As the son of a Palestinian woman, I was raised hearing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Recently, I was given the opportunity to visit Palestine for the first time with Project Hope, to witness, first-hand, the struggles that many Palestinians endure on a daily basis.

When I first heard of Project Hope and the annual trip that they organize to Palestine, I did not hesitate to sign up. 

I have read a great deal about the plight of the Palestinian people, who live under military occupation, so I felt that the opportunity to travel to the region would be an invaluable experience. 

At right: Fakhouri stands with Palestinian children. One student told him he leaves the house four hours early to get to school because of the amount of time it takes to get through Israeli checkpoints

As our excursion into Palestine officially began, I was excited and anxious. I was excited to finally be in my mother’s homeland and anxious to learn everything that I could about the people and culture of this beautiful land.

However, as we crossed the Allenby Bridge and entered Palestine for the first time, the reality of Israel’s occupation struck. We found ourselves being welcomed by the sight of the massive annexation wall that Israel is currently building throughout the West Bank. 

The sight of the wall, in person, for the first time was surreal for me. It represents the truly racist and colonialist nature of Israel’s brutal occupation. 

The wall is nearly four hundred miles long and twenty-five feet high. It snakes its way through the West Bank indiscriminately, separating farmers from their land, students from their schools and Palestinians from one another. Once completed, the wall will completely bisect the West Bank and will effectively annex major portions of Palestinian land into the State of Israel. 

On the first day that we arrived to Palestine, we drove down a long and winding road that ran parallel to the wall. As we drove, our tour guide spoke to us about how the wall had affected him. 

He used to live right across the street from his mother-in-law, he told us, before Israel built a portion of the wall right in front of his house. Now the wall stands directly in between his home and his mother-in-law’s home, so he must drive many kilometers around the wall just to see her.

As I listened to his story, I could tell that the wall was a major source of pain for him. Throughout our trip, I spoke to many other Palestinians, all of whom had similar stories to tell. Afterwards, I could not help but wonder what the reaction would be from American citizens, if Canada constructed a similar wall throughout Michigan, or New York. 

Below: The massive annexation wall that Israel is building throughout the West Bank that makes simple things such as visiting family members or going to school extremely difficult for Palestinians.

Surely it would not be received well. The sight of the annexation wall was not our only negative experience in dealing with the Israeli occupation in Palestine. During our second day in the region our group wanted to travel from Ramallah to East Jerusalem to visit the holy sites. Before we could do so, however, we had to pass through an Israeli checkpoint. Israeli military checkpoints dot the landscape in the West Bank and severely restrict the travel abilities for many Palestinians. 

The checkpoint consisted of narrow corridors, lined with metal bars, where we had to wait in line, like a herd of animals, for Israeli soldiers to permit us to pass through. As our group stood in this human cage, because in reality that’s really what it was, we all felt degraded, embarrassed and even a bit angry to be treated in such a way. At the same time, we also began to feel a strong sense of solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, because they must face this cruelty every day. Admittedly, I did not fully comprehend how painful it must be for the many Palestinians who cannot travel freely throughout their own land, until I had these experiences for myself. 

A few days later, our group traveled out of Ramallah to the nearby city of Jaffa, to visit a local beach on the Mediterranean Sea. Again, we had to pass through Israeli checkpoints and, again, we were harassed, searched and questioned by Israeli soldiers, as to why we wanted to enter the city. The entire process was degrading and dehumanizing. 

Perhaps the most painful part of the entire ordeal was seeing the dejected faces of the Palestinian friends that we had met there as we traveled out of Ramallah and into Jaffa and Jerusalem. As a result of the occupation, they are not permitted to travel to those cities, even though they live only minutes away. 

We met one Palestinian man, who has lived roughly six kilometers from Jerusalem his entire life, but has never stepped foot inside the city, because he cannot get through the Israeli checkpoints.

Listening to his story was truly heart breaking. The Israeli checkpoints that are littered throughout the West Bank have had an extremely damaging effect on Palestinian society. As a result of the checkpoints, it is very difficult for Palestinians to carry out even the simplest of tasks, such as driving to work, school, or even going to the hospital. 

In this regard, Palestinians are treated as strangers in their own land.  This is what is most disturbing. At one point during our trip we met with students from Birzeit University in Palestine. They shared with us, in great detail, how the occupation and checkpoints were affecting them. For example, one student explained to us that, although he only lives a few kilometers from the university, he must often leave his house for school nearly four hours early. This is because he must pass through an Israeli checkpoint every morning on his way to school, and he does not know how long the soldiers will detain him, or if they will let him pass through at all. 

His story unfortunately is not unique, as many students face the same circumstances. In spite of all this, the students remained inspiringly upbeat. At one point in our discussion, one of the students was asked how they are able to deal with all the hardships of living under occupation, yet remain so positive. Her response was, “you have to have hope.  It’s all we have left. If we lose hope, we lose everything.”  Hope is something that many Palestinians continue to hold onto. 

Although their situation is often very grim, many of the people that we met managed to maintain high spirits. They refuse to let the occupation define who they are as a people. They simply want to live normal lives, just as anyone else would. 

I met several Palestinians throughout our trip, and each of them had their own story to tell. One twelve-year-old boy that I spent time with spoke to me about his love for song writing and how he hopes to try out for Arab Idol someday. Another boy, who is sixteen years of age, spoke for hours about his love of soccer and basketball and how he hopes to, one day, visit the United States. 

Meeting the people of Palestine and hearing their stories left the biggest impact on me. Everywhere in the West Bank that our group traveled, we would find things to be depressed, or upset about, such as the sight of the separation wall, or the military checkpoints.  However, we would then meet these amazing people and they would be full of joy and excitement and hope, regardless of the poor conditions they lived in, and they would automatically just lift our spirits. 

This is what I found to be most special about my time in Palestine. The people were truly amazing.  They were always optimistic and hospitable to us.  For that, I am truly indebted to them. It is something that I will never forget. 

Nobody should be subjected to the kind of inhumane treatment that the Palestinians have been subjected to in their own homeland. People who live in the West Bank face daily harassment, detentions and house evictions at the hands of the Israelis. Any supporter of justice and equality should be outraged that these blatant human rights abuses are allowed to persist. 

Unfortunately, outrage alone will not solve anything. What the Palestinian people need most is action. As our group traveled throughout Palestine, we began to notice a common theme coming from the people we met. They kept asking us to be the ambassadors of the Palestinian people when we returned to the U.S. 

They asked that we carry their voices back home with us to deliver their message of peace, love and justice. That is a voice that I carry with me proudly; that is a voice that we all must carry. We must all educate ourselves about the realities of Israel’s harsh occupation of Palestine. Only then will we be able to see things, not through the eyes of those wielding the clubs, but through those who are being clubbed. Finally, if we stay motivated and active and, most importantly, continue to tell the truth, perhaps then we can see a just resolution to the Palestinian crisis and an end to the Israeli occupation.  

— Matt Fakhouri is a political science major at Wayne State University