Women discuss hardships
faced by living in
Jerusalem
By Dave Stephens
Assistant
Campus Editor
It should take Rawan Damen 15 minutes to get to
class.
Instead it takes almost 2 1/2 hours for Damen,
a Palestinian student in Israel's West Bank, to get through the numerous
checkpoints and roadblocks between her home and her university.
On Tuesday night, Damen along with two other women
from Jerusalem, spoke about their experiences and their shared hope
for peace. The program in Stewart Center, "Jerusalem Women Speak," was
one stop on a tour that has already visited over 40 cities. The three
women speakers of the program, representing three religions and two
nationalities, spoke before a crowd of over 150 as they told the stories
of what it is like to live in a war torn country.
"When I wake up in the morning, the first thing
I do is turn on the radio to listen to the news," said Damen. "Then
I telephone my university … and ask them if the road between them
and my home is open."
Damen said if the road is closed, she cannot attend
class that day. But if the road is open, she begins the exhausting task
of going to school.
"When I walk across the Israeli checkpoints I feel
very insecure … from time to time gas bombs are thrown … I
once saw a man beaten to death by Israeli soldiers," said Damen.
Damen also tells the story of how her 13-year-old
brother is terrified to sleep at night, often asking, "When will the
Israeli's bomb again?"
Damen said her brother witnessed the attack by
an Israeli helicopter on a Palestinian police station less than one-tenth
of a mile from their home.
"One-third of the 150 children killed during the
past 11 months were killed at home," said Damen. "It's very hard to
convince people that home is a safe place."
But despite the atrocities that she has faced,
Damen said she is fervently hoping for peace, something that becomes
less of a reality every day.
"We have to confess that the hope for peace is
diminishing every day," she said.
With the same pain in her voice that Damen spoke
with, Michal Shohat, an Israeli Jew, told the crowd of her promise that
she made to her oldest child in 1977, that she would never have to serve
in the Israeli army.
"I don't know if you know what it is like for Israeli
mothers to send our kids to the army," said Shohat. "You never when
the next war is coming."
Shohat said that when she made her promise to her
infant daughter, she also made a commitment to fighting for peace in
her country; something that she still believes in, even if she hasn't
been able to keep her two eldest children away from Israel's mandatory
military service.
"My youngest daughter is 15 now, she has only three
years until she has to go to the army, and I'm not sure if I can keep
my promise to her," she said.
Jean Zaru, a Palestinian and a Christian, spoke
about her experiences raising a family in occupied Palestine and the
prejudice she's faced there.
"As a person living in an interfaith society, I
have learned that all of us are created in God's image," said Zaru.
"But I find it very difficult on the West Bank, as a Palestinian, that
I don't have the same rights as the Israeli's who are living on my land."
Zaru said that as a practicing Quaker, she believes
that a lasting peace can only happen between Israel and Palestine if
both sides try to solve their differences.
"Peace is a state of self-respect, cooperation
and well-being," said Zaru.
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