Students Boycott Apartheid

The sea is not deep enough

Jun 29, 2009 Trip | Author: Hannah

This evening we went to the sea in Yaffa. Every time I am here I have the same feeling as when I am in Jerusalem and I get a call from a West Bank friend. When a friend asks me where I am, sometimes I lie and say I am in Ramallah. Because Jerusalem does not mean to me what it means to them, and yet I am allowed to be there and they are not. It is the same with the sea. Some of my most meaningful times in Palestine have been traveling with children who have never been to the sea, watching them dive in fully clothed, even in the winter. This evening was nice. A beautiful evening, a good group of people. I was glad to be able to be there, and especially with the two members of our group who hold West Bank IDs and are therefore not usually allowed to visit the sea. But it is not so simple as to just enjoy it. As one pointed out yesterday, he is only allowed to be here in ’48, in his own land, because he is with a foreign group. I’m not sure the sea is deep enough to hold the pain or contradictions of Zionism.