The Palestine 2.0 Delegation explores current realities for Palestinians, including the repression of strategic organizing, the separation and segregation of the Palestinian population, and creative ways communities are continuing to resist.
Follow the delegation to read eyewitness accounts from the grounds, reports from meetings, and experiences with Palestinians and Israelis.
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This delegation is Eyewitness Palestine's 67th, successfully exposing more than 1,300 people to the daily realities facing Palestinians in their quest for justice.
We believe in the power of eyewitness experience and transformation. Given the opportunity to speak directly with Palestinians and Israelis, delegates return to the United States better informed, more energized, and with a deeper understanding of the possibilities for true justice in the Middle East.
We spent 4 days in Al-Khalil (Hebron). Spending time at the Youth Against Settlement Center. It’s a scrappy little building with a few rooms and hardly any furniture. Since it is small, we spend most of our time outdoors on the patio (“patio” makes it sound fancier than it is). Like nearly every place in Palestine, a land of hills, it has a great view, but I digress.
Read MoreThroughout the West Bank Hebron has the reputation of having the most in-your-face examples of Israeli settlers attempting to stamp Palestinian society into the ground. We spent four days here, seeing examples of settler brutality and Palestinian resistance. It was simultaneously heart wrenching and inspiring.
Read MoreOur bus dropped us and our luggage off at the foot of the hill they are forbidden to pave up to their Center. YAS guys dashed around to help haul our bags the half-mile over rutted paths made muddy from the previous day’s rains. Their bare-bones concrete center is overtopped and surrounded by an Israeli-flagged settlement compound patrolled by Israeli soldiers.
Read MoreSumud is Arabic for “steadfast perseverance” and a description of the resistance we saw and heard about today from villagers from the Palestinian southern Hebron hills - from Susiya, to Al-Twani, to Saroura. The courage to live out - “To exist is to resist!” - requires Sumud when the Israeli settler-colonial empire brings so many expanding layers of violence.
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