Now, for those of whom aren't familiar with the situation, there's a significant movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with commonly accepted international law and ends the occupation, (read more here), similar to what was done successfully against Apartheid-era South Africa. A lot of my friends here participate in the BDS movement, and thus refuse to buy Israeli products or support the Israeli economy by say, going to eat sushi in West Jerusalem or going to the beach in Tel Aviv. While these friends can and do make exceptions to travel out of Ben Gurion or spend money in Palestinian parts of '48, generally it's a rigorous way of life and ends up with lots of researching of where things come from and whose hands money ends up in.
While I feel a huge amount of support for this movement and think it's a smart way to gain traction on the issue of occupation, I personally feel the 'best' thing I can do for Palestine is work my hardest to build a successful, sustainable business here and prove to the world that Palestine is a viable market economy ready for independence. That, I am doing my best at. What I am also doing my best at is enjoying the heck out of the beaches, mountains and delicious restaurants that are only an hour drive from the hilltop hamlet I find myself in. An hour and multiple checkpoints, but still...I'll go through a checkpoint for a full day of surfing, napping and drinking beer on the beach. No problem.
So as I've been spending a lot of time 'inside', I think I lost a little bit of perspective. I got soft. I was charmed by Tel Aviv's markets and Hertzlia's beaches and Abu Ghosh's organic food scene. I was in the water, being active, in the summer...my favorite things. Then I had a conversation with a good friend that brought me back to Palestine.
This friend of mine is a good man - Palestinian from a Jerusalem family, super smart and patient and really quite lovely. He and I were lying on his couches in his living room last night, beached like whales after an epic multi-course, multi-nation food progressive through Palestine, Russia and Italy (sidebar: he fed me my first caviar and I almost barfed, that stuff is horrible!!) We were talking food and I mentioned my favorite sushi place in Jerusalem, a place the NYTimes had reviewed recently, charmingly ensconced in an alley near Jaffa st. My friend got a funny little smile on his face I had never seen before. "You know, I used to go there, I loved that place. Then my grandmother told me that courtyard was our family's..." he trailed off, ruefully laughing. I was stunned. I thought about all the times I had been there, the happy ambiance, the crowds of chopstick-wielding people, the laughter. I thought about all the Americans who had come to Israel and eaten there without knowing that this had once been a lovely family's courtyard, that there was a grandma in Jerusalem who walked by where she had played as a child, now a fancy sushi joint, and saw only tragedy.
One must work hard to remember, readers. This doesn't mean I won't be heading back inside to crash around in waves and sun like a lizard, but I don't think I'll be heading back to that sushi place. Too much, too close, too sad.
Note: for my US-based readers, you can find a list of settlement products to boycott here, if you so choose. (This is not Israeli products writ large, rather an exclusive list of products that come from the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank)
Second note: Some of you might not know that Israel recently passed a law making boycotting the settlements or advocating boycotting settlement products illegal. Check this out to see the awful effects of that law in action, check this out for more information on the law itself, and check this out for an Israeli opinion piece on it (highly recommended article)
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