Speaker 1: Dear lat you know USA listener. Before we start, you
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Speaker 2: Let's go to the show Futuro Investigates.
Speaker 1: Investiga. I am on the other side of the world.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, let me see if I can take
Speaker 1: a picture. And I'm having one of the most extraordinary
Speaker 1: reporting of my life. Oh my god. It is a
Speaker 1: cool and breezy day in February, and I'm standing outside
Speaker 1: a church made of sand colored stone blocks with big
Speaker 1: arches over the entrance. Now it's kind of an ordinary
Speaker 1: looking church, if you will. And as I'm walking in,
Speaker 1: there's a huge words at say Ave Maria above the arches,
Speaker 1: a tile of Labirkin de Wadalupe Donancin, the indigenous Virgin
Speaker 1: patron saint of the Americas, especially Mexico and Lavikin protects
Speaker 1: immigrants and the oppressed. And there's a Jrusalem Christ. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have visited countless churches dedicated to Lavikin de Wadalupe
Speaker 1: all across the US and Latin America, from Los Angeles
Speaker 1: to Texas to Guatemala. But I can't say I expected
Speaker 1: to see this one here. So we are in beir
Speaker 1: Ziad in Palestine, in Palestina. This virgin is in an
Speaker 1: old part of beer Ziit, a historic town in the
Speaker 1: West Bank, just around fifteen miles north of Jerusalem. This
Speaker 1: is the Christian area of Palestine. I was invited on
Speaker 1: this trip by a professor friend of mine, and I'm
Speaker 1: here to follow a delegation of students and academics from
Speaker 1: the United States who are on an exchange visit with
Speaker 1: their counterparts here in the West Bank. They want to
Speaker 1: learn what life has been like for Palestinians living under
Speaker 1: Israeli military control for decades, and as Israel's war on
Speaker 1: Gaza continues three years on, what the genocide means for
Speaker 1: people in the West Bank. I'm here in Beirziit with
Speaker 1: Latino USA producer Nude Saudi, who is Palestinian herself born
Speaker 1: in the US, and the both of us are traveling
Speaker 1: here as journalists. Nude has been here before. Her parents
Speaker 1: were both born in Jerusalem and came to the US
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. Still, this is a big return
Speaker 1: trip for Nud and it's a first for me.
Speaker 3: I think it's just an anticipation of bowling tomorrow crossing.
Speaker 1: The Palasade, but I did not expect to encounter Labitkin
Speaker 1: de Uadalupe on this trip. It was kind of a sign, though,
Speaker 1: that this trip would end up being really spiritual for
Speaker 1: both Nu and for me. We came across the church
Speaker 1: while we were walking with Mace, one of the students
Speaker 1: in the delegation who lives in the West Bank. We
Speaker 1: were just sightseeing, walking through these ancient narrow streets. There
Speaker 1: are buildings here that date back to the Ottoman Empire,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly there was this church and it was
Speaker 1: like geekis isto. Now it was logged, but Mays recognized
Speaker 1: the guy who was in charge of the church grounds.
Speaker 4: And I told him can you open the church? And
Speaker 4: say yeah, of course, I got the keys, so let's see, and.
Speaker 1: So we went inside. Nance Fibina Igni, the groundskeeper told
Speaker 1: us how this church came to be here. Turns out
Speaker 1: an Italian priest in the nineteen forties had started this
Speaker 1: project to create jobs by building the church. At first,
Speaker 1: money was coming from Europe for the project, but when
Speaker 1: those funds ran out in the late nineteen sixties, a
Speaker 1: priest from Mexico came through with the rest of the
Speaker 1: money from his parish. So both the Italian and Mexican
Speaker 1: priests agreed to name this church for the Mexican vi
Speaker 1: Hin de Juadalupe. So now I'm walking to see the
Speaker 1: Mexican flag at the front of the church, that is
Speaker 1: right next to the Palestinian flag and right next to
Speaker 1: Unavandera de la Guada Lupe with a banner of the
Speaker 1: Virgin of Guada Lupe. In some ways, this unexpected moment
Speaker 1: solidified the question that we came to ask during this trip,
Speaker 1: what are the roots of the deep connections between Latinos
Speaker 1: and Palestinians and why do so many Latinos and Latinas
Speaker 1: in the United States feel this deep sense of solidarity
Speaker 1: with Palestine. For example, in pro Palestinian protests in the US,
Speaker 1: you'll often see Latino led immigrant rights groups joining the FRAY,
Speaker 1: and Latinos and Latinas were at the forefront of the
Speaker 1: student encampment protests in the spring of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: During pro immigrant rallies against detention facilities. Demonstrators are often
Speaker 1: wearing caffias, which is the black and white scarf that
Speaker 1: has become synonymous with Palestinian resistance, and you'll often see
Speaker 1: a Palestinian flag or two waving in the crowd. And
Speaker 1: then there is a central theme in my decades long
Speaker 1: career that has been reporting about the border and the
Speaker 1: border wall. So now I'm here in another part of
Speaker 1: the world where division is also entrenched, and where walls
Speaker 1: have become a part of the landscape and a major
Speaker 1: part of a government policy. It's what the Palestinians in
Speaker 1: the group told me that I would encounter, along with
Speaker 1: numerous checkpoints. I begin to wonder, what is going to
Speaker 1: look familiar to me here, what am I going to
Speaker 1: recognize and what am I going to learn about this
Speaker 1: part of the world that I can take back with
Speaker 1: me from Fuduro Media It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Kosa.
Speaker 1: Today five days in Panstina, we join a US academic
Speaker 1: delegation to the West Bank to better understand what drives
Speaker 1: Latino solidarity with Palestinians. Most of my life I've been
Speaker 1: hearing about occupied Palestine, how the Israeli military has controlled
Speaker 1: these territories since nineteen sixty seven, the Gaza Strip that
Speaker 1: borders Egypt, the landlocked West Bank bordering Jordan, and East Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: How Palestine is actually divided into pieces with Israel in
Speaker 1: the middle. And how even before the war on Gaza,
Speaker 1: the Israeli military has controlled who could come in and
Speaker 1: out of pretty much everywhere here in Palestine. Over the decades,
Speaker 1: I've heard about how more and more Palestinian land has
Speaker 1: been taken by Israel occupied and now within those borders
Speaker 1: there are hundreds of checkpoints across Palestine that prevent people
Speaker 1: from moving around freely. So now, a quick note on terminology,
Speaker 1: occupation is a legal term, and this situation in Palestine
Speaker 1: has been deemed to be an illegal occupation by the
Speaker 1: International Court of Justice, by the United Nations, and by
Speaker 1: a host of human rights organizations. But seeing this all
Speaker 1: in person is different than hearing about it. The intention
Speaker 1: of this trip was there from the very beginning. My
Speaker 1: dear friend, Professor Kent Wong envisioned this as a people
Speaker 1: to people diplomacy moment through travel and friendship at a
Speaker 1: time of deep division. Kent had been the director of
Speaker 1: the UCLA Labor Center in Los Angeles. He was inspired
Speaker 1: to organize this trip after seeing the violent police response
Speaker 1: to protests on college campuses in the spring of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. His goal was to build solidarity from the
Speaker 1: US with Palestine. Now, dear listener, you have likely heard
Speaker 1: about how students and professors have faced controversial accusations of
Speaker 1: anti Semitism if they criticize Israel. Some pro Palestinian immigrant
Speaker 1: activists are even facing threats of deportation, like Macmood Khalil
Speaker 1: from Columbia University where I teach at Barnard College. And
Speaker 1: last year the Trump administration proposed they would check the
Speaker 1: social media history of certain visitors coming to the US.
Speaker 1: In Israel, the government has surveilled and arrested Palestinians for
Speaker 1: their social media activity for years, and has ramped up
Speaker 1: there monitoring since twenty twenty three. And so in light
Speaker 1: of all that, we want to give you a heads
Speaker 1: up that we are not going to be sharing the
Speaker 1: real names of most of the people on this trip. Tragically, Kent,
Speaker 1: who invited me, died in October twenty twenty five, so
Speaker 1: he was never able to make the trip. He dreamed
Speaker 1: up the group organized to go in early February. Now,
Speaker 1: you can't just fly to the West Bank first, you
Speaker 1: have to get to Jordan.
Speaker 2: Are you fine?
Speaker 5: I can start.
Speaker 1: Our group would meet up in Petra and see one
Speaker 1: of the new seven Wonders of the world as a
Speaker 1: way to break the ice and begin to form connections.
Speaker 6: It's spectacular, it's unreal, it's surreal. Colors though, the colors
Speaker 6: here are way yeah, you see the red a lot
Speaker 6: here Marno.
Speaker 1: Petra broke my heart wide open. I mean I wanted
Speaker 1: to cry because it was so beautiful. It's an ancient
Speaker 1: archaeological city with arches and columns and doorways carved into
Speaker 1: massive pink stone cliffs. After this first profound experience of
Speaker 1: the trip, we would be spending the next five days
Speaker 1: in Palestine, going to Bethlehem and Ramala, the city in
Speaker 1: the West Bank that's about ten miles from Jerusalem, which
Speaker 1: Noor and I would then go and visit. Along the way,
Speaker 1: we'd talked to refugees, community leaders, and student activists, all
Speaker 1: of whom would help us see the connections to the
Speaker 1: Latino immigrant experience in the US. We were twenty in total,
Speaker 1: About half were professors and half were students.
Speaker 7: It does not feel real, to be honest, I feel
Speaker 7: like I'm watching a movie.
Speaker 1: That's one of the students from the US. We're gonna
Speaker 1: call her be. We talked to her as we walked
Speaker 1: through and frankly gauged at the magnificent cliffs surrounding Petra.
Speaker 7: I always like to think that the land remembers everything.
Speaker 1: She's Latina. Her parents are from South America, and she
Speaker 1: said it's her family's indigenous roots that first got her
Speaker 1: involved in protesting for Palestine. She was invited on this
Speaker 1: trip because of her campus organizing and because of her
Speaker 1: vision of what ties this all together.
Speaker 7: Connection to land has been kind of like my compass,
Speaker 7: especially seeing and starting to process, like so many injustices
Speaker 7: in the world, how Land is really at the root
Speaker 7: of it all.
Speaker 1: B has long brown hair with highlights, and she's tiny,
Speaker 1: petite like me, And even though she's only in her
Speaker 1: early twenties, Nood and I can feel how grounded B
Speaker 1: is and how meaningful it would be for her to
Speaker 1: cross from Jordan into the occupied West Bank with our
Speaker 1: delegation the next day.
Speaker 7: The place where we're about to go tomorrow holds loads
Speaker 7: of meaning and memory. So in a way like I'm
Speaker 7: trying not to let it overwhelm me because of all
Speaker 7: of the meaning in the very land that will be exploring.
Speaker 7: I'm really really grateful to be here with the Palaciti
Speaker 7: and people in the delegation who are here and experiencing
Speaker 7: all this for the first time. And then I feel
Speaker 7: like that's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Speaker 1: Coming up on. Let you know us, say, across the
Speaker 1: border to the occupied West Bank, or at least we
Speaker 1: try to stay with us, not Yes.
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Speaker 8: The Ovnes phantasmas Ibruheria, Explorer, Lodes conocido it is scubriquees
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Speaker 8: caul care Plata Formative podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey we're back. We just heard from b a Latinas
Speaker 1: student activist who were traveling with from Jordan into the
Speaker 1: West Bank. Let me tell you about some of the
Speaker 1: others in the group. We already heard from Mace at
Speaker 1: the top of the show. In the version of Wade
Speaker 1: Lupe Church. She's a master's student from the West Bank.
Speaker 1: She has a four year old son who stayed back
Speaker 1: home with his father in Palestine, and over the next
Speaker 1: couple of days in Jordan, they FaceTime constantly.
Speaker 2: That's say hi many Yeah.
Speaker 1: I learned from Mace that while she studies teaching English
Speaker 1: as a second language, other Palestinians actually criticize her for that.
Speaker 1: Why learn English, they ask.
Speaker 4: Because they feel like English is still like a colonial language.
Speaker 1: What's next, they say to her, You're going to be
Speaker 1: celebrating Halloween.
Speaker 4: It is important for us to learn English, to show
Speaker 4: the word what we're going through every day, and show
Speaker 4: the word what it is really like here living in
Speaker 4: Pelistan and what we are facing as Palestinians every day.
Speaker 1: The group also includes a jo Fish professor from New
Speaker 1: York who studies linguistics, a theology professor, professors who teach English,
Speaker 1: and several students who study it. One student is focused
Speaker 1: on education equity, another recently got their master's degree in
Speaker 1: public policy. And then there was Anthony, who was the
Speaker 1: very last person to join the group.
Speaker 6: Well, I've been saying since I got here, right, I've
Speaker 6: never felt more Arab here because everyone most people speak
Speaker 6: to me in Arabic immediately or like the guys at
Speaker 6: the airport.
Speaker 1: Anthony is a professor of communication based in California. He's
Speaker 1: a Palestinian Christian and his parents were both born in Ramala,
Speaker 1: but he was raised in the very Latino city of Chicago,
Speaker 1: just like me. This would be Anthony's first time stepping
Speaker 1: foot in Palestine.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was thinking a lot about my mother, of course,
Speaker 6: and that's one thing that's like on my heart is
Speaker 6: that I wanted my first time to go to Palestine
Speaker 6: to be with her.
Speaker 1: Anthony's mother emigrated to the United States in the late
Speaker 1: nineteen eight and has only gone back home twice. But
Speaker 1: when Anthony saw her just before coming here, they pulled
Speaker 1: up Google Maps anyway, and she did what moms do.
Speaker 1: She gave directions and she was like, it's just down
Speaker 1: the street.
Speaker 6: And then she's like she studied khiyeh and you just
Speaker 6: take the cell this street and you'll get to your
Speaker 6: grandma's house. And I'm like, but like, what street is
Speaker 6: that this house.
Speaker 1: Anthony's visit would also put his Arabic speaking capabilities to
Speaker 1: the forefront for the first time in his life, because
Speaker 1: this Palestinian is actually a way better Spanish speaker.
Speaker 6: Espanol Espanol locientos.
Speaker 1: Anthony studies how Latino communities speak, and when he was
Speaker 1: researching undocumented communities in rural Minnesota in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: he started making connections between Latinos and Palestinians. It started
Speaker 1: when he was on a local radio.
Speaker 6: Show because I'm like on the radio talking to these
Speaker 6: undocumented hosts about immigration schooling in Mexico, and then they
Speaker 6: would ask about Palestine, and it was kind of the
Speaker 6: first time that I.
Speaker 1: Was in At that time, Israeli officials were threatening to
Speaker 1: evict Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and Israel was bombing Gasa.
Speaker 1: It triggered protests all around the world, including in Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: So here's this academic who had been studying something super specific,
Speaker 1: basically how Latinos in rural Minnesota speak on the radio,
Speaker 1: and now the hosts have questions for him about Palestine.
Speaker 1: So he made the connection how the Israeli government was
Speaker 1: justifying these evictions in Palestine in the courts, and how
Speaker 1: the US government justifies treatment of immigrants with a confusing
Speaker 1: web of policies and now waiting to cross the border
Speaker 1: into Palestine. Anthony is feeling the weight of seeing his
Speaker 1: home land for the very first time.
Speaker 6: So I'm like really distracted by just like the emotions
Speaker 6: that I'm gonna feel crossing and what that's going to be.
Speaker 1: Like Latino USA Producern is feeling those nerves as well.
Speaker 1: This is the land that her family has ties to,
Speaker 1: and every time she comes back it feels like a miracle.
Speaker 1: When I ask you, like what's going on, You're just like,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't imagine that I'm going back to Palestine,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's so electric for you.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a US citizen, my parents were both
Speaker 3: born in Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: Bluff.
Speaker 3: That's kind of the level of privilege as a US
Speaker 3: I asked for a Palestinian that I can technically go.
Speaker 2: Boh.
Speaker 3: There's still something about it where every time I leave,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know when's the next.
Speaker 6: Like you never you just never know.
Speaker 3: So it's just like every single time I am able
Speaker 3: to go back, I'm like, this is like a gift
Speaker 3: from God.
Speaker 9: Is everybody here?
Speaker 1: The crossing that we're preparing for is known as the
Speaker 1: King Hussein Bridge in Jordan and Alan b Bridge by Israel.
Speaker 1: Those in the group who have crossed before explained to
Speaker 1: me that this place is notorious for its constant and
Speaker 1: sudden closures, often without notice or because of security concerns.
Speaker 5: According to.
Speaker 1: That's what our group spends the entire bus ride planning
Speaker 1: for the crossing and preparing for any contingencies.
Speaker 7: I think of the experience of Cosina bridged like a
Speaker 7: Normember Anderson.
Speaker 5: They're coming to see what a going.
Speaker 1: And preparing for the very real possibilities of being questioned
Speaker 1: by the Israeli officials at the counter, or being detained,
Speaker 1: or even being denied entry completely. I remembered having these
Speaker 1: feelings of excitement laced with panic as a little girl
Speaker 1: when my family would get ready to drive across the
Speaker 1: border from Mexico to the United States. Like I was
Speaker 1: excited about getting home, but I was also worried about
Speaker 1: the border patrol pulling our car over and putting us
Speaker 1: into secondary inspection, which could take hours. It was scary
Speaker 1: and nerve racking for me as a kid, but we
Speaker 1: were always prepared for that possibility that that could happen,
Speaker 1: so it just became normalized. Now that's not to say
Speaker 1: that we spent the entire bus ride to the West
Speaker 1: Bank in worry. In fact, there was definitely time for joy.
Speaker 6: I'm feeling we need to be playing right now.
Speaker 4: What is that?
Speaker 1: After about an hour's drive, we reached the terminal. Our
Speaker 1: Palestinian colleagues have to get down first at a different
Speaker 1: entrance because they hold separate IDs. They're called green IDs,
Speaker 1: and they're issued to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Speaker 1: These ideas determine their freedom of movement and how they
Speaker 1: get processed at both sides of the border. Now, this
Speaker 1: was definitely not a part of my border crossing experience.
Speaker 1: So while we are waiting in the sitting area, a
Speaker 1: family sits down next to us. There are three young
Speaker 1: blonde girls who look to be around six to ten
Speaker 1: years old. Their mom is fair skinned with a round
Speaker 1: face wrapped in a black hey job, and she's wearing
Speaker 1: an abayah. The dad is tall, also pretty fair skinned,
Speaker 1: with a long, thick ginger beard and big curly hair.
Speaker 1: Just as Nude and I were wondering where they were from,
Speaker 1: the dad brings his kids a couple of bottles of
Speaker 1: water and offers them a wita aha utter in Spanish,
Speaker 1: and so our ears per cub. Because we've been thinking
Speaker 1: about all the ways that Latinos are connected to Palestinians
Speaker 1: and what drives the solidarity between these communities. And here
Speaker 1: on the Jordanian border, there was a Spanish speaking family
Speaker 1: crossing at the same time as we were. For the
Speaker 1: next hour, as we get through processing and board another
Speaker 1: bus to take us to the Israeli side of the terminal,
Speaker 1: where we go through even more extensive security checks, the
Speaker 1: mom of those Spanish speaking little blonde girls begins to
Speaker 1: tell me her whole story and get ready because it
Speaker 1: sounds like a telenovela. By the way, I could not
Speaker 1: record my conversation with her because we were crossing a border. Anyway.
Speaker 1: She is from Guatemala. Her husband is Palestinian. He was
Speaker 1: born in New York City but raised in the West Bank.
Speaker 1: He's Muslim, and when they met in Florida, she was
Speaker 1: Pentecostal Evangelical Christian. So they were co workers and they
Speaker 1: stayed just friends for years. But then her visa was
Speaker 1: up and she was going to have to go back
Speaker 1: home to Guatemala. Faced with the prospect of losing her,
Speaker 1: he confessed his love and proposed. They married and moved
Speaker 1: to Watemala to raise their daughters. And teach them Spanish.
Speaker 1: Then came the news of October seventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Everything changed for her. After the attack by Hamas on Israel,
Speaker 1: which killed around twelve hundred people, Israel launched a full
Speaker 1: scale assault across the Gaza Strip. More than seventy three
Speaker 1: thousand Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing genocide, including
Speaker 1: more than twenty thousand children. Thousands of children have had
Speaker 1: at least one limb amputated. And she tells me it
Speaker 1: was seeing the mothers in Gasa, how their faith kept
Speaker 1: them steadfast to unimaginable horrors, that is what drew her
Speaker 1: to Islam. Her story was fascinating to me, and it
Speaker 1: was also a common sentiment how what was happening in
Speaker 1: Gasa really transformed people's belief systems at the other side
Speaker 1: of the border, and grappling with the fact that even
Speaker 1: though we're crossing into the West Bank into Palestinian territory,
Speaker 1: it's the Israeli authorities who decide who can come in.
Speaker 1: So when Noud and I finally get to the counter
Speaker 1: to hand over our US passports to be issued our
Speaker 1: entry visas, I get mine back right away, but Nud doesn't. Instead,
Speaker 1: the Israeli border official tells her there's some kind of
Speaker 1: issue and that she has to go to the waiting area.
Speaker 1: He points behind us to a row of seats against
Speaker 1: a far wall. He keeps Nud's passport, and even though
Speaker 1: I given a green light, I stay with her. Nud
Speaker 1: reminds me that she's been held for further questioning every
Speaker 1: single time she's visited her Palestinian homeland, including most recently
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, so Nude is expecting a long wait.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of getting sent to secondary inspection at
Speaker 1: the US Mexico border, so I get it. After about
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, another official comes up to us. He hands
Speaker 1: Nud her passport and her visa without saying a word,
Speaker 1: so we're good to go. It's the quickest Nud has
Speaker 1: gotten into the country her parents were born in. Me
Speaker 1: I was sweating from anxiety because it's not going as
Speaker 1: smoothly for the rest of the group. We see that
Speaker 1: two of the four students traveling with us have also
Speaker 1: had their passports taken and have been told to wait
Speaker 1: by Israeli officials. And then Anthony, the other Palestinian American
Speaker 1: from our group. Our Spanish speaking professor is also told
Speaker 1: to wait for further questioning. I look around and notice
Speaker 1: everybody in the waiting area is not white. Some are
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern, some South Asian Latinos, but nobody is white.
Speaker 1: To me, this looks like racial profiling clear as day.
Speaker 1: When we asked the Israeli government about this, they denied
Speaker 1: that they use racial profiling. More on that later. We
Speaker 1: also know that all four of these students have been
Speaker 1: involved in pro Palestine protests on their college campuses. They
Speaker 1: all have ongoing suspensions from their universities. A few were
Speaker 1: arrested during the protests and are facing pending misdemeanor charges.
Speaker 1: I saw the two white students getting their visas immediately
Speaker 1: without issue. Only the two students of color B and
Speaker 1: another student who is from Kashmir were still waiting. It's
Speaker 1: now a little after eleven am. We're standing outside the
Speaker 1: border terminal, and after almost two hours, we see Anthony
Speaker 1: finally coming out. The expression on his face is one
Speaker 1: of pure elation.
Speaker 6: He's so happy, like I'm in the Motherland.
Speaker 1: But I was really scared that it wasn't going to
Speaker 1: happen because two officials. He says, we're questioning him about
Speaker 1: his work, and they seemed specifically concerned with demonstrations at
Speaker 1: the university where he teaches.
Speaker 6: He said, have you participated in any protests?
Speaker 2: Interesting?
Speaker 6: And I said no? And he said, no protests here
Speaker 6: at a university, there are a lot of protests. And
Speaker 6: I said, I teach three hundred students, some focused on
Speaker 6: grading and doing my work, you know, trying to I
Speaker 6: don't know.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, okay, So now we're wondering
Speaker 1: whether the students will get the same kind of questions
Speaker 1: about pro tests on campus. They are all still inside
Speaker 1: waiting for an update on their visas, and so our
Speaker 1: group is getting increasingly worried.
Speaker 6: At one point he said, you know, Anthony, you look
Speaker 6: like a good guy. You can come into Israel, don't
Speaker 6: cause any problems here. Come enjoy your time and go
Speaker 6: back home. And I said, that's my plan.
Speaker 1: We decide that one of us will stay behind to
Speaker 1: wait for the other students, but the rest of us
Speaker 1: should get on the bus to make our way to Ramala.
Speaker 1: Are they going to get back, well, you.
Speaker 2: Think they're going to let them go.
Speaker 3: Just don't know, really, just don't know.
Speaker 1: You Coming up next, we visit Bethlehem and see the
Speaker 1: impact of borders in Palestine first hand, and we learn
Speaker 1: what happens with the students who were held for questioning
Speaker 1: with the reason they were invited on this trip, organizing
Speaker 1: on campus actually keep them from entering Palestine. Hey, welcome
Speaker 1: back today. We're sharing our reporting from five days in
Speaker 1: Palestine where we're traveling with a delegation of students and
Speaker 1: professors from the US to the West Bank. Before the break,
Speaker 1: we were crossing the border from Jordan. Four student activists
Speaker 1: are still waiting for an update on whether two of
Speaker 1: them will be allowed into Palestine by Israeli authorities. The
Speaker 1: tight control over who enters and leaves the West Bank
Speaker 1: isn't just reserved to that terminal. Israel controls all of
Speaker 1: the borders in Palestine. Since two thousand and two, Israel
Speaker 1: has been systematically separating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Speaker 1: from the rest of the country by building a wall
Speaker 1: and placing militarized checkpoints all along the way. They say
Speaker 1: it's for security, but the vast majority of the wall
Speaker 1: is in the West Bank, and that defies the internationally
Speaker 1: agreed upon boundary called the Green Line that marked the
Speaker 1: borders of Israel. This separation wall, this thirty foot high
Speaker 1: concrete barrier, referred to as the apartheid Wall by Palestinians
Speaker 1: and activist groups, has cut directly through Palestinian farmlands, its
Speaker 1: divided families, and it's led to the illegal annexation of
Speaker 1: Palestinian land. How can I explain this? I'm going to
Speaker 1: try and make some folk comparisons here, so bear with me.
Speaker 1: But it would be as if there was a border
Speaker 1: wall between Queens and Brooklyn and New York and you
Speaker 1: had to go through multiple checkpoints to get from one
Speaker 1: to the other. Or picture a wall between Oakland and
Speaker 1: San Francisco, or a wall between Kansas City, Missouri and
Speaker 1: Kansas City, Kansas. I mean, yeah, it feels like that.
Speaker 1: And still construction of this wall continues, and as Israel
Speaker 1: annexes more Land, more Israeli settlements are built in the
Speaker 1: West Bank, which is also a violation of international law.
Speaker 1: So now that we are actually driving from the border
Speaker 1: to Ramala, I start to see the separation wall filling
Speaker 1: the hilly landscapes, winding concrete structures that curve around towns
Speaker 1: and neighborhoods. I can't help but turn to Anthony and
Speaker 1: point out the parallels to the southern border wall in
Speaker 1: the United States, Anthony, if you look at it from
Speaker 1: a distance, it does look like parts that you now
Speaker 1: see between San Diego and Mexico. The similarities are striking,
Speaker 1: specifically with the long metal barrier that runs between San
Speaker 1: Diego and Tijuana's rolling hills. And the thing is, I've
Speaker 1: never gotten used to seeing the wall between the US
Speaker 1: and Mexico. In fact, every time I see that wall,
Speaker 1: I still feel discombopulated because I remember a time when
Speaker 1: there wasn't a wall. But seeing walls here in the
Speaker 1: middle of the countryside, massive overshadowing prison style walls cutting
Speaker 1: through ancient olive groves. I mean, it was just shocking.
Speaker 1: At the top of some of those hills, parallel to
Speaker 1: the walls, we can see clusters of modern, small, multi
Speaker 1: story buildings which stick out from the surrounding greenery. Those
Speaker 1: are Israeli settlements, And as we drive we notice new
Speaker 1: construction of a road directly adjacent to the highway that
Speaker 1: we're on.
Speaker 4: They're planning to separate the north and the south of
Speaker 4: the West Bank using settlements and the Latino Israeli.
Speaker 1: Zones like Maze, who is with us at the church
Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, tells us this is
Speaker 1: a road exclusively for Israelis.
Speaker 5: And this Rods will go into Calaburi.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm trying to understand this. What do you
Speaker 1: mean roads only for Israelis, like there could be roads
Speaker 1: only for Mexicans. I mean, what is this?
Speaker 2: All?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: So, at this point, while our group is on the
Speaker 1: bus being transported to Ramala, the students we left behind
Speaker 1: have been waiting for four hours. We learn that they've
Speaker 1: been taken in for questioning, first together in the pairs
Speaker 1: that they traveled in, and then separately. One of the
Speaker 1: students has been asked about their arrest records related to
Speaker 1: participating in a campus protest. Now we don't know exactly
Speaker 1: if and how Israeli authorities would get these kinds of records.
Speaker 1: There are several US cities that send police officers to
Speaker 1: Israel for training, and the NYPD even opened a branch
Speaker 1: just outside of Tel Aviv in twenty twelve where they
Speaker 1: share intelligence and coordinate investigations with local Israeli authorities. But
Speaker 1: we were not able to confirm whether this includes arrest
Speaker 1: records of this nature. So by now the two students
Speaker 1: whose passports were being held by Israeli authorities. One student
Speaker 1: from Kashmir, also the Latina B that we met earlier.
Speaker 1: By now they had been deta for about seven hours
Speaker 1: and finally we hear more news about them. The latest update,
Speaker 1: B was denied entry. They're waiting on the bus to
Speaker 1: return to Aman. We also learned that the other student
Speaker 1: from Kashmir was denied as well. Still, just like being
Speaker 1: denied entry into this part of the world because of
Speaker 1: something that you did as a student in a city
Speaker 1: in the United States, where it's not even a felony,
Speaker 1: it's a protest. They haven't even been convicted of a
Speaker 1: misdemeanor on a university discipline.
Speaker 2: Here's the extension of what they do.
Speaker 1: I'm horrified that was. We've asked the Population and Immigration
Speaker 1: Authority of Israel if officials have access to US law
Speaker 1: enforcement records about ethnic profiling at border crossings, and on
Speaker 1: what basis you college students might be denied entry to
Speaker 1: the West Bank. They told us, quote, as a rule,
Speaker 1: the decision at the border is taken considering different parameters,
Speaker 1: and they denied that they use racial profiling. They did
Speaker 1: not respond further to our specific questions. We spoke with
Speaker 1: an Israeli human rights lawyer and he recently told us
Speaker 1: that what these students experienced at the border is not
Speaker 1: that unusual, from the profiling to the questions they were
Speaker 1: being asked. Now, technically Israeli officials aren't supposed to be
Speaker 1: turning anyone away because of their political speech, so they'll
Speaker 1: put down other reasons on paper. The lawyer says, even
Speaker 1: before October seventh, he'd been hearing anecdotally that more students
Speaker 1: from all around the world were being questioned about participating
Speaker 1: in campus protests and even having their phones searched by
Speaker 1: Israeli officials. The next morning, we hear from B, who's
Speaker 1: back in Jordan, and she sends me and Nude this
Speaker 1: voice note.
Speaker 7: All I could think about during the interrogation is how
Speaker 7: none of this would matter because Palestine will be free
Speaker 7: and Palestinians will be able to return and unite there.
Speaker 1: B says this makes her think about how the US
Speaker 1: government has now been asking people for their social media
Speaker 1: handles to check their history and activity as well.
Speaker 7: I was thinking a lot about how I wonder if
Speaker 7: it's the same when people are trying to get into
Speaker 7: the US and the security is becoming more and more intense,
Speaker 7: and they are checking people's social media and it's all
Speaker 7: to check if you're plotting on their downfall.
Speaker 1: Basically, B's message that morning about Palestinians returning to their
Speaker 1: land sets a fitting tone for the rest of our
Speaker 1: day because our first stop the West Bank is Bethlehem
Speaker 1: to the Aida refugee camp that's coming up on Latino USA.
Speaker 1: We're back. It's Latino USA. Normally, refugee camps bring to
Speaker 1: mind tents, right there's supposed to be temporary spaces. Instead,
Speaker 1: in the Ida refugee camp in the West Bank, there
Speaker 1: are concrete buildings where some families have lived for over
Speaker 1: seven decades as refugees. There's a youth center, a health clinic,
Speaker 1: an education center. It's really more like an entire city
Speaker 1: is meeting us at the key and the first thing
Speaker 1: we see when we get off the bus is a
Speaker 1: huge key. It's sitting on top of a big arch
Speaker 1: and this key carries a lot of meat, meaning for
Speaker 1: Palestinians who have been displaced, this.
Speaker 5: Is the queue return. As you know more, all the
Speaker 5: people just carried their keys and ran away.
Speaker 1: That's our tour guide. Munder who is the director of
Speaker 1: the board of the Aida Youth Center. The camp is
Speaker 1: home to more than seven thousand Palestinian refugees who were
Speaker 1: displaced from their villages. Many families have been here for
Speaker 1: generations since the nineteen forty eight Nakba. Nakba translates to catastrophe,
Speaker 1: and it refers to the mass displacement of some seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians during the creation of the
Speaker 1: State of Israel.
Speaker 5: In nineteen forty Eight's Five hundred thirty six Palestinian villages
Speaker 5: have been destroyed, and the people from these villages were
Speaker 5: ethnic cleansing to this area, to the West Band, to
Speaker 5: resident the Sea, to Jordan, olivanon all over. This is
Speaker 5: the knock down.
Speaker 1: Everything in the camp, from electricity to the water is
Speaker 1: controlled by the Israeli government.
Speaker 5: They are selling us our water. It's the same with electricity,
Speaker 5: even the signals, the mobile signals. So here is the
Speaker 5: ecupation in every single part of our life. It's not
Speaker 5: just shooting, shooting the most easy part.
Speaker 1: From the roof of one building, we can see the
Speaker 1: dark difference between Aida and a neighboring Israeli settlement.
Speaker 5: If you would look toward the Yellow settlement, you will
Speaker 5: not see even one single water tank. But just look here,
Speaker 5: it's a forest of tanks. Not because we love tanks.
Speaker 5: It is because they are giving us a water twice
Speaker 5: a month, so we have to fill our waters and
Speaker 5: to use it carefully.
Speaker 1: He says. The situation has gotten even more dire and
Speaker 1: restrictive since Israel's war on Gaza, when aid to the
Speaker 1: camp was cut significantly, But the simultaneous growth of the
Speaker 1: pro Palestine movement globally has driven them to hold on,
Speaker 1: to hope and to continue.
Speaker 5: If there were not an international movement moving all over
Speaker 5: the world, we will be broken.
Speaker 1: Standing on the roof of one of the buildings in
Speaker 1: the Ada Camp, we get a look at the wall
Speaker 1: dotted with big watch towers, and I can't help but
Speaker 1: think about the US Mexico border wall, and we're able
Speaker 1: to see this wall that looks like a prison wall
Speaker 1: with a prison outlook. These watch towers remind me of
Speaker 1: the towers on American soil that I've seen up close.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the physical similarities. It's deeper than that,
Speaker 1: because the same Israeli technology used to surveil these concrete
Speaker 1: dividers in Palestine is also being used on the border.
Speaker 1: Here picture this all along the US Mexico border. There
Speaker 1: are nearly six hundred surveillance towers dotted periodically across the landscape.
Speaker 1: They're used to monitor migrants and keep them from crossing
Speaker 1: into the US. At least fifty five of them are
Speaker 1: actually made by Israel's largest military manufacturer, Albit, and more
Speaker 1: towers are expected to be built under a multimillion dollar
Speaker 1: contract with Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. In twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: where that contract between Albit and CBP was first secured,
Speaker 1: the Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance was formed to fight against
Speaker 1: Israeli militarization of the US Mexico border, and today in
Speaker 1: the US, ELBETT has become a focal point of the
Speaker 1: pro Palestine movement. But borders don't just separate landscapes, they
Speaker 1: also separate people. Take for instance, the more than one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand children separated from their parents by ice in
Speaker 1: the US since Trump took office in January of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. So we kept that in mind as we
Speaker 1: moved into our third day in Palestine, and there we
Speaker 1: meet someone who has also been separated from her family.
Speaker 1: We're going to call her Jena. She's a master's student
Speaker 1: currently studying in the West Bank, but she's originally from Gasai.
Speaker 1: We bet Jana. Just before lunch, three of the Palestinians
Speaker 1: in our group decided to cook for us maid stuffed
Speaker 1: grape leaves, musahan, which is roasted chicken served with bread
Speaker 1: that's topped with onions, and sumac, which is a spice
Speaker 1: that's a staple in Palestinian cooking. And there was macluba,
Speaker 1: a popular rice dish that's layered with vegetables and then
Speaker 1: is flipped upside down. Where do sit down? As we
Speaker 1: wait to eat, Jana starts telling us her story.
Speaker 9: For twenty eight years, it was not able to come
Speaker 9: to the.
Speaker 1: Spect She's twenty eight years old. She has these big
Speaker 1: brown eyes that pop even more in the brownie jop
Speaker 1: that she's wearing. And despite the painful memories of Gaza
Speaker 1: that she's recounting to us in this cafe, she continues
Speaker 1: to smileh.
Speaker 9: I came before the last genocide in two months.
Speaker 1: Before two month, it used to be that Palestinians in
Speaker 1: Gaza could apply to travel to the occupied West Bank
Speaker 1: through the bait Hanoon crossing north of the Gaza Strip,
Speaker 1: known to Israeli's as the Eires Border. It's under full
Speaker 1: Israeli control, and permission to cross is granted only under
Speaker 1: specific outstanding cases like meeting medical attention or the death
Speaker 1: of a family member. So in August of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: Jana and her family were granted permission to cross so
Speaker 1: that her mother could get medical care.
Speaker 9: Unfortunately, my mother, she was diagnosed with press cancer and
Speaker 9: they give for some people in Gaza some permission for
Speaker 9: the cancer, and so we were able to come to
Speaker 9: the rest mind with there.
Speaker 1: Jana and her family stay in the West Bank was
Speaker 1: supposed to be temporary, but then came the Hamas attack
Speaker 1: on Israel on October seventh, twenty twenty three, and in
Speaker 1: the devastating war that followed, Israel immediately closed the border
Speaker 1: crossing altogether, so Jana was stuck outside of Gaza. Over
Speaker 1: the next two years, Jenna would hear about her home
Speaker 1: being bombed, the same house that her father had just
Speaker 1: built in twenty twenty two. It's one of countless buildings
Speaker 1: in Gaza that have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
Speaker 9: And tell now it has been two years till now.
Speaker 9: I didn't overcome the loss of my house, but then
Speaker 9: I didn't overcome. I keep like looking at the pictures
Speaker 9: of my house. I lost my house and the whole neighborhood,
Speaker 9: but on everything, everything, and I have nothing to remind
Speaker 9: me Mathela, and I spent all of my childhood there.
Speaker 9: All my memories are there.
Speaker 1: She tells us about her beautiful residential neighborhood lined with
Speaker 1: olive trees and the smell of orange flowers when they
Speaker 1: blossom in the spring.
Speaker 9: I tell, well, I just still remember that smell.
Speaker 1: And she thinks about her sister, who she hasn't seen
Speaker 1: in two years, who ended up staying behind in Gaza
Speaker 1: with their family members to.
Speaker 9: Witness a whole genocide, lonely by yourself. You have been
Speaker 9: in starving to death. You lost your house in front
Speaker 9: of your eyes two times. She lost the house two times.
Speaker 9: She had to evacuate more than maybe seven times, from
Speaker 9: the whole neighborhood for too many times, and to be
Speaker 9: responsible for her own self is very something, very hard.
Speaker 1: Jena's sister was finally able to leave Gaza last fall.
Speaker 1: She's nineteen now and she's studying in Egypt. But the
Speaker 1: sisters are still not able to see each other, at
Speaker 1: least not for now. You see, Jena has a Gaza id,
Speaker 1: so she would need special permission from Jordanian authorities to
Speaker 1: cross from the West Bank into Jordan, and that is
Speaker 1: rarely granted. Still, Jana has not lost her determination to
Speaker 1: see her sister again and to eventually returned to her
Speaker 1: home in Gaza.
Speaker 9: It's like, yey one of my top priorities.
Speaker 1: Now ye need to see her, Jena tells us she
Speaker 1: feels like a survivor, not a victim. She says this
Speaker 1: is a lesson she learned from her former teacher in Gaza,
Speaker 1: doctor Rifat al Aarreir, the renowned Palestinian poet and writer
Speaker 1: who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in
Speaker 1: December of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 9: He was always teaching us how you should be very
Speaker 9: strong when you tell your story, and he was always
Speaker 9: teaching us till the story from a survival point of view.
Speaker 1: And so Jana decided to rebuild her life in the
Speaker 1: West Bank and to continue her education and to live.
Speaker 9: It's my first time to see mountains, my first night seaplane,
Speaker 9: my first time to do too many things to have
Speaker 9: a friendly New York, for example, Mexican friendly New York. Yes, yes,
Speaker 9: Actually it's a very good feeling if if that you
Speaker 9: celebrate life every time you experienced things for the first time.
Speaker 9: And actually, when I celebrate life, I feel that I'm
Speaker 9: defeating them again. I do defeat the Israeli incubation again.
Speaker 1: During our time in the West Bank, we've seen how
Speaker 1: the movement of Palestinians has been controlled by walls, by displacement,
Speaker 1: and by these ideas that separate them from other people.
Speaker 1: Whether it's Jana who can't go back home to Gaza
Speaker 1: and is forced to continue her life in a new city,
Speaker 1: or for example, the residents of the Aida refugee camp
Speaker 1: who still after decades, dream of returning to their homes.
Speaker 1: On our last day, we decide to see Al Aksa Mosque,
Speaker 1: one of the oldest Islamic structures in the world. It's
Speaker 1: known as the third holiest site in Islam. In Judaism,
Speaker 1: it's referred to as the Temple Mount and the compound
Speaker 1: which houses the mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
Speaker 1: A structure that dates back to the seventh century, has
Speaker 1: become one of the most contested territories in the Holy Land.
Speaker 1: Culmination literally walking up the steps of this room.
Speaker 6: As we're going up to the dome and looking at
Speaker 6: these the absolute gorgeous colors.
Speaker 1: Anthony knud and I are now standing looking up at
Speaker 1: the dome of the Rock, its golden sphere shining in
Speaker 1: the sun, and Anthony starts to reflect on what brought
Speaker 1: him to this moment. It started when his Arabic professor
Speaker 1: told him that heritage speakers like him would have a
Speaker 1: hard time in class, and that's what got him thinking
Speaker 1: about what that was like for Spanish speakers.
Speaker 6: And so I ended up deciding to do research on
Speaker 6: Latino heritage speakers and how they felt poorly about their
Speaker 6: language in language classrooms. The idea just like this sort
Speaker 6: of trauma that so many.
Speaker 1: He says that word helped him to make connections to
Speaker 1: Palestine and to his own identity.
Speaker 6: And now because of all of that process, I'm here
Speaker 6: in Alaski.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he says, I came home to
Speaker 1: Palestine because I learned Spanish. On February twenty, just twelve
Speaker 1: days after we returned to New York, the US and
Speaker 1: Israel launched an attack on Iran. In response, Israel closed
Speaker 1: the Alaxa Moss compound for forty days, the same exact
Speaker 1: place where Noord Anthony and I were just standing days before.
Speaker 1: That means it was also closed on Id, which is
Speaker 1: one of the most important holidays for Muslims, when worshippers
Speaker 1: congregate all over the world. It was, in fact the
Speaker 1: first time Eid prayer was restricted at Alakxa since nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven. And about a month after that, our group
Speaker 1: connected over a video call again.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'll just.
Speaker 2: Kick it off.
Speaker 4: It's great to say one's faces again.
Speaker 1: I feel like we all got so close. At the
Speaker 1: time of our call, us and Israeli airstrikes on Iran
Speaker 1: had killed thousands and damaged and destroyed nearly five hundred
Speaker 1: schools and over two hundred and eighty medical centers. Israel
Speaker 1: had also begun bombing southern Lebanon, completely eviscerating neighborhoods. Over
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred people had been killed. Iran was also bombing Israel,
Speaker 1: killing at least twenty people. And when this happens, air
Speaker 1: raid sirens go off everywhere and they can be heard
Speaker 1: even in the West Bank.
Speaker 9: Two.
Speaker 1: We could hear them in the background of one of
Speaker 1: our Palestinian colleagues' homes during a zoom call after our trip.
Speaker 7: In the window.
Speaker 4: Can hear that we can hear that these are the sirens,
Speaker 4: basically warning that israight, as that there are some records
Speaker 4: coming in a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: We never thought that we'd be hearing air raid sirens
Speaker 1: on our very next call together. Now I don't say
Speaker 1: this lightly, but this trip changed my life. The way
Speaker 1: Palestine is covered in the media is horror, destruction, victimization, suffering,
Speaker 1: and when you're there, you realize life is also happening here.
Speaker 1: High rises are being built, colleges are filled with students,
Speaker 1: and people are enjoying themselves in coffee shops. That literal
Speaker 1: desire to experience life fully in those moments is what
Speaker 1: I've learned about Palestinian resistance and frankly, what should inspire
Speaker 1: all of us. As the Palestinians told me, we insist
Speaker 1: on living as a way to resist. Five Days in
Speaker 1: Palestina is an original production of Futuro Investigates in collaboration
Speaker 1: with Latino USA. This episode was reported and produced by
Speaker 1: Nude Saudi and myself, and edited by Alana Casanova Burgess.
Speaker 1: He was mixed by Stephanie Lepo and Julia Caruso. Fact
Speaker 1: checking for this episode by Roxanna Aguire. Fernanda Echavari is
Speaker 1: our managing editor. Additional editorial support by Fatima abdul Kadin.
Speaker 1: Original art for this episode is by Aya Ganame. Nancy
Speaker 1: Trujillo is our production manager. Special thanks to Yotam ben Hillel.
Speaker 1: The Latino USA team also includes Renaldo Lenoz Junior, Floriman Marquez,
Speaker 1: Julieta Martinelli, Jjkrubin and Adriana Rodriguez. Pennile Ramirez and I
Speaker 1: are executive producers. I'm your Host Marie nor Josa. Latino
Speaker 1: USA is part of Iheart'smichael Dura podcast Network. Executive producers
Speaker 1: at iHeart are Leo Gomes and Arlene Santana. Join us
Speaker 1: in on our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see
Speaker 1: you on all of our social media and don't forget
Speaker 1: to join Fudura Plus to listen to all the episodes.
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Speaker 7: in their communities
Speaker 1: And celebrating thirty years of radical generosity,