To all,

The first time I saw the Separation Barrier, I felt drawn to it. I saw it from afar in Jerusalem but when I got close I couldn't stop myself from walking towards it. The electrical sensors that line the top, the barbed wire that proceeds a ditch, and the confiscated lands on the other side. I felt like a zombie walking towards this human cage. "Stop!" I heard from behind me. "Come back, you will be shot!"

No sooner did these words register than did I realize this was no game. I had wandered ahead of my Palestinian guide within the allowed 50 meters of the Apartheid Wall that encircles Palestine. Anything within 50 meters and the Israelis have been known to order back, detain indefinately, or just shoot.

Yes. I am in Palestine. I have been here about a week now near the militant stronghold of Jenin. First let me say that I am safe and that every Palestinian I have met has been incredibly kind and hospitable. My work here involves interviewing Palestinians in a village in the northern region of the West bank. The village is surrounded on 3 sides by the horrifying Israeli Apartheid Wall. The village resembles a prison camp. Caged in on all sides by electrical fenses, with an Israeli military base stationed on a hill across the way, and a sky camera that over looks all of the village. The people in this tiny village of 2,200 people have no work (80% unemployment), no electricity (no money to pay), no clean water (the Israeli military base and the nearby Israeli town dump their sewage into the village's water supply), and no rights. They can be arrested, searched or shot with impunity just for committing the terrible sin of being born Muslim within the militarily occupied territories of Palestine. It is a village of human beings but because the Israeli government and the U.S. government consider them terrorists, they are forced to live like dogs. Even if somebody were to explain to me the horror of this place, I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes.

Life under miltary occupation is something that can't be explained, only felt. The horror, brutality, and hopelessness. Everybody in Palestine has a sad, sad story to tell. Of course most Palestinians just want to sing and dance, and enjoy these few moments with me, the foreigner. I listen, I dance, laugh and when I am alone I cry. Because after my two weeks of work here are done I get to pass all of the Israeli check points with my magical U.S. passport and leave Palestine, while these wonderful Palestinian people continue to endure the 38-year military occupation by the Israeli state.

I love you all, and I hope some of you take some time out of your busy lives to understand what is truly going on here.

Peace,
Maximillian Shen

PS: I have attached a picture of me and some Palestinian "terrorists" before the Aparthied Fence.

visitors since July 13, 2003

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