Cultivating a friendship with the Palestinians

Published on Tuesday 6 January 2009 08:58

WHEN Scott Weatherstone and his daughter Hollie Smith told their friends what they intended to do on their holiday, the reaction tended to be one of baffled disbelief.

"Isn't that dangerous?" and "aren't they all terrorists?" were typical responses when they told of their plans to go olive picking in Israeli-occupied West Bank. Others they spoke to were more struck by the possible reasons for going on the trip. "Why do the farmers need your help to pick olives in their fields?" was what many asked.

The prospect of encountering Israeli army patrols and armed Jewish settlers would be enough to put most people off making a trip into such volatile lands.

But after years of campaigning in Edinburgh on behalf of the Palestinian people, Scott, a 51-year-old housing officer, was determined to see for himself what was happening out there. And 20-year-old Hollie, a politics student, inspired in part by her father's zeal, was eager to join him.

The Dead Sea and its sun-kissed resorts were close to where the pair stayed in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem, but there was no visit to the tourist trap. Their Palestinian hosts are banned from swimming in its waters, with its banks patrolled by Israeli troops.

Instead, they passed through roadside checkpoints, manned by Israeli soldiers to visit the overcrowded refugee camps and the farmers who regularly clash with armed Israeli settlers.

"It was the most difficult ten days of my life," admits Hollie, from Musselburgh, who is in the second year of an international politics degree at Stirling University.

"It is really heartbreaking listening to stories from the Palestinian communities. Both the parents of my Palestinian (host] family have seen people murdered in the street. There is always an uncle or a cousin that has been killed by Israeli soldiers."

The father and daughter came face-to-face with the daily tensions faced by the farmers who they had come to help on their first morning visiting the olive fields.

The idea of their visit was to help the farmers, who are regularly turned back from certain of their fields because the land is regarded as sensitive to security.

The presence of British tourists means they can go about their work more easily, because the settlers and soldiers are less likely to challenge them in their company.

"Within a minute of our arrival, two armed settlers emerged from their adjacent illegal settlement," recalls Scott, of Stockbridge, who works as a service development officer for Hunters Hall housing co-op in Niddrie. "Two quite threatening guys came down to see what we were doing on their land. We said we were actually on Palestinian land and the tension rose.

"One man, sporting a New York City T-shirt in addition to his rifle, aggressively photographed each of us. The other, very agitated, flew at Ibrahim, one of the Palestinian farmers, whom he accused of damaging a fence. A few minutes later we are joined by 20 Israeli soldiers and police, all heavily armed.

"Ibrahim is mute but told me in immensely powerful gestures: I was born here. I ran around these fields when I was a child. I am staying here, nobody will shift me. I am staying here until God takes me.

"Because we were siding with the Palestinian farmers we did feel threatened, but we were able to talk to the settlers.

"As it turned out, the olive trees were empty. The olives had gone and the deduction is that they have been stolen."

On other days their efforts did pay off and they spent much of the day working alongside the farmers and their families under the baking sun. During the evenings, they were taken to see the atrocious conditions in which some Palestinians live.

"We toured Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem," says Scott. "It is incredibly overcrowded and claustrophobic, many of its buildings pock-marked with bullet holes.

"We visited the city of Hebron, where 400 or 500 Israeli settlers have moved into the Palestinian sector of the town. We saw how the settlers have occupied the upstairs flats in the ancient, narrow market street. We saw the excrement, bottles and even paving stones that they are in the habit of hurling at Palestinians passing below."

The United Nations has rigged up netting to stop the projectiles hitting their intended targets.

Staying with a wealthy Christian family meant the pair were able to retreat from the tensions of the frontline farmers and the oppressive overcrowding of the refugee camps each night, but the occupation meant nothing was straightforward, even for their hosts.

"I went to an engagement party with the family," says Hollie. "But Palestinians can't travel on certain roads and instead of a 20-minute drive through Jerusalem, not having the papers to get through check points meant we needed to take an hour-and-a-half detour."

But, as well as feeling that they had helped in their own small way and had a better understanding of life in the West Bank, the trip has also brought the father and daughter closer together.

"It was a very bonding experience. It was very emotional but it did bring us closer together," says Hollie.

Scott got involved with the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign after visiting Egypt ten years ago and hearing the Palestinian angle on the Middle Eastern situation.

He explains: "I am not anti-Israel, but I became convinced that the Palestinian people were suffering. I've been quite passionate about it for some time. I would talk about it quite a lot with my daughter and she was fascinated in finding out more, too."

They joined a large group on a ten-day trip with Bethlehem-based Alternative Tourism Group, which aims to show visitors the realities of life under Israeli occupation.

Scott deliberately chose what he felt was the safest way of visiting the conflict zone without putting himself or Hollie at risk.

"There are various groups who go across there and put themselves in dangerous situations. This seemed a safer way of seeing for myself what the situation is on the ground," he says.

Scott's experiences on the West Bank have served to strengthen his conviction that the Palestinian people are the victims of terrible injustice.

Scott and Hollie, along with fellow Scottish campaigners, 17-year-old Ewan Ritchie and Veronica Crerar who they met on the trip, will share their experiences of the West Bank at a Palestinian afternoon on February 7 at El Daar Cafe, Hamilton Place, 2-4pm.

UNDER CLOSE SCRUTINY

GAZA is a coastal strip on the Mediterranean for Palestinian people and shares a border with Israel and Egypt.

Although not a recognised sovereign country, it is governed by political party Hamas.

Israel controls the borders, the air space and the waters off the Gaza Strip. More than one million people live there.

Although under Palestinian control, Israel tightly controls what comes in and out of Gaza at its shared border, and close scrutiny of activities there have prompted the recent offensive.

Gaza City, which gives its names to the whole region, is the main focus of the initiative, which is now in its second week.

Israel say they were forced to launch the attacks after enduring months of missile fire into its territory.

Many think the Israeli-Palestinian issue is at the heart of all tensions in the Middle East. Many Arab states refuse to recognise Israel.