AND AM NOW TRYING TO GIVE A VOICE
TO THE SCORES OF PALESTINIAN GANDHIS
By Pam Bailey
May 25, 2011
I am an American “corporate refugee” ~ a woman who worked for 20+ years making a six-figure salary, with my eyes fixed on the next rung up the ladder (in “big pharma” no less). I was aware that there were parallel worlds, and that I was living in what could be called the “Comfort Corridor.” But I didn’t do anything concrete about it, other than read voraciously.
And then I began the odyssey that ejected me from my protected bubble. I acted on an adventurous whim ~ made possible by a particularly good bonus ~ and travelled to Palestine in 2007. It changed my life. That first educational trip led to a second one just a year later, this time as an ISM (International Solidarity Movement) volunteer during the olive harvest and protests in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah.
The conversion into an activist was nearly complete.
The last step was a corporate acquisition that gave me the excuse I was looking for to break free of my “golden handcuffs.” I walked away from my profit-driven existence and…took my first trip to Gaza, a Codepink delegation for International Women’s Day, 2009. Those who have been to Palestine understand how it gets into your blood.
I had the extra advantage of now having a “tabula rasa” ~ a chance to re-invent my work, or at least to try. It wasn’t long before I decided to live and volunteer in the Gaza Strip for six months; if I ever hoped to eke out a living in this arena, I needed a deeper understanding. Six months isn’t long compared to a lifetime, but I felt it was enough to put “my feet firmly on the ground,” as well to teach me the diversity and nuances within the overall culture.
When I returned, I spent the next three weeks on a speaking tour from one coast to the other and thinking about what I could do as an individual to make a difference, to not squander the experience and connections I now had. I didn’t want to focus on political activity alone; it’s a given for me, but progress just seems too slow. I also feel a need to do something that has a real, concrete, practical impact.
So, I asked myself, what can I do that will use my education and experience in communications to both help the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and chip away at the ignorance and stereotypes that prevent more Americans from empathizing with their plight?
Most Gazans will tell you that the greatest contribution you can make to their cause is to change our own government’s discriminatory and biased policies. The only way to do that, I’ve concluded, is to change public opinion, so that pressure is eventually exerted on their elected officials.
One of the most common comments I hear when I return from Palestine and speak to various groups, even from relatively educated activists, is “what the Palestinians need is a Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr.”
It’s the same “cult of the leader” we saw in the United States when Obama was running for president and so many people saw him as a “savior” of sorts. Yet, what the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions should have shown us all once again is that we cannot always wait for a strong leader to emerge, and one is not necessary to bring about the change we need.
Palestinians have many “Gandhis” among them who are resisting occupation and corrupt government every day in very creative ways. So, I have joined with a friend of mine to document these stories and given them an audience. The individuals we are interviewing do not have the notoriety of Gandhi and MLK, but all they need is a platform, which we hope to help provide.
They also do not have a similar mass following ~ in many cases, because Israel has attempted to snuff out their budding fame by raiding their homes and imprisoning them or their family members. Others are still young, only needing encouragement and recognition to become the leaders of the future. We hope to provide them a platform to amplify their voices.
When I returned to Gaza this January, I decided to invest some of the funds I still had to kick start the project by filming interviews with individuals such as:
~ The organizer for the popular resistance committee who led weekly protests in the deadly “buffer zone” by the Israeli border, learning from the growing support for protests against the “separation wall” in the West Bank.
Unfortunately, those protests came to a stop the week of my return. The Israeli military began shooting everyone who entered.
~ A businessman who responded to the ban on imports of glass and other construction materials by making tiles, ashtrays and decorative sculptures out of recycled glass from the destroyed buildings.
~ Youth who are telling their stories and expressing their emotions through blogs, painting ~ and even sculpture made from cacti and spent munitions. I partnered with a graphic artist to produce a poster showcasing some of these powerful images.
~ Troupes who are “acting out” through breakdance and rap, while helping other youth do the same instead of turning to militias or giving in to apathy.
~ A young professional who is planning for the return of Gaza’s former status as a favorite tourist spot in the region, refusing to give in to the lack of hope for a “normal” future to which so many others have succumbed.
There are so many Palestinians who need a megaphone. I heard a young Palestinian poet, Dina Omar, recently, who said that sometimes she wants to shout at all the activists to be quiet just a minute and listen to the voices of the occupied.
That is what this project is all about, and we hope to expand it into a library that includes voices from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the refugee camps of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon (which are almost totally ignored).
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