Reflections From a Week in Palestine

“If you could imagine the most perfect summer night, that’s what it felt like in the Al Aqsa compound. Maybe it’s the knowledge that I was praying where the prophets prayed or sitting where Maryam played as a child. Maybe it is the difficulty to enter – the soldier’s ability to deny my entry, the questions I got asked before I was allowed to pass through, or the M16s casually being pointed at me. Maybe its because many of the locals are not allowed to even enter the compound. Whichever the reason, the awe and gratitude that overcame me for even making it there would only be matched by the beauty of the space and people there.

By the mercy of Allah, I was given the opportunity to volunteer in Palestine this past July. In the too few days I spent there, I was able to explore Old City Jerusalem, Acre, Haifa, and Yaffa before departing to the site in Jericho where I would spend a week instructing high school students. The Palestinian-based organization I volunteered with helps young scholars get into top universities worldwide. Their hope is that by providing the tools needed for students to get a good education, they will come back and contribute to building the future of Palestine.

In my capacity, I had the honor of reading and editing the personal statements of the 11th, soon to be 12th grade mischievous students. And when I say mischievous, please take no offense. I mean it in the way that it settled my heart seeing teenagers still be teenagers despite the situation surrounding them. They still tried to negotiate their way out of doing their assigned tasks. They switched seats to be next to their friends even after we, the instructors, separated them for talking too much. If one needed to go to the bathroom, coincidentally others also had to go at the same time. When it was time for them to go to their rooms for the night, one would all of a sudden need water, another needed a snack, another didn’t know where their jacket was, another wanted to switch rooms. They had the hearts of children, behaviors of teenagers, yet too often are villainized like criminals. 

Getting a glimpse into their lives through their personal statements left me with complex feelings. Their stories were all too familiar. They wrote about overcoming insecurities, watching illnesses overtake loved ones, living through the grief of death, finding outlets in the arts, and celebrating achievements they worked incredibly hard to attain. They have the same stories as any high schoolers found anywhere in the world, as my friends, as me but they live those stories against a background of desecration. One of the more memorable personal statements I read was about a student who was often bullied because of his small stature. Because his physical build was developing at a slower rate than his peers he was subjected to verbal insults and public embarrassment and was regularly misgendered. However, what he did not possess in height and build, he possessed in intelligence. His vocabulary and mastery of writing not only surpassed his peers but many graduate level students. He was witty, articulate, succinct, and composed. Overall, a brilliant writer.  

There are no amount of words I would be able to write to express the vastness of the emotions I experienced during my time there. I only hope that what I could contribute to the students was even a fraction as impactful to them as it was to me.”