recognizing shades of my own...

For a while now I have been researching and creating a database about the grafitti that is on the separation barrier here in Palestine. I have been trying to take a deeper look at exactly what message the various artists are trying to convey and to whom. Through my research I discovered an organization based out of the Netherlands that has set up a website for people wishing to relay a message in a special way involving paying 30 Euro to have a sentence or two spraypainted on the separation barrier, and then having a picture or two of the finished product e-mailed to them or a person of their choice. A part of the proceeds goes to the minimal staff and materials costs while the rest is distributed to small Palestinian NGOs. Such a concept, I thought the first time I heard - you can write a message of love, of peace, or frustration, or of your favorite falafel recipe, and in any language. Perfect!

A couple of weeks ago I heard about a new project that the "sendamessage" crew and the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum had teamed up to do. They set out to paint a nearly 2,000 word letter, written by a S. African scholar comparing the situation in Palestine to South African apartheid, on the wall that will eventually stretch some 2,600 meters in length. In order to fund the project and to raise money for Palestine each section of the barrier can be sponsored for 20 Euros. More information is at http://www.sendamessage.nl/the-longest-letter/


Last week I read that the project was looking for volunteers to come help. Hearing this, I didn't hesitate to make the call as again it is something that I have interested in for awhile now. To make a long story short, I ended spending my entire weekend at the separation barrier with a great team that consisted of Faris, Yousef, Raji, Faris (the other one), Rana, and for part of one of the days, V.

Faris, Faris, and Raji were in charge of painting the white background with long paint rollers. Myself, Rana, and Yousef (V too) sorted the letters and painted each segment one by one with the words of the letter. The process went something like this: Yousef would climb the ladder, Rana would read off what letters or words were needed, myself and V would sort through the stencils to find the correct letters, put them in order and then hand them to Yousef, who in turn would take a can of black spray paint and paint the letters on the wall and then hand the stencils back to us before moving the ladder to the next section where we would start all over again. Each section contains only 7 characters so you can imagine how tedious the process is. Regardless, it was actually quite fun and it felt really good to be outside being productive.

On Friday, there were several media units there. Some were taking pictures, some were conducting interviews, and one was even making a documentary. As the only foreigner or "ajnabiyya" there in the morning, I was interviewed by 2 television news units - 1 from MBC and one from Bahrain. Later in the day, V and I were both interviewed for the documentary. The next day, according to Faris, I was on Al-Arabiya news. This was confirmed later by a man in a car who said he saw me on TV and Amira the next day who told me she saw me as well. So I guess I was on Arabic television. Strange!

I ended up spending about 6 hours the first day and 7 hours the second day helping out. I honestly had a blast and it was nice to feel that I was part of something so big and something that means so much to the Palestinians. I will go back every weekend until it is finished - it is supposed to be done by "Nakba Day," which is on May 15th. One of the interviewers asked me if I was a peace activist and I said "no, I definitely don't consider myself a peace activist" - however I do believe that more people should know about the separation barrier, or apartheid wall as it is sometimes called, and what is going on here, and if my helping with this project will allow for the message to spread to the masses, then so be it.