The Journey From Palestine (Part 3 of 3)

To the airport

On our final day, we managed to pray the morning prayer - Fajr Salaah before seeing off one of my sisters. The rest of us managed to catch the midday prayer - Dhuhr Salaah before saying out farewells. The three of us, my sister, brother and I were to go back with the airline we came with - El Al. We mentally prepared ourselves for the journey out because we had heard that leaving the country was just as difficult as getting in. They often interrogate more asking where you have travelled to around Palestine and what you did there. Sometimes they can take your phone.
On the way to the airport upon approaching one of the checkpoints the taxi driver - a Palestinian, asked if me and my sister could remove our head scarf as it would make it a little easier. We co operated and put our scarves around our neck. As I said in the previous post, me and my sisters do not wear the Hijab so on this occasion it wasn't such a big deal removing it. We passed a check point and the woman didn't even stop our car. Had we been wearing the scarves on our heads, it may have been a different story. But This made me think, the sisters who wear the hijab regularly would probably have a hard time if they were to be stopped.
The sister who travelled before us had warned us that before entering the airport there would be security checks and more at the airport. We didn't realise that the first checks would happen at least ten minutes before even getting to the airport. Our car was stopped, our passports were taken. My brother's name 'Mohammad' seemed to alarm them, as it had done before. Our driver handed over his ID card to them. They made us pull over and unload our luggages. We were sat outside on a bench and individually called into a small room with our belongings. My brother was asked if he had a gun on him before he even entered. A gun?!
I was last to enter and they asked me if I had any weapons. None of them had a smile on their faces... It's as though they know that what they are doing is pointless and wrong. They x rayed my things and took a swab of the boots I was wearing. The same boots I was wearing when I was going to Palestine. This time nothing was detected.
They stuck a yellow barcode at the back of each of our passports which I later came to find out the meaning of.
One of the soldiers was thoroughly checking the car, the bonnet, the boot, the seats, everything. And while he bent over, his backside was not a pretty sight. So far, not the best ending to our amazing trip.
After getting all our documents back we finally made it to the airport - Tel Aviv Ben Guiron. We bid farewell to our driver and told him we will see him again soon – InshaAllah – God willing.

At the airport
Whilst in the queue to check in we were asked by a worker whether we were carrying any weapons. My brother replied "we are from the UK, we cannot carry weapons"at which point we all laughed light heartedly including the two people questioning us. They asked again and got the same answer. Again we were told to unlock our bags before putting it through. I had taken pictures of the things I had purchased just in case they got confiscated.
Security was actually alright. 
The permit to leave the country was given to us straight away and we were not singled out. There were no extra security checks at the airport for the three of us however, after boarding the plane, the two people sitting in front of us stood and stared at us as though they had never seen brown faces.

The flight
It was a five hour flight and midway, many of the Jewish men got up and started rocking back and forth and reciting from what I think was the Torah. Some of them shed tears, some seemed dedicated to what they were reading. Me and my sister had no idea what was going on. We stared in awe as we saw these men do what they were doing... I must admit, I was a little scared as one held onto the handle of the emergency exit and stared out the little window crying and reciting.
We later came to learn that it was the evening prayer which was to be done in congregation of more than ten men and often this is done at the synagogue.
Judaism and Islam are so similar and it is so apparent yet it is war over land and politics which divides us.
In both of these religions, when praying, the women cover themselves, they wash different parts of their bodies at least three times, they face a certain direction, Jews pray 3 times a day and Muslims 5. Jews read from the Torah and Muslims from the Qur'an and both of these were sent from God. There are so many other similarities.
After touching down on British soil at Heathrow Airport I felt pretty emotional. I was on home ground but I had left my heart in Palestine. It occurred to me that I was privileged to have such a nationality which allowed me to reach the holy land safely and leave as well back to the comfort of my home. Many didn't have this. But then again, they are the privileged ones, the chosen ones to be able to live in the holy land and fight for it.
We got our luggage and to our surprise, they had not been touched.

The yellow barcode
After coming home, another sister of mine who had travelled to Palestine previously told us about what the yellow barcodes on our passports meant. The numbers on the code determined how much of a threat we were and this would determine how much security checks we would have to go through. The sister who left before we did got the number 6 as her first number. This was a high threat and she did have difficulty at the airport. The three of us got the number 3 which wasn't seen as a big threat hence why we didn't have such a tough time leaving the country.
We were basically numbered and categorised... Dehumanising us I would say.

But nonetheless, this was a trip to remember, an amazing experience and I can only urge my readers to travel to Palestine and see how the people out there live.
It is a happier place than I may have made out but there will be tough times and there will also be times where you cannot help but smile and laugh.

I hope to go back soon.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experience To, In and From Palestine.
To Palestine - http://salaamsalma.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-journey-to-palestine-part-1-of-3.html
In Palestine - http://salaamsalma.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-journey-in-palestine-part-2-of-3.html

The Journey In Palestine (Part 2 of 3)

So, yesterday's post was on my Journey To Palestine.

Today I have written about what I experienced during my stay there.

Before I begin, I want to emphasise on one thing. The media. As true as it is, Palestinian boys getting beaten by Israeli soldiers, the elderly getting harassed etc, things are not as bad as they seem. And by this I mean, it all looks too dangerous to visit and people like us will be too afraid to go to Palestine. But after staying there for a few days I can say that it is actually a safe place to travel to. There were occasions were it seemed dangerous but as Brits and people with powerful passports, we need to visit the holy land more and let them know that we come from every corner of this world. We stand strong with our Palestinian brothers and sisters and we need to help them with their businesses.

Arab Hospitality

One thing I loved about Palestine was the smiles and hospitality the Arabs had. I have been to a few Arab countries and their hospitality is immense hence the term 'Arab Hospitality' however, Palestinian hospitality breaks the scales. And let me not even start on the Kneffeh (a sweet cheesy stringy dessert) which I have only dreamt of having. (I have always wanted to try it in Palestine that when I saw it in Egypt during the summer, I stopped myself from trying it)

These Arabs are going through such a tough time living in a land which is being occupied.

We met a taxi driver who was arrested at the age of 13 for throwing stones at a military tank, a shopkeeper who was in an Israeli prison for 13 years, men who were made to leave their homes so illegal settlers could occupy them yet their eyes sparkled whenever they greeted us with 'Salaam Aleykum' – Peace be upon you.

We met a young boy called Ishaac who was 13 years old (he turned 14 when we were) who had been arrested twice. The first time he was arrested, he said how scared he was. They took him for no reason. They imprisoned him for a few weeks and denied him food sometimes and it got really cold. The second time they arrested him, he did not care. He made a joke of it. This is the courage the youth of Palestine have. They stand their ground and show no signs of weakness.

Despite such hardship, they still had hope and happiness and this is something which I did not see on the other side. I will come onto this later.

Dream come true

On the first day at 4am when we woke up for the morning prayer – Fajr Salaah, we walked through the Old City to get to the Al Aqsa Compound, I felt so excited. Something which I had been dreaming of was finally becoming a reality. I had the same emotions as when I lay my eyes upon the Ka'bah in 2014. Except this time I did not cry but I felt so blessed. I was allowed to be here when thousands of Palestinians were denied entry. I was allowed to be here while an apartheid wall was built to stop people from coming anywhere near to Jerusalem.

Non- Muslims are not allowed to enter the compound however there are certain days where tourists can see everything but they must enter from a different gate.

Before we entered the gates to enter the compound, Israeli soldiers would ask us if we were Muslims. There were occasions where they would ask us for our passports or ask us to recite a verse from the Qur'an even though they did not know it properly.

Palestinians have to leave their ID's at the gate when they want to enter and have to retrieve them after prayers when leaving the compound. After passing them we would greet the Muslim brothers at the gate with a happy Salaam. The soldiers outside always held rifles while the Arabs didn't have any weapons. Their weapons were their smiles.

I was spoilt for choice throughout my time there whenever the calls to prayer echoed through the city. Shall I pray at Masjid Al Aqsa or the Dome Of The Rock? They were just a minute apart from each other. It didn't even matter for the rewards one gets for praying anywhere on the compound, inside or outside the mosques, is the same.

The importance of Al Aqsa

For those who may not know, here is a brief explanation into why this land is the third holiest place for Muslims.

Al Aqsa was the direction in which Muslims used to pray towards until God gave the last Prophet Muhammad (saw) the orders that the direction was to change and Muslims would have to face the Kab'ah (God's house) in Makkah which Muslims turn to five times a day now. The Dome of the Rock is significant because it is believed that our prophet was taken from Madina (in Saudi Arabia) to Jerusalem in one night on a flying horse call the 'Buraq'. It was from here that he was ascended to the seven heavens and was later brought down with all the prophets and led the prayer on this compound. Only God knows how many prophets there were, thousands probably but every single one of them has prayed on the compound of Al Aqsa. Pretty significant ey. So you can now understand how special it is for Muslims when they get the chance to go there especially during these difficult times of the occupation.

During our time in Palestine we managed to see different parts of Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa compound, the different gates which led to different places in the market, the Church of Mary, the church were Jesus was crucified and laid on the table, the mosques and memorials of the companions of our Prophet (saw), the prison where Suleiman (as) (King Solomon) locked up Jinns (spirits from the parallel universe), the wailing wall which is very symbolic for the Jews, the Mount Olives.

Hebron

Tomb of Ibrahim (as)

We visited Hebron – in Arabic it is called Khalil – the name God gave to Ibrahim (as) (Abraham) which means friend. Here is the mosque where Prophet Ibrahim (as) is buried along with his wife Saira, one of his son's Ishaac (Isaac) and his wife and another son Yousef (Joseph) who was one of the most beautiful people God created. (It is said that when men enter heaven they will have the beauty of Yousef (as)

The thing about this mosque is that it is divided into two parts. About 60% of it belongs to the Jews and only 40% belongs to the Arabs. When seeing the tomb of Ibrahim (as) there were two windows. One from the Synagogue side and one from the side of the Mosque.

Memorial of Yunus (as)

On the way to Hebron, our driver went off route a little and showed us a mosque where Prophet Yunus's (Jonah) memorial is. He is the prophet who was engulfed by a Whale and was spat out after he pleaded to God to save him. This town was called Halhul which means (something along the lines of) 'coming for one year'. This is the town where Yunus (as) came and stayed for a year after being spat out by the whale.

Going around Palestine

On one of the days we went to a place called Jaffa which the Mediterranean sea borders. We then went to see the sea of Galilee. From there we went to Jericho which is the lowest point on the earth. I absolutely loved Jericho. It was just a Palestinian place and the people were all so loving. Everyone we greeted told us we were welcome to Palestine. “Ahlan w Sahlan, welcome to Falesteen” It was quite surprising that most of the Palestinians we spoke to had very good English. But then again one of the highest number of graduates come from Palestine. The only problem is that they struggle to find jobs .

We also went to Bethlehem to the church of nativity where Jesus was born. It was a pretty church but we saw something unusual. Right on top of the images of Jesus there was an image of a triangle with the eye – the FreeMason thing everyone always talks about.

A negative experience

On our last full day in Palestine, we decided that we were going to go to the Jewish quarters to see what it was like there. So we went past the wailing wall, came out from the other side, went up some stairs where we stopped to see the breath taking view of the Masjid Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. It looks amazing from this spot.

We carried on going up.Me and my sisters do not usually wear the headscarf – The Hijab, but on this spiritual journey in Palestine, we decided to keep it on. So as we were going up these stairs in our Hijab, we were getting looks. We were probably the only Muslims people there at that moment. An old lady was shaking a cup of loose change begging for money. When she saw us, she leaned back in her chair and made noises of disgust whilst putting on a face as though she had seen rodents. She said some things in Hebrew and Lord only knows if she was cursing us but it was very apparent she was showing hate towards us. We were in shock. How dare she show such disrespect?! We went up a little more and there was a Jewish man in a robe and top hat who smiled at us and welcomed us to Israel. This was such a contrast to the woman we had seen a few seconds ago. It started raining and we walked uphill through an alley way where a few kids were gathered outside a door. They looked at us and my sister greeted them with hello. What we received was a mocking 'neh neh neh' and giggles. Not once had we encountered such an experience in the Arab quarters. It wasn't long before we felt unsafe, unwelcome and decided to head back towards where we came, back into the quarters where Arabs were.

In no way do I want to imply that Jews are bad or not nice, but this was one of my experiences which I felt very sad and uncomfortable in.

It was sad that a woman showed disgust towards us when she saw that we are Muslims from our head scarves. Jews also wear the head scarf or the wig when they want to cover their hair.

It was sad that these kids mocked us because it shows that they have been taught from a young age to dislike or hate people who may not be Jews.

It saddened me more that history was once again repeating itself and the people who were once victims of the Holocaust, killed in thousands because of their religion, their colour, their appearance, were now victimising people who have allowed them to live on their land. Jews were made to wear yellow bands on their arms so it was apparent that they were Jews... Today Palestinians are made to carry ID cards.

The same day in the evening it was pouring down with rain. We prayed the evening prayer after sunset – Maghrib Salaah and I decided to come back to the hotel with my sister and one of the sister's in the group to change and then return for the night time prayer – Esha Salaah. It was a 10-15 minutes journey back to the hotel and as we exited the gate of the Old City, Herrods Gate, we could hear loud screaming. We came towards a group of Palestinians with their phones out taking videos of where the screaming was coming from. I could also hearing the thumping sound of a baton hitting bare skin. I looked towards where the sound was coming from and saw that a few Israeli soldiers were beating up a Palestinian boy who couldn't have been any older than 18.

The other soldiers were trying to push Palestinians out of the way pointing their rifles towards them, and within minutes a Jeep of more soldiers had attended the scene. I do not know what this young boy did but I don't think he was that much of a threat where more than ten soldiers were needed.

No one was able to intervene and help the boy or else they would be putting their life at risk. It's a shame that this was a common site for many people in Palestine. It came as a shock to me.

Filming the incident was all people could do as this is the way to make others outside of Palestine aware of what happens on the ground. We left the scene, changed and when returning to the mosque for the final prayer, the area was back to normal and the crowd had disappeared.

During our last two days it was raining heavily. It seemed as though Jerusalem was sad to see us leave but I say this now, this may have been my first time going to Palestine, but it certainly will not be my last.

(Part 3, Journey From Palestine will be posted tomorrow)

If you haven't already, check out my Journey To Palestine

http://salaamsalma.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-journey-to-palestine-part-1-of-3.html

The Journey To Palestine (Part 1 of 3)

Since my early teenage years, when I started to become more aware of the conflict in Palestine, I had developed this passion to visit the holy land.

From the age of 14, I started to attend protests, marches, vigils, anything related to the conflict.

In 2014, during the summer, I had the chance to visit Palestine and stay in a summer camp in Hebron (Khalil). However due to the ground invasion of Gaza (Operation Protective Edge – as it was called, which had nothing protective about it) the West Bank became a little unsafe and on the day I was supposed to fly out, I had to cancel.

I spent the summer of 2014 on the streets outside the House of Parliament, Downing Street, Israeli Embassy, American Embassy and other places protesting for a Free Palestine. I climbed a couple of mountains and did a few runs to raise money for the people suffering.

I even prepared for the questions that would be asked at the airport and trained myself to act as natural as possible and not guilty for something I had not done.

Last year, in December 2015, another chance rose to go to Palestine. This time with an Islamic group to visit the holy sites. I was to stay in Jerusalem (Al Quds) not far from the Old City where the compound of Al Aqsa was.

Due to family commitments, my brother, sister and I decided we would go a few days after the group which meant we flew out on Christmas day. No other airlines were going to Tel Aviv on this day so we had to go by an Israeli Airline called 'El Al'.

Before even checking in, the three of us were questioned for at least 45 minutes. Why were we going? What did we want to do there? Did we know anyone there? What was out intention? Father's name? Grandfather's name? What we did in our spare time? Etc.

They saw that as a collective we all had the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Visa, me and my sister had the Indian Visa and they had the Turkish Visa. In my passport alone, I had the Algerian Visa and a Tunisian stamp. We do travel to European countries but because we hold the British Passport, no stamps or visas are required.

We were told to keep our suitcases unlocked as it would get searched thoroughly or they would just break into it. This may be the time to mention that we were the only brown faces there and to top it of, we are Muslim.

After getting to the gate, we were told we would have to go through extra security checks by the people of the airline. I don't think any other airline has this extra security.

So we sat in a small room and were the first to be there as 'these checks would take quite long' – especially on us Muslims.

A few other White and European faces were there but their checks were done quite fast.

Explosives were detected on these
boots...

They first asked who Salma was. It was me. They took my hand luggage, whatever was in my pocket and took a swab of both of my boots. The room which they did everything in was in full view. They entered the swab stick into one of the computers and a shocking warning came up on the screen. 'EXPLOSIVES DETECTED' in bright red. My sister saw this and was shocked. Remember how I said I trained to act natural, well I was dahm scared but the training came in handy. Thank God for mother tongue. 'I'm scared. I haven't been anywhere crazy with these boots' I told my sister. They checked my brother's new boots and the same came up for his. I was relieved for at this point I realised this was done to actually get a reaction out of us, to make us feel scared and imtimidated. 

My sister who is a police woman, was wearing boots which have walked over drugged floors, places with explosives yet nothing was detected on her. They did a frisk search on me and my brother... but in my opinion it was quite intimate. If I protested against being searched it would give them a reason to find me suspicious so I had to go along with it. 

After finally boarding the plane and walking down the aisle to our seats, all eyes were on us. We were so exhausted that we fell asleep straight away and when reaching Tel Aviv airport five hours later we knew what was in store for us. We knew we would be kept back a few hours and be interrogated. My other sister who travelled with the group a few days earlier told us it wasn't so bad, though some of the males did get it quite hard. So I was more worried for my brother. When going to immigration we showed our passports and the woman looked at it and told us to wait in a small open room in the back.

They took us individually, me first. I went into a small office where a man asked me my father's name, my grandfather's name, my email address (I gave my university email as it is most neutral) my phone number and asked me to wait back in the room outside.

2 hours later my sister was called in by someone different. He told her he was part of the Terrorist detective team to try and put my sister at unease. She showed no reaction. By now we knew their tactics of trying to threaten us, to waste our time. They wanted a reaction but we were showing no sign of annoyance. In fact, we were more smiley, co operative and ever so friendly.

They took my brother and finally me. They interrogated my sister the most so she had it hard.

I was asked four questions.

“Your surname is Khatun. Why is this your name?” - my response “Because my father named me this”.

“Why did he name you this?” (This had to be the most ridiculous question I have ever been asked)- “Err, you would have to ask him this. I do not know why he named Khatun”.

"You are a student. What do you study?" - "Social Sciences". (I didn't want to say I studied Journalism as they dislike journalists entering and exposing the truth. You know what I mean?!)

“What parts of the Middle East have you been to?” - “Saudi Arabia and Egypt”.

He sat me there for at least ten minutes in silence. The power game, keeping people waiting. I was tired so it didn't bother me at all. I just stared at his face so each time he looked up to see me, I was looking back at him with no emotion. His room had a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, the Dome of the Rock and the Dead Sea.

He told me to wait outside and that someone would be with us shortly. We made friends with a Palestinian American brother who was also waiting. He was going back to Palestine after 15 years to visit his family in Ramallah. He left an hour or so before we did and it felt so nice to meet our first brother in Palestine.

After a while, someone did come to us with the visas and our passports. We had waited for 4 hours for this one small piece of paper. This was actually nothing compared to how long Palestinians and other Muslims have to wait. So we couldn't complain.

Walking through the roads of the Oly City on our
first night

We finally went through immigration, searched for our bags which someone had gone through and managed to get a taxi to Jerusalem.

It felt surreal being there, driving through what I see in the media, seeing the old city wall and the soldiers with their rifles loitering outside the gates.

I was finally there. Fulfilling one of my dreams...

(Part two, The Journey In Palestine will be up tomorrow – Wednesday

Part three, The Journey From Palestine will be up on Thurday)

(Check out my Instagrams (links on the right hand side) for some more pictures from my time in Palestine)