week from the Israelis, but no signs of an immediate inclusion.
Speaker 3: That said, we don't know. Most people are pretty hopeful
Speaker 3: of that that I've talked to, that a ceasefire will
Speaker 3: be reached, although it's unclear what that would mean. But
Speaker 3: I can say from my time working in these hospitals
Speaker 3: that and just being in the community that like most
Speaker 3: people are hanging on by a thread, whether they have
Speaker 3: just gotten something very loosely resembling a hint of stability,
Speaker 3: of like having a place where they are having access
Speaker 3: to food. There are children playing, there are you know,
Speaker 3: some some of the signs of life that I'm used
Speaker 3: to seeing in Palestine. There are emergency departments that are
Speaker 3: somewhat functional. They're like my colleague is working at a
Speaker 3: NICU where it's always full, but they are able to
Speaker 3: care for the babies that are there, even not as
Speaker 3: well as they would like to, but like they are
Speaker 3: able to if this population is displaced again, which is
Speaker 3: what the Israelis are suggesting in this case, towards con
Speaker 3: units which they've leveled, and they are trying to get
Speaker 3: the international community to set up ten cities there. That
Speaker 3: will kill a lot of people, that will tear apart
Speaker 3: a lot of what little people had left. So very
Speaker 3: very difficult in that way. That said, it's also more
Speaker 3: alive than I expected. There's more signs of daily life,
Speaker 3: life of children playing, of people making and serving coffee
Speaker 3: in the street of a couple of bakerries are producing
Speaker 3: you know, all those pieces like flawhel SAMs like those
Speaker 3: things exist coast of food or atrocious We don't, you know,
Speaker 3: buy food here, but I'm aware of some of the prices,
Speaker 3: and they are much higher than they would be in
Speaker 3: the West Bank, where food is you know, not on Embarco.
Speaker 2: For those who aren't super familiar, the West Bank refers
Speaker 2: to the West Bank of Jordan. It stretches across the
Speaker 2: eastern border of Israel, along the west banks of the
Speaker 2: Jordan River and most of the Dead Sea. It was
Speaker 2: designated as its own region when Israel established itself and
Speaker 2: ethnically cleansed Palestine in nineteen forty eight, but it has
Speaker 2: been eaten away to a massive amount. In nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 2: it was occupied during the Six Day War, and during
Speaker 2: the nineteen seventies and eighties, Israel began establishing settlements there,
Speaker 2: which was and is still illegal under international law, and
Speaker 2: even with protests from the international community, Israel continues still
Speaker 2: today to establish settlements on Palestinian land. The first major
Speaker 2: Arab uprising aka the First Intifada, also referred to as
Speaker 2: the Stone Intifada, began in nineteen eighty seven in the
Speaker 2: Gaza Strip and spread to the West Bank. It ended
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety three with the signing of the First
Speaker 2: Oslo Accords. The Second Intifada, also known as the Usa Antifada,
Speaker 2: was another major Arab uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation.
Speaker 2: During the twenty tens, the Fatah dominated Palestinian authority worked
Speaker 2: toward establishing itself as an independent government in the urban
Speaker 2: Palestinian areas of the West Bank. At the same time,
Speaker 2: Israel expanded its settlement activity in the territory. FUTA, formerly
Speaker 2: the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist and
Speaker 2: social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of
Speaker 2: the confederated multi party Palestine Life Biation Organization and the
Speaker 2: second largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council. PATTA has
Speaker 2: been closely identified with the leadership of its founder and chairman,
Speaker 2: Yasser Arafat, who was elected chairman of the PLO in
Speaker 2: Cairo in February nineteen sixty nine until his death in
Speaker 2: two thousand and four. In May twenty twenty one, Palestinian
Speaker 2: families in Schechestradra, a neighborhood and occupied East Jerusalem began
Speaker 2: protesting against Israel's plan to forcibly evict them from their
Speaker 2: homes to make way for Jewish settlers. Many of the
Speaker 2: families were refugees who had settled in Schechtradra after being
Speaker 2: forcibly displaced around the time of Israel's establishment as a
Speaker 2: state in nineteen forty eight. Since Israel occupied the East
Speaker 2: Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty seven, Palestinians and Schechterrara had been continuously targeted by
Speaker 2: Israeli authorities, who used discriminatory laws to systematically dispossess Palestinians
Speaker 2: of their land and homes for the benefit of Jewish Israelis.
Speaker 2: The events of May twenty twenty one were emblematic of
Speaker 2: the oppression which Palestinians have faced every day for decades.
Speaker 2: The discrimination, the dispossession, and the repression of descent, the
Speaker 2: killings and injuries, they are all a part of a
Speaker 2: system which is designed to privilege Jewish Israelis at the
Speaker 2: expense of Palestinians. This is apartheid, which is, as you
Speaker 2: should know, prohibited an international law. In twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: Amnesty International reported that Israel imposes a system of oppression
Speaker 2: and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control
Speaker 2: in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and against Palestinian
Speaker 2: refugees in order to benefit Israelis laws, policies, and practices
Speaker 2: which are intended to maintain a violent system of control
Speaker 2: over Palestinians have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished,
Speaker 2: and in a constant state of fear and insecurity, with
Speaker 2: no freedom of movement or freedom's period. And then there's
Speaker 2: Israel's Apartheid Wall, which began as a fence along the
Speaker 2: border between the West Bank and what is called Israel.
Speaker 2: It was first constructed by Israel in nineteen seventy one
Speaker 2: as a security barrier and it has been rebuilt and
Speaker 2: upgraded since. It was constructed by Israel to control the
Speaker 2: movement of the Palestinian population as well as goods between
Speaker 2: the Gaza Strip and Israel. So that's some history on
Speaker 2: the West Bank, and just for some context, twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three was the deadliest year for Palestinians since the United
Speaker 2: Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs AOCHA began
Speaker 2: recording casualties in two thousand and five. Since the Gaza genocide,
Speaker 2: Israel has stepped up military raids in the West Bank,
Speaker 2: where violence had already been surging for over a year.
Speaker 2: UN records show that Israeli forces or settlers have killed
Speaker 2: hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank since October seventh.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty three, at least five hundred and seven
Speaker 2: Palestinians were killed, including at least eighty one children. Between
Speaker 2: October seventh and December thirty first, twenty twenty three, two
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety nine Palestinians were killed in the West Bank,
Speaker 2: marking a fifty percent increase compared to the first nine
Speaker 2: months of the year. According to the World Health Organization,
Speaker 2: since October seventh, four hundred and seventy four Palestinians, including
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixteen children, have been killed in the
Speaker 2: West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and about five thousand
Speaker 2: were injured. There are many days where Israeli forces killed Palestinians,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to refer to a couple just to
Speaker 2: give you a general idea of the violence the Palestinians experience.
Speaker 2: On March twenty five, first, there was a day when
Speaker 2: Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in separate incidents in the
Speaker 2: occupied West Bank, resulting in ten Palestinians killed in the
Speaker 2: territory over a twenty four hour period. This was reported
Speaker 2: by the Palestinian news agency WEFA. On April twentieth, Israeli
Speaker 2: forces killed fourteen Palestinians during a raid in the occupied
Speaker 2: West Bank, including an ambulance driver who was killed as
Speaker 2: he went to pick up wounded Palestinians from a separate
Speaker 2: attack by violent Israeli settlers. Erica Guavera Rosas, Amnesty International's
Speaker 2: director of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy.
Speaker 1: Said under the cover of the relentiss bombardment and atrosty
Speaker 1: crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force
Speaker 1: against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful
Speaker 1: killings and displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives. These
Speaker 1: unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights
Speaker 1: law and are committed with impunity in the context of
Speaker 1: maintaining iss institutionalized regime, the systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians.
Speaker 2: Because Ava has experience in both clus in the West Bank.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask what she witnessed while in the
Speaker 2: West Bank. Here's Ava telling us about her experience.
Speaker 3: Specifically, I was working with the International Solidarity Movement, which
Speaker 3: is the same group I worked with when I was
Speaker 3: in Palestine twelve years ago. And that's basically exactly what
Speaker 3: it sounds like. It's a vaguely anarchist and her socialist
Speaker 3: and our communist informed assembly of most the internationals with
Speaker 3: this s mattering of Palestinians and a couple Israeli activists.
Speaker 3: I was in the West Bank this round from the
Speaker 3: end of January until I came to Gaza, which was
Speaker 3: halfway through April, so basically two and a half months.
Speaker 3: Most people who volunteer there it's anywhere from like two
Speaker 3: or three weeks to two or three months. Because of
Speaker 3: tourist visa last that long, and that's usually the most
Speaker 3: you can expect. During this time I was there, Ism
Speaker 3: and other solidarity organizations got to be a topic of
Speaker 3: much discussion in the Israelikan essets, as they got very
Speaker 3: excited about the dangerous anarchists in the South. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of interesting converisons between the West Bank and.
Speaker 2: Gaza, Palestinian people are divided by the State of Israel
Speaker 2: into two areas, with two separate governments and two different
Speaker 2: experiences of occupation. We asked Ava what people in Redsiday
Speaker 2: had to say about the situation for those living in
Speaker 2: the West Bank, where settler colonialism spreads every single day.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'll start VI saying, when I rolled into Gaza
Speaker 3: and met members from the Health of Ministry and like
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, you speak some Arabic, particular in Arabic,
Speaker 3: and I was like in the West Bank and they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's so hard there. And I was like really, and
Speaker 3: they were like, yeah, you know, I mean obviously, like
Speaker 3: the war, which is what they call the genocide you
Speaker 3: usually hear too, has been very hard, but like before that,
Speaker 3: like they have to live under a different version of
Speaker 3: occupation or direct version of occupation every day. And I
Speaker 3: thought that that just like touched something intense in me
Speaker 3: and like was really like a big I don't know,
Speaker 3: it just affected me a lot. But as far as
Speaker 3: like comparisons, there are parts of the West Bank that
Speaker 3: feel independent, that you feel like, oh, I'm in an
Speaker 3: area that is, you know where ostensibly are not supposed
Speaker 3: to see Israelis, and if they are there, they're like
Speaker 3: my friend who just lives in, you know, lives with
Speaker 3: her husband who's Palestinian, and they hang out there and
Speaker 3: are fine most of the time. But a lot of
Speaker 3: these areas that I spent almost of my time are
Speaker 3: areas where there's more direct contact constantly between settlers, soldiers
Speaker 3: and the Palestinian community who are often in those areas,
Speaker 3: like we're in rural and it's like a very different
Speaker 3: scale of genocide. I often talk about that as like
Speaker 3: a slower genocide, and this is a faster genocide here
Speaker 3: in Gassa, but it's like no less horrible. It ends
Speaker 3: up being like a person a person, and like parcel
Speaker 3: of land, a parcel of land Palestinian heard of sheep
Speaker 3: is rarely heard of sheep, herd of sheep, And it
Speaker 3: sounds like very parallel, except that the Palestinians have been
Speaker 3: shepherding there for generations or hundreds of years. And the
Speaker 3: settlers there, some of them, most of them are like teenagers,
Speaker 3: war dropouts and like get in trouble all the time,
Speaker 3: and then they're brought up there at this community service
Speaker 3: and some of them know how to shepherd, and some
Speaker 3: of them don't, but they use it as an opportunity
Speaker 3: to graze their animals on like Palasinian wheat fields.
Speaker 2: Settler colonialism isn't just a vague concept or a way
Speaker 2: of looking at the past in Palestine. It's something that
Speaker 2: happens almost every single day. The violent displacement of Palestinian people,
Speaker 2: which began with the Nekba, has never really stopped, and
Speaker 2: the families in the West Bank experience their own nekbas
Speaker 2: every time their land is stolen. That's why volunteers like
Speaker 2: Ava go there to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Speaker 2: We asked Ava what the process of appropriation looks like
Speaker 2: on the ground.
Speaker 3: They stand somewhere, get confrontational with the Palestinians, with the international,
Speaker 3: and it's really solidarity activists. They get the police to
Speaker 3: and soldiers who arrest people and harass people. They occasionally
Speaker 3: fire at and sometimes kill or sairly injure Palestinians, less
Speaker 3: commonly at jenab Or. It's really octivists. After the seventh
Speaker 3: all across the West Bank. Initially, a lot of the settlers,
Speaker 3: as I understand I, responded by kind of clamping down
Speaker 3: security concerns and then very quickly turned it into an
Speaker 3: opportunity for attack and turned up at villages like the
Speaker 3: village of Zenuta and just were like which had like
Speaker 3: about one hundred fanms and was like, you don't leave,
Speaker 3: We're going to kill you all. And so people left
Speaker 3: and it was a credible threat and they did kill
Speaker 3: a lot of people. I think that's the largest village
Speaker 3: I've heard of recently. They disappeared other places. People ran
Speaker 3: away and their homes were destroyed, their animals were taken.
Speaker 3: People come back and their cars get torched. They get
Speaker 3: arrested on no charges and held for longer than ever
Speaker 3: and in many cases or torture to death. I have
Speaker 3: a friend and comrade that I organized up a little
Speaker 3: bit who was in Janine at the start, right after
Speaker 3: October seventh, and she witnessed truly horrific you know, targeted
Speaker 3: killings by drone strikes and other things, and basically fled
Speaker 3: south so she would be okay and physically. So that's
Speaker 3: some of what has happened. Most of the villages that
Speaker 3: historically have had the like nonviolent weekly protests, which a
Speaker 3: lot of people who in the past and volunteered like
Speaker 3: as you know, internationals, we'll have experience with and like
Speaker 3: there's a lot of the popular images of like youth
Speaker 3: in Kafias during stones or at some of those sites.
Speaker 3: Since October seventh, almost all of the villages stopped as
Speaker 3: far as I know, because it was too dangerous. When
Speaker 3: I arrived, I was told all of the villages had stopped.
Speaker 3: But then we found out part way that there was
Speaker 3: a village that was having protests kofor Katum on the
Speaker 3: northern half of the West Make and it turns out
Speaker 3: when I went there, they'd never stopped. They protested each week.
Speaker 3: They did scale back what their goals were because whereas
Speaker 3: in the past they had been many of them had
Speaker 3: been shot with lve ammunition like twenty two caliber rifles.
Speaker 3: Since the seventh it basically became all land ammunition. And
Speaker 3: only by the grace of God or luck were none
Speaker 3: of them murtyred in that time because the soldiers were
Speaker 3: not shooting at ankles as is the conventional guidance. I
Speaker 3: saw video of them shooting into buildings, into homes, shooting
Speaker 3: at head height, things like that, and like the week
Speaker 3: before I went, but guy was shot in the face
Speaker 3: and he only survived because it deflected down through his
Speaker 3: Johns diadive into his skull. So they've experienced a lot
Speaker 3: of severe oppression there. There's been hundreds killed in the
Speaker 3: West Bank just since October seventh. There is active fighting
Speaker 3: in parts of the north of like kind of Jinine
Speaker 3: and I think until Karen and some other places between
Speaker 3: some armed resistance and Surli soldiers. But it's definitely not
Speaker 3: at the same scale as in Laza, and there aren't
Speaker 3: like active bombs falling on people. But it's you know,
Speaker 3: still murderous. It's still driving people out, it's still squeezing
Speaker 3: people to they either lash out or leave.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it honestly sounds like just a repeat
Speaker 2: in some way of the Nekaba, you know, like that's
Speaker 2: just what happened. It is a little maybe a little slower, like.
Speaker 4: You said, like a slower genocide, right, Yeah, it never
Speaker 4: really stopped. It's been a slow genoside for like seventy
Speaker 4: six years. In addition to ongoing colonization, the economic conditions
Speaker 4: in the West Bank make life hard for people there.
Speaker 4: But this does not stop people in the West Bank
Speaker 4: from being in solidarity with the people of Ze.
Speaker 3: When I was in the West Bank. I will also
Speaker 3: say like, and I've shared this with many people here
Speaker 3: on Gaza, like I would be in a tiny one
Speaker 3: bedroom house who are very poor. Like people's incomes disappeared
Speaker 3: after the Seventh That's another thing. Like a lot of
Speaker 3: people made their money by traveling to cities to work,
Speaker 3: by working at settlements, things like that. After the Seventh
Speaker 3: roads were shut down, people couldn't move. Palestinian workers were
Speaker 3: not allowed in settlements, not allowed to cross into forty eight.
Speaker 3: So everybody's struggling. But like people are spending twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven with like alder Zeerra or like other Palestinia
Speaker 3: or Palestinian coverage of what's happening in Gaza, Like people
Speaker 3: are right there when Ramadan started. I was there during
Speaker 3: the mom of the Ramadan, Like people were like, I'm
Speaker 3: so looking forward to feeling hunger along with Gaza, and
Speaker 3: like that was another aspect of hearing from the first
Speaker 3: Gazins crossing into Gaza, like saying like, oh, it's so
Speaker 3: hard over there, We're with them. Like I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of attempts from the Israelis, from liberal Zionists
Speaker 3: in the US, from the state and everything to be
Speaker 3: like good Palestinian, bad Palestinian, and like all the Palestinians are,
Speaker 3: you know, like they might not all agree politically, like
Speaker 3: there's many different positions on everything, just as there are
Speaker 3: many positions and everything in every community. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of empathy between them, and that was another reason I
Speaker 3: was really excited to come from the West Bank and
Speaker 3: bring like some olive oil and other gifts on behalf
Speaker 3: of the community, because people need to know how much
Speaker 3: they're loved and thought of. On the other side, I
Speaker 3: find it's sad and beautiful how united of the people
Speaker 3: are the Palestinians across the tremendous sistance of and also
Speaker 3: incredibly short distance of apartheid and occupation. That they can't
Speaker 3: see each other or visit each other, but they feel
Speaker 3: for each other and are with each other in their
Speaker 3: hearts and just kind of wrects me a little bit.
Speaker 3: It's also nice to be near the sea. I haven't
Speaker 3: yet seen the sea, but my friend was here very
Speaker 3: close and could see it from their house. I just
Speaker 3: feel being close to the sea and like see the sunsets,
Speaker 3: and that's so incredibly beautiful and sad too, because most
Speaker 3: Palestinians don't get to see the sea.
Speaker 2: And that's going to be the end of part one.
Speaker 2: In part two, Ava tells us what the process was
Speaker 2: like traveling from the West Bank until Lenesday, and she
Speaker 2: details her experience being on the ground to the Daffa.
Speaker 2: So please tune in to tomorrow's episode to hear more
Speaker 2: from Ava. Until then, Repales done.
Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
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