Sneaking under the wall

SOS Children's Village, Bethlehem

I have patiently waited for this day to come for almost five months now. Tonnes of other things came in between, our schedules did not fit and there were religious holidays to consider, but finally the day arrived, for me to join Miles to the West Bank for the first time. Aikido without borders, has its hands on several aikido projects in both Israel and in the Palestinian territories; in Yafo, Bir Nabala, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem. My first trip went to the kids in the SOS Children's Village in Bethlehem.

We started off the day in the Old City of Jerusalem, where we walked the narrow alleys to check up on the aikidoka friends we have there. One we found in Hummus Abu Shukri on Via Dolorosa, one worked in his fathers souvenir shop and a third one has a gold shop. We started up with a big hummus meal followed by a cavalcade of Arab coffee and tea and baklava, back and forth, upside down and in all shapes. Although I asked for my coffee and tea without sugar most of the time, the amounts of sugar and caffeine in the end left me in a state of vibrating about 10 cm above the ground. These guys are all Arabs with blue ID cards, which enables them to move freely between the territories and they are therefore important linkage persons, just like me and Miles. I am merely in the cradle of understanding the complex rules and regulations, but we basically connect the Israeli citizens with the West Bank citizens, who are not allowed to visit each others territories.

After all the socialising and bonding in the shouk, we were picked up outside of the Jaffa Gate by Deborah and Amir, who drove us towards Bethlehem. Deborah has worked with Palestinian and Israeli human rights for many years now and she lives in Bethlehem. She is fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic and truly burns for her cause. We drove through the Tunnel Checkpoint and in that direction there are no controls so we just passed through. After the checkpoint we needed to cross the separation wall, and up until now, both Israeli and Palestinian traffic has been allowed on the main road. However, suddenly we exited this road and went down on a small dirt road and Deborah explained that there has been dug a tunnel under the wall, for Palestinian traffic, and that it now looked like that passage was finally open. I never understood if this was a legal construction or not, but even if it is, the resources had not been generous. We wobbled down on a slope and slipped under the wall in a hole that was merely large enough to let one vehicle pass and Deborah explained that now when this passage is open they can shut off Palestinian traffic from the main road.

We drove through the Dheisheh Refugee Camp and arrived in Bethlehem through the "back door". Amir knew the narrow streets of the old city as the back of his palm and all of a sudden we exited on Manger Square, where the Church of the Nativity stands, marking the birth place of Jesus. We came on a Sunday, which is a badly chosen day if you are an anxious Christian pilgrim. There were about 50 gizillion tourists there, safely funnelled by busses into this central Christian site. We entered the church, but saved the grotto for my next visit. If I will come on a Monday or a Tuesday, there will be no queue at all to go down and see the famous silver star. Not that I care much, really.

I was more enchanted by leaving the tourist bubble on the Manger Square and walk up the streets to the shouk. The first two blocks from the square still sold souvenirs, but deeper inside, it turned into the most vibrant food market. We bought some fruits and coffee and the coffee guy mixed different coffee beans with cardamon and grinded it as we waited. From this point our bags and everything in them smelled of coffee and cardamon all the way back to home.

We left the centre of Bethlehem and drove to the kids village. When we drove up in front of the main building all the kids surrounded the car. We all got out and the first thing Miles said to me was "Don't fall in love!". This turned out to be impossible. These kids come from under-privileged conditions and have quite diverse backgrounds, including poverty, abuse and loss of relatives, but in spite of their difficult lives it was clear to me what a great impact their new lives in the village has had on them. They are all loving, open and well-behaved children and had it not been for the fact that they live in the Palestinian territories, I could have written them a bright future.

The village consists of separate houses, with 7-10 boys and girls up to the age of 14. Every house has a house mother, an unmarried woman who has dedicated her life to these kids. Every house mother gets her own monthly stipend which enables her to put a personal touch on her "family". The kids invited us to one of the houses, where we had coffee (again!) and talked. One of the girls, 10-years old Rania, showed us her room, which she shared with one roommate, and she explained in brilliant English that she loved aikido, football and dancing and that she had had the privilege to go to Norway for a dancing event. Then she played some violin for us and after merely one months practice the repertoire was minimal, while the enthusiasm was greater.

We later gave an aikido practice with about 20 kids and we mixed playing games with actual aikido training and we had so much fun. There are a few grownup aikidokas, including Deborah, who give the kids aikido classes on a regular basis, but of course it is more fun when the "real" black-belt sensei's visit. We took turn teaching and made sure to connect to all the kids and we also had them showing off their skills two-and-two in front of everybody else. Me and Miles threw the kids around and they threw us. Some of them even took high ukemi, and as they threw us high ukemi one could really tell in realtime how they grew on the inside.

I drowned in attention, but I had two special girls hanging in my hakama constantly, Rania and Rend. As the class finished, Miles giggled and said that I probably had to bring them with me home, while he would bring his own favourite, Adam. We finished the class and after a long ceremony of goodbyes and promises to return soon we went for a meal at a restaurant close-by, where we shared a huge pizza of a quality that exceeded many of the fanciest pizza places I have ever visited. We dropped Deborah at her house and then drove back to Jerusalem. Now we passed the Tunnel Checkpoint once again and in this direction the control is more rigourous, however not one of the more high-security ones. We had Israeli plates on the car, and after a few questions about where we came from, the checkpoint guard asked to see our passports. When Miles said that he had his passport in the trunk of the car, I guess that the boy standing there with his gun felt that he had enough so he just waved us ahead without looking us showing him anything.

We arrived in Jerusalem and took the bus back to Tel Aviv. One the way back we contemplated the day and the fact that merely a few tens of kilometres apart, you have two completely different worlds, although these two worlds still have much more in common than their inhabitants think. At the same time as I felt extremely filled up with positive energies from the meetings I had had, coming back to Tel Aviv also involves laying aside the heavy emotional burden of being exposed to the whole situation in which people on the West Bank live. Also in Jerusalem the impact of the complicated situation is palpable, but in the Tel Aviv bubble people get on with their lives pretty much indifferent to what's going on just a short drive away. I felt aware and emotionally open to the situation already before I went, but now I came in personal touch with new perspectives, which widened my awareness even more, but I cannot say that things are getting easier to understand. On the contrary, the more I see and the more I learn, the more I realise that the answers are far-fetched.

One thing is clear, personal meetings on grass-root level, that nurtures friendships across community borders is an effective way to create bonds between people that will make them more motivated to strive for peace and unity, rather than resistance and segregation. Aikido has this effect on people, while at the same time it empowers the practitioners with self-confidence and inner harmony, and in a population where around 50% of the population is under 18 years old, one can understand the importance of focusing on the new generation, like we do in the children's village. Next aikido project we are discussing for Bethlehem is a women's group for the house mothers at the village, with me as the teacher, and I hope that we can set that idea off sailing as soon as possible.

I brought my camera and I planned to take tonnes of pictures, but when I arrived to Bethlehem I felt like an exploiting tourist schmuck to take up the camera, so unfortunately there are not much pictures from this trip. Maybe next time. We are planning to take some more pictures, as well as video clips, for making promotional material, since Aikido without borders is a fund-based organisation, whose future projects depend on willing benefactors. A website is under construction and it will be launched shortly.

Today I have contemplated over a comparison between the Bethlehem kids and the two spoilt Israeli brats I have at home, who takes everything for granted and never thank us for anything. At the same time as bad conditions can bring forward good things, good conditions can bring out very bad attitudes, and even though we live privileged lives, it is important to stay appreciative of the wonders of life, as well as educating our kids to do the same. Only that way, we can have compassion with the less fortunate.