Voices From the Middle East:
Ala Uwainah
Ala is obsessed with being able to open the gate and walk down
the street.
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Ala Uwainah
 Intro:
Ala Uwainah. The 20-year-old Palestinian lives just a ten minute
walk from Manger Square, where Israeli troops have surrounded the
Church of the Nativity.
For the past week, since the Israeli tanks rolled into town, Ala
and five members of his family have been crowded into one room,
the living room, since the other parts of the house are more exposed
to shelling. He says the "togetherness" is getting unbearable
for a young person who loves to be out and about.
With tanks intermittently passing by his windows, Ala called Youth
Radio with this essay.
Ala says that his family is running very low on food; only his
mother or youngest brother and sister can leave the house to quickly
shop during breaks in the curfew, imposed on Bethlehem. As a young
Palestinian male he risks arrest with any step outside the door.
Script:
Glancing through the window, I see a cat going through the garbage.
Poor thing doesn't realize that no one has been able to take out
the garbage for the past seven days. But at least it's not Palestinian,
so it can walk down the street. I was interrupted by my kid sister
telling me to move away from the window — an important piece
of advice, well, unless you like being shot at.
The reason no one has gone out in the past seven days is that Israel
has decided to send its troops into Palestinian towns, and since
there's no one to stop them, they just went in, with the pretext
of rooting out terrorism. The ever-so-kind Israeli army, out of
concern for our welfare of course, declared an around-the-clock
curfew, so they could avoid shooting us. At first, I told myself
that crises are character building. Had that been true, I would
have had enough character to make a career out of it.
But now I feel so outraged! I mean, what gives them the right to
decide if I, and the three-point-something million other Palestinians
can go out of their homes or not?
And, what do I spend my days doing? What else? Watching TV. Usually
news wouldn't be my first choice of programming. But I think I'm
subconsciously trying to punish myself with it. You know, looking
for hope, only to be hit with worse news, more casualties and more
death. Even sarcasm and black humor don't work anymore, and for
me that's like losing a limb.
The thought that is taking over my cerebral cortex (sorry guys,
nerd talk) is opening the gate and going for a walk in the street.
It's turning into an obsession. Which is a bit disturbing, that
you would fantasize about something as simple as opening the gate
and walking into the street.
I guess I've always hated my ghetto, but the thought that it would
shrink to the dimensions of my living room is amazing. How the nightmare
of the ghetto, as it was before, has become a dream now.
— Ala Uwainah is 20 years old and lives in Bethlehem.
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