Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert for making my life difficult and different

Living with uncertainty - thank you Mr. Olmert

Sunday 24th of February
Two months ago I was invited by Trocaire in Ireland to lecture in some places, about the situation for women in conflict areas, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which relates to womens safety and security. With the Trocaire invitation letter, and through efforts by (Hemocade) Defence of Individuals Rights in Israel, I was promised a travel permit, via Eritz checkpoint, North of Gaza.
10am
Permit was not approved by the Israelis so I unpacked my suitcase. Sondos was let down but not surprised because in Gaza we always expect the worst and we are always forced to accept the abnormalities as the normal pattern of life under occupation.

Monday 25th of February
Sondos went back to school this morning.
9am
I received a call from the Irish embassy telling me to be ready as the permit will be issued any minute.
I was really pleased and hurried up from my work to my apartment, to pack up my suitcase again, and wait for a call from the Irish embassy. I didn’t collect Sondos from school as I didn’t want to let her down if we did not get the permit.

2pm
Sondos is back from school and is happy and excited to know that we may make it to Ireland via the Allenby Bridge crossing on the River Jordan.

4pm
The embassy phoned asking us to hurry up to the border at the Eritz checkpoint.

4.15pm
We arrived at the borders where we are waiting with a few others including international staff, diplomats and patients.
During a very long 4 hours we have been told by the Israelis on the other side of the borders, and through the Palestinian security guards, several times to ‘go home’, ‘you cannot cross today’, ‘come back tomorrow’. In the meantime I received around ten calls from Hamocade and the embassy telling me ‘hold on you will cross today’.
In the end at 7.30 pm, we were allowed to cross from the Palestinian side (Gaza) to Israel.

On my way to the Israeli checkpoint I walked with my daughter and ten sick people, who are in desperate need for further treatment in Israel. We walked through a long cement tube, with cameras looking down on top of our heads and sound from hidden mics giving us instructions. At that moment I recalled the big brother from the ‘1984’ novel and felt in an unrealistic world. I kept walking and before reaching the end of that tube I met tens of Palestinian people of all sorts of ages (children, babies, old women and men) tired exhausted and very sad. I stopped one very old woman limping with her walking sticks and asked her who she was. She said that they had been visiting their sons and daughters in the Israeli jails. I burst loudly into tears. I felt speechless and helpless.
Arriving at the end of this tunnel, one door after another kept opening with red then green lights and we kept receiving instruction from unseen voices. Sondos explained later on to her sister that it is like a riddle or a maze. On arriving at the desk the officer checked our papers and said ‘you cannot cross - it is an expired permit’. I again called the embassy and different calls were made. I eventually passed through
to find a taxi waiting.

On the taxi to Allenby Bridge 8.30pm
Sondos cried with joy, disbelief and surprise to see Occupied Palestine/Israel for the 1st time in her 15 years. It is another world yet only 15 minutes drive from Gaza - two different worlds. Thanks to Trocaire and Hamocade and the embassy.
The car continued to drive, and I tried to reply my daughter showering me with questions. We passed by the sites of the Palestinian villages and towns, that used to be there once upon a time but were ruined and destroyed, and their original inhabitants were forced to leave and made refugees. This was when Israel was founded on the ruins of Palestine with the pretence of land with no people for people with no land (Ben Gurion) - a big myth of the Zionist ideology.
It was also surprising for me to see the size of the Israeli settlements around Jerusalem.

Solution - in one country with two nationalities, when the privileged can give up some of their privileges on behalf of the original Palestinians refugees and the land can be shared by both Palestinians and Israelis in one democratic state - this is the long term strategic solution for the areas stability. When the time comes that Israel realises the immorality of its existence at the expense of others then that is the time when the Palestinians can enjoy the political stability, and law and order, to prove to the world their ability to contribute to the prosperity of the area .

10pm
We arrived in Jericho to find the borders closed so we stayed there overnight.

Tuesday 26th of February
7 am
We left the hotel and went to the Allenby Bridge crossing point. At the Israeli desk I was told by the officer again that my permit had expired as it covered only one day. After more telephone calls by the Irish embassy my papers were stamped.
I found a VIP car waiting for me and, surprised and relieved, I got in. I remembered Mr. Steig Collin from Sweden who stayed with us and worked voluntarily for three weeks at AlAwda hospital. While I was showing him around in Gaza 1999, we were stopped by the soldiers at one of the Israeli military checkpoints. The soldiers asked if we were VIP’s.
Mr. Collin replied, ‘Every human being is a VIP’. So I entered the car and in 5 minutes I was in Jordan. I missed my flight and now I am writing on board the next days flight on my way to Ireland.

Thanks to Mr. Eihud Olmert’s office who organised my permit and let my daughter see the land of Palestine for the first time in her life, this land where her fathers family used to live and work until 1948 - after that they lived in Egypt as refugees .

Seeing Isareli soldiers so close for the first time, my daughters comment was ‘some of them are nice’.
Yes that is true, and they will be even nicer when they stop occupying us and peace and justice prevail.

Tired and exhausted but pleased to be on my way to Ireland - Mona