My name is Marco from Italy, I did Law and Human Rights internship in Palestine program at Go Palestine in Hebron. I want to say that, there’s no respect of human rights in Palestine. In fact I saw this as first impact when I arrived in Jerusalem after the landing in Tel Aviv.
This because, the first impression I had when I saw Israeli cops, soldiers and militiaman heavy armed patrolling the streets, was of a militarised society. But militarised against who? I saw shortly after when I took the bus from Jerusalem to Bethlehem so the taxi to Hebron (Al Khalil). Very high wall of “protection” and separation, wire and armoured control tower with full armed soldier between the Israeli colonies and Palestinian land. The street that we are running in was for all, Palestinians and Israelis, but the entrance in the city trough specific checkpoint was separated.
In fact, the city of Hebron, most populous Palestinian city in West Bank, was divided in two sector after the Oslo Agreement of 1994, a sector with a specific entrance for Palestinians and the other for Israelis. This is apartheid in it’s simply form. In the city we go to visit a Palestinian woman, but before we have to pass through a Israeli armoured checkpoint in which an Israeli soldier check our passport and visa to allow us to proceed.
The Palestinian woman tell us her history from the 1994 when the Israeli start to occupy part of Hebron and want her house. In the street after her house there was a lot of Palestinian activities and shops that were forcibly closed by Israeli occupation. Furthermore we met a labour group of the independent commission on Human Rights, the functionary told us the history of the organisation and the activity they do.
A long and very interesting chat that further confirm my thought, expresses with the first phrase of this text: there’s no respect of human rights in Palestine, there are a military occupation, colonialism , imperialism, apartheid and racism from the Israel state against the Palestinian land and people so an ethnic and religious purification. We had a meeting also with a lawyer for human right issue, with the authority for prisoner and ex prisoner of palestine and with a woman empowerment organisation.
In all of this case i recorded that the situation of the political prisoners (male or female) is incredible, they are bodies in hand of the Israeli occupant and there is no possibility for the human right activist etc. To visit the prisons or do interview. The visit in the ex refugee camp of Al Asa and Aida, now part of Bethlehem it was an overemotional and strong experience, stories of injuries, extrajudicial killings of woman, man and children make me sad and on the blink of cry. Human rights, in a land that is in fact part of Israeli, an apartheid and ethnic state, no exist.
Overall, my experience was very good and the Palestinian Center helped me a lot in networking, making some good experience regarding my (hopefully) future job and helped me having some basis of Arabic language to speak also with people from Hebron and nearby. The personnel at the Palestinian Center was very friendly and professional and available at any time (thank you Manar and thank you Odai!).
During the three weeks of the internship, we attended several meetings and also off-schedule activities, such as a visit to the Food Expo in Hebron, visit to Symposium Culture Club, but also meetings with university professors and many others. Regarding officially scheduled activities, we went to different Refugee Camps (Aida and Fawwar), visited museums, met with human rights activists, volunteers, shops owners and the civic society, even elderly people who told us their experience before and after the occupation.
I didn’t know much about Arabic and Palestinian culture in general, but the impact that I had was incredible. People here are very friendly and open, Hebron is a very young and active city and you can choose among a lot of activities and places to see in the city itself: from coffee shop to restaurants, from archeological sites to the Ibrahimi Mosque and many other things. Lot of people greeted us when they saw we were foreigners and we had a warmly welcome by all the people here (food is very good as well). As a very shy person I can assure you that you won’t struggle to make friends with many people here.
I can understand that the main issue for many is safety. What I can say is that my internship was between the Yom Kippur and the anniversary of the Intifada, a period considered to be risky. I never felt uncomfortable or at risk and both Palestinian people and Israeli soldiers treated us well. Passing through checkpoints and control area is not a problem and we never were harassed or mistreated by the authorities. Also, the presence of the Palestinian Center guide is very helpful in managing all the movements across the areas of Hebron and the other places. It is also good for tourism, with direct transportation to several cities like Betlehem, Jerusalem and many others.
In the end, it was a beautiful period and a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you all should do to better understand the conflict in the area, but also to improve everything you want to improve, from Arabic language (even if you start from zero) to all the activities and persons that you will meet. You will probably arrive here with a curious mood but for sure you will leave willing to come back!
Click Here to check out all our volunteer, internship and Study Intensive Arabic (MSA or Levantine)
How to apply or ask for additional information?
To apply to any of our programs: Please send an email to Mr. Tamimi at info@gopalestine.org. Please type the name of the chosen program in the subject line. We will then contact you back!