Going home is complicated for Sanabel A. After being stranded in the United States, the Palestinian teen can’t wait to see her family and give her 2-year-old sister a hug. Yet she can’t help but worry about what else she’ll see when she returns.
After all, her home, the Dhesian refugee camp in Bethlehem, was a battleground while she was away. Israeli soldiers advanced into the camp, and day-to-day life skidded to a standstill. A 24-hour curfew kept schools closed and her family indoors.
“Our friends have told us, ‘Don’t ask about Bethlehem. You will see for yourself when you get here,’ ” said Sanabel, who boarded a jet in San Francisco on Sunday with her friend Kayan A., also 15, for the long journey home.
Exactly two months had passed since the girls arrived in the United States for what was supposed to be a short trip to attend the Academy Awards.
A chance to speak out
Sanabel, who appears in the Oscar-nominated documentary film “Promises,” which focuses on Israeli and Palestinian kids growing up amid the conflict, was willing to make a trip halfway around the world to give a 15-second speech. She and Kayan endured countless checkpoints, switched cars numerous times and dragged their luggage over hidden paths.
Sanabel understood she was taking a gamble: “Promises” had to win if she were to share her brief message, a message of peace, to millions of Academy Awards ceremony viewers.
It didn’t win.
But what Sanabel couldn’t have calculated is that she and Kayan wouldn’t be able to go home after the ceremony. The outbreak of violence in the Mideast made it unsafe for them to return.
Violence erupts
When the girls left home, things were relatively calm. But during March and April, the fighting became more brutal. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, upset by suicide bombings that were killing many Israelis, ordered tanks and soldiers to invade Palestinian cities and towns.
Sanabel would speak to her family every few days, as long as the phone lines were working. During the curfew, her family’s home had no electricity and often no water. Food was scarce.
“When I spoke to my mother, I heard shooting through the phone lines,” she said. “Nobody can leave the house. The soldiers have entered many houses in our camp and taken many men to prison.”
The girls’ stories echoed reports by UN relief workers in Palestinian camps. They described food and medicine shortages, heavy shelling and house-to-house searches that resulted in arrests of camp residents.
Both girls say they have friends who have been shot. Sanabel and Kayan are members of a dance group that uses traditional dance to tell the story of Palestinians. They also teach younger kids to dance. Recently one of their students, a 12-year-old boy, was hit in the eye by a sniper’s bullet that entered his house. “He is one of the best dancers in the group,” said Sanabel of her friend, who is recovering.
Sanabel and Kayan come from large families and say their brothers and sisters told them they were scared–and bored–during the curfew. So when the curfew was lifted and schools reopened last week, they were relieved, Kayan said. “It’s not the subjects, it’s the students [they want to return to]. It was boring. There was nothing. Every day was in the house.”
‘Another planet’
In the United States, the girls were invited to speak at schools, and Kayan admits that she would get jealous. “There are many differences between our life in Palestine and our life here,” she said. “It’s like another planet. It is very, very strange.
“We visit many schools, and … there is one room for video, one room for computers, one room for music. I feel envious. We have nothing like that in our camp.”
Kayan and Sanabel say that even before the latest Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which began in 2000, life in the camp was hard. “There were no Israeli soldiers, of course, but it was a bad life,” Kayan said. “My school is very crowded. There are 40 to 50 students in classes. We can’t learn very well.”
Travel also is restricted. Checkpoints prevent Palestinians without papers from traveling throughout Israel. Even though it’s only 10 minutes away, “we can’t go to Jerusalem,” Kayan explained. “We’re not allowed. We can’t go to the mall or the holy places.”
A reunion
Because of such travel restrictions, plus historical and emotional obstacles, most Israeli Jewish and Palestinian children rarely, if ever, interact. So it was a big moment in “Promises,” shot in 1998, when Sanabel insisted on meeting two Israeli Jewish children, who also are featured in the film, even though her friend Faraj didn’t think it was a good idea. She told her friends: “I don’t know of one Palestinian child who tried to explain our situation to an Israeli.”
Israeli twins Daniel and Yarko traveled to the camp and played soccer, ate and talked with the Palestinian kids. It was the first time any of the children met someone from “the other side.” They vowed to remain friends.
Through the years, the children lost touch. But on their way to the United States, Sanabel and Kayan shared flights and were reunited with the twins, who also attended the Academy Awards. They had not seen each other since 1998.
Said Sanabel: “The meeting at first was awkward. Since the intifada, we had not heard from them and felt abandoned. But after we met at the airport and sat and talked, we found they hadn’t changed their views. They still supported peace.”
Kayan says that they exchanged long and passionate discussions about many issues, including living conditions, terrorism and suicide bombers.
On Oscar night, Sanabel, who was wearing her grandmother’s dress, sat with the filmmakers and Daniel among big-name nominees such as Nicole Kidman. When “Promises” didn’t win an Oscar, Sanabel cried. She says it wasn’t the losing that caused the tears. It was the missed opportunity to be heard. “I had the chance to speak on stage before 1 billion people. I wanted to speak for the children.”
When asked what she would have said, Sanabel immediately launches into her speech. “I am a Palestinian refugee. I have hands. I have legs. I have a spirit. All I want is justice and real peace,” she began.
Living with uncertainty
The girls say they’ll miss the freedom they had in the United States. “At home, there is no peace. We live in a refugee camp,” Sanabel said.
Still, they hang on to their dreams. Kayan says she wants to study political science. Sanabel wants to become a journalist, like her father.
Sanabel acknowledged that when “Promises” was being made, “I was adamant about making peace and meeting the Jewish boys. Since the film, lots of things have changed.”
There has been more violence, more killings. A chance at a peaceful life seems far away.
“But I have to always keep planting seeds of hope in my heart,” Sanabel said. “It’s the only way. I have to do that. I have to make a future.”
The refugees
One key issue in the Palestinian-Israeli crisis is the Palestinian refugee camps, which have become deadly battlegrounds in the latest conflict. Why do the camps exist? Who lives there? KidNews takes a quick look:
Who are the refugees?
They’re Palestinians and their descendants who were uprooted from their homes in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war. When Israel declared itself a state in what had been British-controlled Palestine, a war involving Israel and Arab nations broke out the next day. Approximately 900,000 Palestinians fled during the war. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, today the refugees and their descendants number 3.9 million.
Where do they live?
The majority of refugees, about 2.9 million, do not live in Israeli camps but in Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The rest live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Why didn’t Palestinians return after the war?
Despite a United Nations resolution recognizing the Palestinians’ right to return to their homes, Israeli law barred those Palestinians from re-entering Israel after the war. The Palestinians became refugees, taken in by other Arab states.
Who runs the camps?
The United Nations does. But many nations, including European countries, the United States and Arab nations, contribute millions of dollars to upkeep of the camps.
What is the Israeli position on the refugees?
Israel says it is impossible for the Palestinian refugees to return. An influx of refugees would threaten Israel’s security and dilute its existence as a Jewish state.
What is the Palestinian position?
Palestinian refugees and their descendants say they have the right to return.
