It’s a hot afternoon in central Ramallah as we climb into a Service [1] bound for Jenin. There is a jazz concert on this evening in the most northerly town in the West Bank. The concert is being held at The Freedom Theatre [2] in the refugee camp, which was the site of such violence and destruction in 2002 [3]. The theatre was inspired by the work of Arna Mer Khamis, a woman born to a Jewish family who spent much of her life working on behalf of the children of Jenin. The theatre is is a real beacon of hope in a town where so much of the reported news is bad [4].
After slowly negotiating the crowded streets of central Ramallah we ease out onto the highway and head north as the hot sun begins to sink. The Service travels at high speed along the winding road reducing the villages, mosques, minarets and olive groves to a mesmerizing blur in the early evening sun. This hypnotic state doesn’t last for long as we soon come to the first of four major Israeli army checkpoints along the route – and so we sit and wait.
To pass away the time some smoke, some pray, some chat and everyone watches the cars of Israeli settlers speed by as they are waved effortlessly through the checkpoint on route to their illegally constructed homes elsewhere in the West Bank [5]. The patience of Palestinians in such situations is remarkable, although they have had 40 years to practise. Finally it is our turn to be waved through the checkpoint by several hot and irritable Israeli soldiers who would proabably much rather be someplace else.
Three more checkpoints and we arrive in the camp two hours after the concert began. The theatre is about half full but the exuberance of the adolescents in the front row provide more than enough atmosphere. Just as we become accustomed to this new environment there is a flash, a bang and then total darkness. Such events the world over seem to trigger something in the adolescent male brain to start screaming and carrying on – Jenin is no exception. We slowly make our way out of the theatre by the dim glow from many mobile phones. Once outside we are told that this dramatic turn of events was caused by sabotage perpetrated by an angry neighbour fed up with over two hours of loud jazz!
One noticeable change in the camp since March is the absence of gunmen on the streets. Apparently in recent weeks members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of Fatah, have been offered some sort of deal whereby in return for not being targeted for arrest and assassination by the Israeli Defence Force, they will give up their arms and agree not to take part in any further violent activity.
On the return Service ride home, Marie-Anne, a French woman who went to university in Paris with Yasser Arafat’s wife, recounts tales about the PLO elite. After a total of eight check points, four hours on the road, two songs and a cup of Arabic coffee, the Service pulls into Ramallah just before midnight – a West Bank kind of night.
[1] A yellow mini bus which carries up to seven passengers and is the main form of public transport in the Occupied Territories.
[2] http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1940913.stm
[4] http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=480&CategoryId=12
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&edition=i&q=jenin&go.x=17&go.y=6
[5] See:
(i) Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949);
(ii) UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 298 (1971) and 478 (1980); and
(iii) International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the legality of the Wall (2004).
Notes from Ramallah 