The Imaginary Handshake in Palestine By Rami Almeghari

The Imaginary Handshake in Palestine

By Rami Almeghari

Al-Jazeerah, December 19, 2006

I am a Palestinian from Gaza. I have friends in the West Bank, who are Palestinians as well. But we have never seen each other though we are from the same country. We have just talked on the phone.

We have gotten to know each other and become friends over the last couple of years, and we have contributed many articles to IMEMC.org.

Today, my friends Sa'id from Beit Sahour and Jenka (a very good American woman) are leaving for the States, where Jenka is living. The young couple have eventually decided to leave Palestine, seeking a new life with no military occupation, no Apartheid Wall, no checkpoints, no bypass routes, no restrictions on roads.

Sa'id, Jenka and I have never seen or met each other in person since we began working together for the past couple of years, even though we all live in the same country (Palestine). But unfortunately for our friendship, the young couple are based in the West Bank and I am based in the Gaza Strip.

You might ask us - why have you never met? Surely, you could have traveled by car, by bus or by train or even by airplane, so you could have met, the distance between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is really not far at all. I would answer very simply; no, neither I nor my friends could have done so. Not because we are living in a desert, no. Palestine is a beautiful place, with a beautiful landscape, a beautiful beach and beautiful mountains with snow.

It might come to your mind that perhaps we could not afford tickets for travel, I would answer simply, no, that, too, is not the case.

Then, what’s the problem with you?, you may ask. I answer again very simply, the problem is the Israeli occupation that has disengaged from the Gaza Strip unilaterally and remained omnipresent at all border crossings, controlling movement of any single object, even that of a cat.

I am stuck in the world’s biggest jail, while my friends are enclaved by an Apartheid Wall that is equipped with surveillance cameras, so they cannot travel even to nearby West Bank towns unless they take hours to pass through Israeli military checkpoints.

For me as a Gazan, my movement to the other part of the occupied territories (the West Bank) is extremely restricted under the Israeli occupation regulations and security measures. The only outlet that I could possibly use to travel to Beit Sahour in the West Bank would be the Erez checkpoint, which would take me through Israel -- something few Gazans ever get a permission from Israel to do. Erez, which used to be a busy commercial and passenger crossing, has this year become a passage only for emergency medical cases from the Gaza Strip into Israeli hospitals (and even those cases are severely restricted). I am living in a big jail. Not only me, but also the rest of the population of Gaza, which numbers 1.4 million people.

Tonight, I had to use the phone to say farewell to my good friends in the West Bank, and I don’t even know whether the phone is also controlled by the Israeli occupation authorities. But don't worry, please don't worry. Sa'id and I imagined we were shaking hands. You can ask Sa'id.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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