like birthdays and old friends
we forget what is flesh blood and bone is human
turning phone lines to airlines
unwilling to face
the love is found on the inside not the outside
Mark Koselek : Medicine Bottle
::
a change from the usual musings and mumblings. no doubt you'll have heard on the news today about the Hezbollah rocket strikes on Israel...
the following update and photo came to me this morning via IM from Alaa as i was getting ready to come into work. some of you met him while he was here on an international work placement at my office for July. He arrived home this morning shortly before the strikes started. what a homecoming....
a bit of context:
Akka (aka Acre, Akko) fell under territory assigned by the 1947 UN Partition Plan to an Arab Palestinian State. It was occupied by the Jewish Haganah on May 17, 1948. About three-fourths of its Arab population (1944 est. pop. 13,000) fled from the city during the occupation. Israel has exercised sovereignty over the city since 1948. it lies a short drive from the border with Lebanon, north of Haifa and on the coast. Alaa's family lives in an apartment building of mixed residents, ie both Arab and Jewish Israelis.
Photo taken this morning as smoke rises over Akka.
Akka has resembled a ghost down in past couple of weeks, with residents sitting it out inside in their apartments or shelters under their buildings. Radar controlled alarms sound in the city to warn residents of incoming rocket attacks. Needless to say, today they have been sounding every 10-15 minutes.
::
Alaa also sent me an account of his departure from the UK, an experience he described as "horrible". Makes one so proud to be British...although he stressed that when questioned by police in a London tube station by contrast they were very polite and he wouldn't let one person ruin a fantastic first time visit to London, which he loved. he said i could share the story. the questioning is bizarre...
Monday, July 31, on the way to the ferry in Dover, England, bound for Paris...
"I should tell u what happened in my way back to Paris from London
I passed the French passport control and you have to pass a British one to go to the ferry....
Passport Control Officer: what were you doing in London? What you do in your life?
Alaa: I'm student for conflict resolutions
PCO: take a seat
So I sat, and he called me one minute later, after he had let every one else go
PCO: what's your religion?
A: Moslem
[Alaa was resentful of this question but was worried he would miss his ferry and so answered anyway]
PCO: Do you go to mosque?
A: no
PCO: Why don't you go?
A: I don't practice, I'm secular
PCO: so you forgot Allah and Mecca?
A: no, but that has nothing to do with it
PCO: did you do any military service?
A: no
PCO: why not?
A: Arabs in Israel are exempted
PCO: which city you are from?
A: Akko (Hebrew name)
PCO: oh, so your city is under attack?
A: yeah
PCO: where is your wife?
A: I'm single.
"So he let me go...
You should see his face - full of anger and hate when he looked at me,
but he was smiling to others. Normally I'm not someone who will shut up
but I saw behind him a note on the wall:
If you disturb the work of an officer, they can hold you.
So i hold myself, and thought, he is a small man, don't let yourself react because he wants that...but i felt so bad."
::
as i dandered through the park to work with my Achocalypse Now! in hand i couldn't help but think we live in a seriously fucked up world and right now i feel damned lucky to be in the safety of Belfast...
puts everything in perspective. a little sorrowed talk indeed...
LB, x
sobering...
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