Photos of the sea
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In September 2000, I decided to do my part to bring peace to the Middle East. As a Canadian attorney of Palestinian origin, I believed I could use my legal skills to help broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Naive? Perhaps.
I left my comfortable life in California and moved to the West Bank. Moving there was not easy: I did not know what life is like under military rule. My Western upbringing left me unprepared for life without freedom. Seven years later, I am still not used to it.
As a lawyer for the Palestinian peace negotiating team, I met Presidents, Prime Ministers, Nobel Laureates, Secretaries of State and other important figures. But none of these individuals hit me with the same emotional wallop as a young woman named Majda.
Like me, Majda is in her thirties. Like me, she enjoys classical music, theatre and books. But unlike me, Majda has never lived a day as a free human being, for she was born Palestinian in the Israeli-dominated West Bank.
One day, Majda approached me saying: “Ms. Buttu, my son does not believe that Palestine is on the sea. He has never seen it and no matter how many times I tell him, he doesn’t believe me. You are allowed to travel. Please, take some pictures of the sea. I need my son to know that Palestine is bigger than just our town and a few checkpoints.” I took the camera in disbelief: Majda lived less than 10 miles from the sea.
“Have you been to the sea, Majda?,” I asked.
“No. I have made requests to the Israeli authorities, but they have always been denied.”
I traveled that weekend to the sea with Majda’s camera. As I looked around, I tried to make sense of her life. How is it possible that a young woman has never been to the sea? How is it possible that I, a Canadian, can see Palestine and yet a Palestinian cannot?
As I took the photos, I faced a dilemma: Should the pictures include children? If they include children, will her son feel deprived? In the end, I took 30 photos. Most of them were out of focus as the tears streamed down my face. The next week I handed a smiling Majda her camera.
“Thanks, Ms. Buttu. My son will be so happy!”
My once-naivete has since been replaced by realism: Peace will never come to this region until the Palestinians are granted their freedom. It has been just more than 40 years since the start of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians. Every day I wonder whether Majda and her son will ever enjoy a day of freedom — or even visit the sea.
I believe, deeply believe, that Palestinians and Jews ought to be equals in this holy land. I believe more Americans would act on behalf of Palestinians if they were aware of discriminatory Israeli policies. I believe the inability of Majda’s son to travel to the sea in his homeland smacks of Jim Crow and apartheid and that it is in everybody’s interest to right this wrong without further delay. This, I believe.
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12 Comments on “Photos of the sea”
How is it possible that I, a Canadian, can see Palestine and yet a Palestinian cannot?
I felt a pain in my throat when I read this … Life is not fair
How far does Majda and her son live from the sea?
@Randy: Ten miles (it’s mentioned in the article).
This story is beyond sad. I feel the pain now of how Palestenians are denied the simple pleasures of life.
Ten Miles and never to have seen the sea. How comfortable we Americans are, how sad we have become.
Last time Israel allowed me to see Palestine was 1986. I was 17 and just finished my high school. Now I’m 38 years old, with three kids, Israel didn’t allow any of them to see Palestine.
I had similar experience with my son, Noor. 2005, I had to drive to the closest point to Palestine from the Jordanian side to show him Palestine.
Here is what I wrote then:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/08/17/tasreeh/
The experiment with the sionist state of Israel and the Palestinian people, is a miniature version of what the sionists and their supporters are planing for the entire world: controlling the masses, just as they would like to control the Palestinians population. But just as their experiment has failed to subjugate and lord over the Palestinians, their experiment to control the world will fail!! People around the globe are waking up to their lies and deception thanks to the internet. Thank you for doing your part in enlighten all those, that want to know the Truth:
Sionism is Evil and represents Evil personified which all of humanity must stand up and reject.
Sincerely,
Paul Relgne
Americans and all should also know that Sharing the land and living equally is just a Palestinian / Arab Genorisity, for 2 reasons:
1. They are all settlers and invaders (Palestine is from The River to The Sea).
2. The Zionist movement that started moving followers from 119 years.
Hey Haitham. I never been to Palestine either, but I went to Lebanon once in 1992. My parents took me to Sour and a little bit past it is the UN checkpoint. I saw Palestine standing at a check point. We weren’t allowed to go past any further. But that’s a long time ago. Now it is probably a lot worse to even SEE the land.
As an Israeli soldier, from early 1984 to late 1986, I saw far more than I bargained for. I did not enter a single point of conflict but yet I experienced such anguish for the land my people call home. I don’t really know what to say here except that I’m so, so sorry for Majda, her child and all the other victims of the Zionist regime.
My experience living in the Jewish parts of Palestine (I can’t bring myself to call it Israel for fear of validating the atrocities committed by the regime’s founding Zionist terrorists) as the occupying force did not clearly register with me during my time there. All I remember was a continuous feeling of double standard, inequity and sense of precarious domination. During my service I would carry either my automatic rifle if traveling between cities or my sidearm if just on duty in my own town. Now, 20 yrs later, I finally recognize that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. My eyes have been opened and I have seen the humanity of the Palestinians. I hate to speak of it that way but I am relieved that I am no longer deceived and I don’t know how else to explain it. Let me also say that I am no longer fooled by the illusion of civility being peddled by Israel’s leaders. There are animals in high places in the holy land.
My sincere feeling is that education is the key to opening the eyes of the Israeli and the American public so that they might see the gross injustice being done in their names and demand through peaceful protests an end to one of the darkest and most insidious conditions to pervade our species since the dark ages.
Peace
Tamir,
Welcome to my blog. I’m not surprised to see an ex-Israeli soldier here with an open heart and sympathetic feelings towards Palestinians. I just hope to see and meet more people like you and I hope that you spend more time teaching (as you said education is the key…) Israelis, specially the young generation, the meaning of being the occupier and the need for peace and justice for all. Only then we can dream of achieving peaceful future.
Tamir,
Reflection is the first and biggest step, other efforts just follow.
Peace for Palestine
And Glory for the enlightened human beings