WEBVTT - Five Days in Palestina 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.320 Dear lat you know USA listener. Before we start, you 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.720 should know that if you want to listen to this 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:11.480 episode ad free, just join plus and you can join 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:15.040 for as little as seven dollars a month. Joining also 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.160 gets you behind the scenes access and yes, some cheese 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.279 may so click the link in the episode description and 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.560 after you do that, then click play. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:39.880 Let's go to the show Futuro Investigates. 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:51.320 Investiga. I am on the other side of the world. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.000 Oh my god, let me see if I can take 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.279 a picture. And I'm having one of the most extraordinary 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:07.280 reporting of my life. Oh my god. It is a 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.120 cool and breezy day in February, and I'm standing outside 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.399 a church made of sand colored stone blocks with big 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.679 arches over the entrance. Now it's kind of an ordinary 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.480 looking church, if you will. And as I'm walking in, 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:28.080 there's a huge words at say Ave Maria above the arches, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:33.080 a tile of Labirkin de Wadalupe Donancin, the indigenous Virgin 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:38.080 patron saint of the Americas, especially Mexico and Lavikin protects 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:44.240 immigrants and the oppressed. And there's a Jrusalem Christ. Yes, 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.560 I have visited countless churches dedicated to Lavikin de Wadalupe 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.080 all across the US and Latin America, from Los Angeles 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.560 to Texas to Guatemala. But I can't say I expected 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:02.120 to see this one here. So we are in beir 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:10.520 Ziad in Palestine, in Palestina. This virgin is in an 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.880 old part of beer Ziit, a historic town in the 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:19.080 West Bank, just around fifteen miles north of Jerusalem. This 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.720 is the Christian area of Palestine. I was invited on 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:25.880 this trip by a professor friend of mine, and I'm 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.880 here to follow a delegation of students and academics from 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.920 the United States who are on an exchange visit with 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.040 their counterparts here in the West Bank. They want to 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.000 learn what life has been like for Palestinians living under 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:42.160 Israeli military control for decades, and as Israel's war on 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.120 Gaza continues three years on, what the genocide means for 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.240 people in the West Bank. I'm here in Beirziit with 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.760 Latino USA producer Nude Saudi, who is Palestinian herself born 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.080 in the US, and the both of us are traveling 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.640 here as journalists. Nude has been here before. Her parents 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.200 were both born in Jerusalem and came to the US 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.280 in the nineteen seventies. Still, this is a big return 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.960 trip for Nud and it's a first for me. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.360 I think it's just an anticipation of bowling tomorrow crossing. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.760 The Palasade, but I did not expect to encounter Labitkin 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.000 de Uadalupe on this trip. It was kind of a sign, though, 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.760 that this trip would end up being really spiritual for 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:39.400 both Nu and for me. We came across the church 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.120 while we were walking with Mace, one of the students 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.160 in the delegation who lives in the West Bank. We 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.240 were just sightseeing, walking through these ancient narrow streets. There 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.800 are buildings here that date back to the Ottoman Empire, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.800 and then suddenly there was this church and it was 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.960 like geekis isto. Now it was logged, but Mays recognized 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.920 the guy who was in charge of the church grounds. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:04.560 And I told him can you open the church? And 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.320 say yeah, of course, I got the keys, so let's see, and. 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:16.479 So we went inside. Nance Fibina Igni, the groundskeeper told 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.680 us how this church came to be here. Turns out 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.680 an Italian priest in the nineteen forties had started this 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.080 project to create jobs by building the church. At first, 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.360 money was coming from Europe for the project, but when 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.080 those funds ran out in the late nineteen sixties, a 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.560 priest from Mexico came through with the rest of the 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.880 money from his parish. So both the Italian and Mexican 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.720 priests agreed to name this church for the Mexican vi 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.840 Hin de Juadalupe. So now I'm walking to see the 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:49.360 Mexican flag at the front of the church, that is 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.440 right next to the Palestinian flag and right next to 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.040 Unavandera de la Guada Lupe with a banner of the 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:02.279 Virgin of Guada Lupe. In some ways, this unexpected moment 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.640 solidified the question that we came to ask during this trip, 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.839 what are the roots of the deep connections between Latinos 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.840 and Palestinians and why do so many Latinos and Latinas 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.480 in the United States feel this deep sense of solidarity 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.760 with Palestine. For example, in pro Palestinian protests in the US, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:28.279 you'll often see Latino led immigrant rights groups joining the FRAY, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.200 and Latinos and Latinas were at the forefront of the 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.640 student encampment protests in the spring of twenty twenty four. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:41.000 During pro immigrant rallies against detention facilities. Demonstrators are often 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.200 wearing caffias, which is the black and white scarf that 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.159 has become synonymous with Palestinian resistance, and you'll often see 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.120 a Palestinian flag or two waving in the crowd. And 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.159 then there is a central theme in my decades long 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.680 career that has been reporting about the border and the 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.760 border wall. So now I'm here in another part of 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:07.000 the world where division is also entrenched, and where walls 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.080 have become a part of the landscape and a major 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:14.200 part of a government policy. It's what the Palestinians in 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.880 the group told me that I would encounter, along with 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:22.479 numerous checkpoints. I begin to wonder, what is going to 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.560 look familiar to me here, what am I going to 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.279 recognize and what am I going to learn about this 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.279 part of the world that I can take back with 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:43.120 me from Fuduro Media It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Kosa. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:48.640 Today five days in Panstina, we join a US academic 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.840 delegation to the West Bank to better understand what drives 0:06:51.880 --> 0:07:01.440 Latino solidarity with Palestinians. Most of my life I've been 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.040 hearing about occupied Palestine, how the Israeli military has controlled 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.520 these territories since nineteen sixty seven, the Gaza Strip that 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:16.520 borders Egypt, the landlocked West Bank bordering Jordan, and East Jerusalem. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.920 How Palestine is actually divided into pieces with Israel in 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.760 the middle. And how even before the war on Gaza, 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.680 the Israeli military has controlled who could come in and 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:33.280 out of pretty much everywhere here in Palestine. Over the decades, 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.120 I've heard about how more and more Palestinian land has 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:42.200 been taken by Israel occupied and now within those borders 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:47.000 there are hundreds of checkpoints across Palestine that prevent people 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.520 from moving around freely. So now, a quick note on terminology, 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:57.360 occupation is a legal term, and this situation in Palestine 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.200 has been deemed to be an illegal occupation by the 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.960 International Court of Justice, by the United Nations, and by 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.520 a host of human rights organizations. But seeing this all 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:15.800 in person is different than hearing about it. The intention 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.280 of this trip was there from the very beginning. My 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.840 dear friend, Professor Kent Wong envisioned this as a people 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.480 to people diplomacy moment through travel and friendship at a 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:34.320 time of deep division. Kent had been the director of 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.960 the UCLA Labor Center in Los Angeles. He was inspired 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.640 to organize this trip after seeing the violent police response 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.840 to protests on college campuses in the spring of twenty 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.040 twenty four. His goal was to build solidarity from the 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:54.400 US with Palestine. Now, dear listener, you have likely heard 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:59.520 about how students and professors have faced controversial accusations of 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:04.720 anti Semitism if they criticize Israel. Some pro Palestinian immigrant 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:09.640 activists are even facing threats of deportation, like Macmood Khalil 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.560 from Columbia University where I teach at Barnard College. And 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.640 last year the Trump administration proposed they would check the 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.760 social media history of certain visitors coming to the US. 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.080 In Israel, the government has surveilled and arrested Palestinians for 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.360 their social media activity for years, and has ramped up 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.080 there monitoring since twenty twenty three. And so in light 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:33.680 of all that, we want to give you a heads 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.320 up that we are not going to be sharing the 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:41.720 real names of most of the people on this trip. Tragically, Kent, 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.360 who invited me, died in October twenty twenty five, so 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.960 he was never able to make the trip. He dreamed 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:52.520 up the group organized to go in early February. Now, 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.960 you can't just fly to the West Bank first, you 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:56.960 have to get to Jordan. 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.120 Are you fine? 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.040 I can start. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.040 Our group would meet up in Petra and see one 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.000 of the new seven Wonders of the world as a 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.880 way to break the ice and begin to form connections. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.480 It's spectacular, it's unreal, it's surreal. Colors though, the colors 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.320 here are way yeah, you see the red a lot 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:18.040 here Marno. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.640 Petra broke my heart wide open. I mean I wanted 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:28.120 to cry because it was so beautiful. It's an ancient 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:33.640 archaeological city with arches and columns and doorways carved into 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:40.440 massive pink stone cliffs. After this first profound experience of 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.120 the trip, we would be spending the next five days 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.360 in Palestine, going to Bethlehem and Ramala, the city in 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.760 the West Bank that's about ten miles from Jerusalem, which 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.760 Noor and I would then go and visit. Along the way, 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.199 we'd talked to refugees, community leaders, and student activists, all 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.480 of whom would help us see the connections to the 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:06.400 Latino immigrant experience in the US. We were twenty in total, 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.839 About half were professors and half were students. 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.040 It does not feel real, to be honest, I feel 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:15.199 like I'm watching a movie. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.760 That's one of the students from the US. We're gonna 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.760 call her be. We talked to her as we walked 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:25.880 through and frankly gauged at the magnificent cliffs surrounding Petra. 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:30.079 I always like to think that the land remembers everything. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.520 She's Latina. Her parents are from South America, and she 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.960 said it's her family's indigenous roots that first got her 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.840 involved in protesting for Palestine. She was invited on this 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.640 trip because of her campus organizing and because of her 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.319 vision of what ties this all together. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.000 Connection to land has been kind of like my compass, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.800 especially seeing and starting to process, like so many injustices 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.800 in the world, how Land is really at the root 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:00.320 of it all. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.600 B has long brown hair with highlights, and she's tiny, 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:09.160 petite like me, And even though she's only in her 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.320 early twenties, Nood and I can feel how grounded B 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.560 is and how meaningful it would be for her to 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.199 cross from Jordan into the occupied West Bank with our 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:21.800 delegation the next day. 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.680 The place where we're about to go tomorrow holds loads 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.319 of meaning and memory. So in a way like I'm 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.959 trying not to let it overwhelm me because of all 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.960 of the meaning in the very land that will be exploring. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.040 I'm really really grateful to be here with the Palaciti 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.520 and people in the delegation who are here and experiencing 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.000 all this for the first time. And then I feel 0:12:51.040 --> 0:13:03.480 like that's a once in a lifetime opportunity. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.440 Coming up on. Let you know us, say, across the 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.720 border to the occupied West Bank, or at least we 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.160 try to stay with us, not Yes. 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:24.600 Avendra luinexplicable compara normal unto ken Rivela in Partantes Historias 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:30.559 The Ovnes phantasmas Ibruheria, Explorer, Lodes conocido it is scubriquees 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:39.480 looker real mena and laos couridadlos cruzloes considara normal in 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.280 caul care Plata Formative podcast. 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.920 Hey we're back. We just heard from b a Latinas 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.280 student activist who were traveling with from Jordan into the 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.040 West Bank. Let me tell you about some of the 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.240 others in the group. We already heard from Mace at 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.440 the top of the show. In the version of Wade 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.720 Lupe Church. She's a master's student from the West Bank. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.000 She has a four year old son who stayed back 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.719 home with his father in Palestine, and over the next 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.880 couple of days in Jordan, they FaceTime constantly. 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.720 That's say hi many Yeah. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.560 I learned from Mace that while she studies teaching English 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:36.160 as a second language, other Palestinians actually criticize her for that. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.120 Why learn English, they ask. 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.760 Because they feel like English is still like a colonial language. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.120 What's next, they say to her, You're going to be 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:46.160 celebrating Halloween. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.840 It is important for us to learn English, to show 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.320 the word what we're going through every day, and show 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.080 the word what it is really like here living in 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.560 Pelistan and what we are facing as Palestinians every day. 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.080 The group also includes a jo Fish professor from New 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:06.600 York who studies linguistics, a theology professor, professors who teach English, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.520 and several students who study it. One student is focused 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.840 on education equity, another recently got their master's degree in 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.400 public policy. And then there was Anthony, who was the 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.680 very last person to join the group. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.880 Well, I've been saying since I got here, right, I've 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:27.160 never felt more Arab here because everyone most people speak 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.120 to me in Arabic immediately or like the guys at 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:29.600 the airport. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.440 Anthony is a professor of communication based in California. He's 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.640 a Palestinian Christian and his parents were both born in Ramala, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.440 but he was raised in the very Latino city of Chicago, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.120 just like me. This would be Anthony's first time stepping 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:47.480 foot in Palestine. 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:49.920 Yeah, I was thinking a lot about my mother, of course, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.280 and that's one thing that's like on my heart is 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.960 that I wanted my first time to go to Palestine 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:55.800 to be with her. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.280 Anthony's mother emigrated to the United States in the late 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.480 nineteen eight and has only gone back home twice. But 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.640 when Anthony saw her just before coming here, they pulled 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.280 up Google Maps anyway, and she did what moms do. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.560 She gave directions and she was like, it's just down 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:14.080 the street. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.720 And then she's like she studied khiyeh and you just 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.080 take the cell this street and you'll get to your 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.440 grandma's house. And I'm like, but like, what street is 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:23.120 that this house. 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.600 Anthony's visit would also put his Arabic speaking capabilities to 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.800 the forefront for the first time in his life, because 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:38.040 this Palestinian is actually a way better Spanish speaker. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:45.680 Espanol Espanol locientos. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.160 Anthony studies how Latino communities speak, and when he was 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.720 researching undocumented communities in rural Minnesota in twenty twenty one, 0:16:55.280 --> 0:17:00.440 he started making connections between Latinos and Palestinians. It started 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.080 when he was on a local radio. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.719 Show because I'm like on the radio talking to these 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:10.479 undocumented hosts about immigration schooling in Mexico, and then they 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.320 would ask about Palestine, and it was kind of the 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:14.119 first time that I. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.040 Was in At that time, Israeli officials were threatening to 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.520 evict Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and Israel was bombing Gasa. 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.760 It triggered protests all around the world, including in Minneapolis. 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.520 So here's this academic who had been studying something super specific, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.080 basically how Latinos in rural Minnesota speak on the radio, 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.280 and now the hosts have questions for him about Palestine. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.320 So he made the connection how the Israeli government was 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.679 justifying these evictions in Palestine in the courts, and how 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.879 the US government justifies treatment of immigrants with a confusing 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.359 web of policies and now waiting to cross the border 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.560 into Palestine. Anthony is feeling the weight of seeing his 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:01.520 home land for the very first time. 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.640 So I'm like really distracted by just like the emotions 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.399 that I'm gonna feel crossing and what that's going to be. 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.880 Like Latino USA Producern is feeling those nerves as well. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.359 This is the land that her family has ties to, 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:18.760 and every time she comes back it feels like a miracle. 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:20.960 When I ask you, like what's going on, You're just like, 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.679 I can't. I can't imagine that I'm going back to Palestine, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.040 Like it's it's so electric for you. 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.800 You know, I'm a US citizen, my parents were both 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:29.680 born in Jerusalem. 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:30.040 Bluff. 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:32.680 That's kind of the level of privilege as a US 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.720 I asked for a Palestinian that I can technically go. 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:37.640 Boh. 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.120 There's still something about it where every time I leave, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.440 I'm like, I don't know when's the next. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:45.680 Like you never you just never know. 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.160 So it's just like every single time I am able 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.320 to go back, I'm like, this is like a gift 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:52.800 from God. 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:58.520 Is everybody here? 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.920 The crossing that we're preparing for is known as the 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:06.240 King Hussein Bridge in Jordan and Alan b Bridge by Israel. 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.240 Those in the group who have crossed before explained to 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.040 me that this place is notorious for its constant and 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:18.879 sudden closures, often without notice or because of security concerns. 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:19.840 According to. 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.159 That's what our group spends the entire bus ride planning 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.639 for the crossing and preparing for any contingencies. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.879 I think of the experience of Cosina bridged like a 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:36.480 Normember Anderson. 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.040 They're coming to see what a going. 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.720 And preparing for the very real possibilities of being questioned 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.600 by the Israeli officials at the counter, or being detained, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:57.240 or even being denied entry completely. I remembered having these 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.520 feelings of excitement laced with panic as a little girl 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:02.720 when my family would get ready to drive across the 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.920 border from Mexico to the United States. Like I was 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.480 excited about getting home, but I was also worried about 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.199 the border patrol pulling our car over and putting us 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:17.200 into secondary inspection, which could take hours. It was scary 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.560 and nerve racking for me as a kid, but we 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.960 were always prepared for that possibility that that could happen, 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.200 so it just became normalized. Now that's not to say 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.480 that we spent the entire bus ride to the West 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.560 Bank in worry. In fact, there was definitely time for joy. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.280 I'm feeling we need to be playing right now. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:41.680 What is that? 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.159 After about an hour's drive, we reached the terminal. Our 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:03.080 Palestinian colleagues have to get down first at a different 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:08.080 entrance because they hold separate IDs. They're called green IDs, 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.880 and they're issued to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.239 These ideas determine their freedom of movement and how they 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.560 get processed at both sides of the border. Now, this 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:22.840 was definitely not a part of my border crossing experience. 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.720 So while we are waiting in the sitting area, a 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.400 family sits down next to us. There are three young 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.600 blonde girls who look to be around six to ten 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.200 years old. Their mom is fair skinned with a round 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.440 face wrapped in a black hey job, and she's wearing 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:44.600 an abayah. The dad is tall, also pretty fair skinned, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.160 with a long, thick ginger beard and big curly hair. 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.720 Just as Nude and I were wondering where they were from, 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:56.359 the dad brings his kids a couple of bottles of 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.160 water and offers them a wita aha utter in Spanish, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.680 and so our ears per cub. Because we've been thinking 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.680 about all the ways that Latinos are connected to Palestinians 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.640 and what drives the solidarity between these communities. And here 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:15.480 on the Jordanian border, there was a Spanish speaking family 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:20.119 crossing at the same time as we were. For the 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.280 next hour, as we get through processing and board another 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:25.920 bus to take us to the Israeli side of the terminal, 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.760 where we go through even more extensive security checks, the 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.840 mom of those Spanish speaking little blonde girls begins to 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.920 tell me her whole story and get ready because it 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.920 sounds like a telenovela. By the way, I could not 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:47.160 record my conversation with her because we were crossing a border. Anyway. 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.000 She is from Guatemala. Her husband is Palestinian. He was 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.800 born in New York City but raised in the West Bank. 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.480 He's Muslim, and when they met in Florida, she was 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:02.959 Pentecostal Evangelical Christian. So they were co workers and they 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.080 stayed just friends for years. But then her visa was 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:08.480 up and she was going to have to go back 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:12.040 home to Guatemala. Faced with the prospect of losing her, 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:16.760 he confessed his love and proposed. They married and moved 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.880 to Watemala to raise their daughters. And teach them Spanish. 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:26.160 Then came the news of October seventh, twenty twenty three. 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.879 Everything changed for her. After the attack by Hamas on Israel, 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.120 which killed around twelve hundred people, Israel launched a full 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:39.440 scale assault across the Gaza Strip. More than seventy three 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:44.120 thousand Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing genocide, including 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:50.560 more than twenty thousand children. Thousands of children have had 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:54.639 at least one limb amputated. And she tells me it 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.400 was seeing the mothers in Gasa, how their faith kept 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:04.600 them steadfast to unimaginable horrors, that is what drew her 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:09.920 to Islam. Her story was fascinating to me, and it 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:13.480 was also a common sentiment how what was happening in 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:23.359 Gasa really transformed people's belief systems at the other side 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:26.080 of the border, and grappling with the fact that even 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:30.640 though we're crossing into the West Bank into Palestinian territory, 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:34.680 it's the Israeli authorities who decide who can come in. 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:37.880 So when Noud and I finally get to the counter 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:40.919 to hand over our US passports to be issued our 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:46.160 entry visas, I get mine back right away, but Nud doesn't. Instead, 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:50.040 the Israeli border official tells her there's some kind of 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:53.000 issue and that she has to go to the waiting area. 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:55.840 He points behind us to a row of seats against 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.760 a far wall. He keeps Nud's passport, and even though 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:02.840 I given a green light, I stay with her. Nud 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:06.399 reminds me that she's been held for further questioning every 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:11.640 single time she's visited her Palestinian homeland, including most recently 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:15.960 in twenty twenty two, so Nude is expecting a long wait. 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:20.320 This reminds me of getting sent to secondary inspection at 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:24.920 the US Mexico border, so I get it. After about 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:28.640 twenty minutes, another official comes up to us. He hands 0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:31.640 Nud her passport and her visa without saying a word, 0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:35.560 so we're good to go. It's the quickest Nud has 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:38.200 gotten into the country her parents were born in. Me 0:25:39.119 --> 0:25:46.239 I was sweating from anxiety because it's not going as 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:49.200 smoothly for the rest of the group. We see that 0:25:49.320 --> 0:25:52.520 two of the four students traveling with us have also 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:55.880 had their passports taken and have been told to wait 0:25:56.280 --> 0:26:01.800 by Israeli officials. And then Anthony, the other Palestinian American 0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:06.080 from our group. Our Spanish speaking professor is also told 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:09.800 to wait for further questioning. I look around and notice 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:14.720 everybody in the waiting area is not white. Some are 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:19.879 Middle Eastern, some South Asian Latinos, but nobody is white. 0:26:20.640 --> 0:26:24.280 To me, this looks like racial profiling clear as day. 0:26:25.520 --> 0:26:28.920 When we asked the Israeli government about this, they denied 0:26:29.119 --> 0:26:33.440 that they use racial profiling. More on that later. We 0:26:33.640 --> 0:26:36.199 also know that all four of these students have been 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:40.239 involved in pro Palestine protests on their college campuses. They 0:26:40.280 --> 0:26:44.000