|
|
Najbardziej dojmująca jest niemożliwość podróżowania, wyjazdu, doznania prostego uczucia oderwania i dystansu, jest to jeden z grzechów głównych Izraela wobec Palestyńczyków - zamknąć ludzi na określonym terenie otoczonym murem i strażnicami, wozami opancerzonymi, M-16 i żołnierzami.
|
|
|
A desert wind. So hot it burns your face. We rode to Ramallah for two hours, gathering passengers along the way, the Palestinian services are rather slow. At a checkpoint a soldier asked me where I was from. Jenin, I said instinctively. He looked at me, not understanding. Ok, from Poland, I corrected myself. Holland? No, P-o-l-a-n-d. Poland. It's strange talking to someone who aims at you with their M16. On a nearby hill stood a torn garden umbrella and under it another guy with an M16. An occupation. When you try to describe the situation in the Occupied Territories, you keep repeating words that themselves signal helplessness: cage, jail, can, impossibility, powerlessness. You need to use some nonexistent negative mode. Introduce concepts to negate them. What is most painful is the impossibility of travelling, of going somewhere, experiencing the simple feeling of detachment and distance; it's one of Israel's main sins against the Palestinians - confine people to a closed area surrounded by walls and watchtowers, APCs, M16s and soldiers. Your every movement is slowed down or blocked. Humiliation awaits you at every checkpoint. I didn't feel that so much at the beginning, now, with every checkpoint, when the Palestinians pull out their crumpled papers, I feel ever more weary, bitter, angry. When I brought my backpack to the theatre office this morning, the Bad Boys were there, sitting on a sofa. I felt like suddenly their gazes fell on one thing - the backpack. Then they looked at me. ‘You're leaving.' ‘I'll be back,' I replied automatically, ‘I'm back soon, in four days.' ‘Put me in your backpack,' said Rame, who weighs at least 80 kilos. ‘I would, Rame.'
|
