Conferences and Tear Gas

For the past 6 days I've been extremely busy preparing for and supporting a conference on the popular resistance in Palestine. That conference ended yesterday, so now I'm free to make an update.

Volunteering here isn't all supporting protests and confrontations with the military. While they may be some of the most exciting parts, just like the US there's a lot of basic, mundane stuff that happens as well. I spent the last three days waking up at 6 or 7 AM to attend a conference, at which I helped take notes on speakers and film. In the days leading up to that, I was working with the other volunteers here to prepare handouts - meaning collating papers, stapling, and stuffing folders. Not exciting, but important.



The conference was alright. I didn't get too much out of it myself - there were a few interesting speakers, but most of it was speeches. The point of the conference wasn't to cater to internationals, and I hope that the folks who are struggling here were able to move their cause forward. My friend put it well though when she said that the main point of the conference was to build visibility and morale for the resistance, because it hasn't been doing so well in recent years. The Palestinians have been fighting for some sort of existence for decades, and neither violent nor non-violent resistance have achieved the goal of self-determination, so there is a lot of apathy and cynicism they must resist.

One extremely beneficial aspect of this trip has been the chance for me to get a better sense of Palestine and Palestinians. It isn't all rioting and protests here - they do happen fairly frequently, but that means once or twice a week. In the US, and perhaps in general, Palestinians are only in the news when there's dramatic protest footage. They are usually associated with a political party or resistance group like Islamic Jihad. Here on the ground, identities are much more complex. And just like anyone else in the world, most days of the week are spent doing things like working, studying, caring for a family, etc. There are people who organize demonstrations, and there are people who go to demonstrations and throw rocks. Unlike in the US, there's a general acceptance and appreciation for the latter.

On the final day of the conference, there was a demonstration in the town of Budrus. It's a pretty famous area - they were able to stop the Apartheid Wall from cutting through it with a massive, long-running struggle. There's a movie named after the town that I need to check out after I get back.

It was pretty intense. The military was firing tear gas almost immediately after the protest started. While protests are tolerated to some extent in the US, in Palestine, no matter how large or even if people are throwing stones, they are almost always dispersed by violence.

This protest was only underway for a few minutes when the soldiers began launching tear gas. There was tons of it, although I was told they may have held off some because of the presence of internationals. I was filming all of this going down, so I was gassed as well. Much worse than any previous experiences with tear gas - not only was I coughing and my sinuses were going crazy, but my skin stung as well.

When we fled the initial tear gas barrage, a friend and I ended up behind a wall near a few houses in town. The soldiers continued to fire tear gas canisters into the residential area, including a school. An older Palestinian woman put some perfume on our hands so that we could control the effects of the tear gas. While what tear gas does is a chemical reaction, some of its effects can be controlled by distracting your body with other smells, which remind it to breathe again.

That kind of support was really nice. It reminded me of Pittsburgh, when people assisted us in running from the cops. It feels good to know that kind of solidarity exists.

Today I go to court for a friend of mine who the Israeli government is trying to deport. Israel really doesn't like internationals working with Palestinians, so the case is very political. The worst thing that will happen is that he is deported. Hopefully he gets off, but I will let you know what happens.