November 16. Working for the Peace.

This day is one of the best days so far in my life. We wake up in Samis house and plan the action of Charity Travel. First, I make my donation to Sami's sister and five other students in political science to support their transportation costs to the university in Nablus. They are committed to the peace movement and can use any help they can get.
Then we go and buy fruit for 345 children in the village school for children age 6 to 12. Everybody is helping. There is a truck bringing many crates with fruits from another village, and quick hands put them into 345 little bags, a banana, an apple and an orange for every child. As we drive to the school, a photographer falls from the sky for the second time. It is Lazar, volunteering for the Palestine Monitor and by coincidence in the village to interview the family of a sick child. He offers me to take pictures of the action. So we are welcomed in the school and visit all ten classrooms, where we give every child the fruit. They all smile thankfully, it feels great. I can sense the culture of peace in these moments.

In two classes we ask every child to write "peace" on the blackboard in English or Arabic. They are very enthousiastic about it, and so are we. Thanks to Sami and his groups, these children are growing up in a culture of peace, despite the horrors that happen to many of their relatives. We take a lot of photos of the action.

I call for every visitor to the country of Israel to come to the West Bank, see it with his own eyes and get involved in a similar action. I believe we can make a change together.

School goes on, and we say goodbye. Lazar and I try to visit a settlement but the entrance road turns out to be too long and we can't make it in time. So we hitchhike to Ramallah where I am invited for the night. In a bar, we talk about the peace process and the Palestine Monitor with two other journalist friends from England. After two beers and some narguila, the atmosphere becomes really enjoyably smooth.

November 15. Peace Groups on the West Bank.

The plan for the morning is to visit the Al Aqsa mosque, but I am too late, and Bill Clinton is there. They shut the compound down for normal visitors and so I have to turn around. I run into two young women who are doing a field project as part of their international relations study program. We walk up together to where they are supposed to have a meeting with some organizations working in the field but we can't find the place. So we decide to have lunch instead and exchange contacts.

I take a bus to Ramallah where Sami has been waiting for me for too long. I feel sorry. He is an amazing guy and tells me his sad and noteworthy story over coffee. A few years ago, Sami started to "do peace", talking about the importance of a peaceful solution to the conflict to many people, including Jewish friends from Israel-proper (if that is the correct way to call it. What I mean is the territory of Israel outside of the occupied territories on the West Bank). One day, he invited friends over to his place to show them how the Palestinians live and share thoughts about peace. Somehow, the Israeli police found out about it and Sami was arrested. They imprisoned hem for twenty days, twelve of which in solitary confinement, and he was tortured. They burnt his arms with cigar butts and hot metal objects, they cut him, they tied him up to the wall, handcuffed. He still suffers from nightmares as a result of this inhumane treatment. I have seen the scars on his arms. (I don't mean to stir up emotions and politicize over the issue, I just want to get attention for the brutal violation of human rights).

When he got out of jail he quickly learned English by himself, because he needs to communicate with the world beyond Israel.

His father is working for a construction company in Israel, and comes home only in the weekends. At the same time, his own house has been put on a eviction list, along with 47 other houses in the village. Officially because they are built in arey "C" which means the Israelis have both military and administrative control over the area. The agenda of the settlers that are pushing for this destruction is that they want to keep the Palestinian village small because they don't like the sight of it from their hill. 100 Thousand square meters of land has been taken away from the family ten years ago, that had bought it before 1948.

His cousin has been sent to jail for five years to intimidate the community. The official reason: he was picking olives on the land that had been taken by the settlers. A friend has been held in prison for ten months. One of his brothers has been beaten to permanent disability.

Sami himself was threatened that some "lost bullet" would hit him if he didn't cooperate and spy on the people in his village. He refused of course and has been harassed by the Israeli police ever since.

Now THIS MAN is initiating Groups for Peace. Together with Ibrahim,  - whose eleven-year old son Yasan was killed by an Israeli car six years ago - they organize weekly meetings to work on peace. The Center for Peace exists since 2001 and has twenty volunteers, that teach the "culture of peace" to children from the village and neighboring villages. Foreigners are welcomed, too.
It is important to understand the importance of such movements. The only Israeli people young Palestinian meet are the most extreme settlers that occupy the land closest to them, and the soldiers at the checkpoints. It is vital for the peace that this situation changes.

Sami and I take a bus to his village, where I am introduced to his family. His brothers and his mother are really great people. There is a barbecue at night because they have a guest - me. I feel very honored and we have a great time together. I sleep in the room with Sami and his brothers.