Bushra Mukbil
Posted on | November 7, 2008 | No Comments
Consultant with Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator
I was having lunch with a friend and her young son in Ramallah when Israeli soldiers attacked a café across the street. They had guns, shattered windows, threw gas bombs and sound bombs. The kid asked his mom, “What’s happening?” She told him, “It’s a Hollywood movie.” I said, “You have to tell him the reality.” She said, “No, I don’t want my kid to live in fear. At one point he will know it himself.”
What do you tell the children? I would be grateful if someone told me how to explain it.
I’ve been active since I was 13, at conferences, interviewed on television. My goal is to show that people my age—educated, strong, independent, and who believe in a just solution—are the true image of Palestine.
Tell us about yourself.
My family is originally from a village that has now become the settlement of Kiryat Gat. They were kicked out of their village in 1948 and they moved to Hebron. When I was 18, I went to the US to complete my BA and MA. After I completed my education, I was offered 2 long-term assignments with the World Bank in DC. I made the choice to come back to work for my people and my country.
I haven’t yet left the camp. I work in Ramallah but every weekend, I go back to the camp.
When I was in the States, I was quite shocked at how little people knew of Palestine: they lumped it with Saudi Arabia or the Gulf countries. They were also shocked to meet an unveiled Palestinian woman who was normal and open-minded. It went a bit beyond stereotypes; it was a little distressing.
I wanted to show them a different face of Palestine that they hadn’t seen before. I made a lot of presentations around the US. It wasn’t so much about what I said but the simple fact of showing how normal it was for a Palestinian woman to come to the United States to be educated. Gender equality in Palestine is not an impediment as it is in other countries.
You have a strong perspective and interest in politics.
It’s hard not to be political, where every aspect of your life is controlled by the occupation. If I want to go have a coffee with my friends, I have to go through a checkpoint. If I want to go on vacation, I have to think about what documents I need to collect, how many signatures I need to get. This is a very hard reality that forces us to be political.
How do women who wear the hijab, or men, perceive you?
It’s sad that people associate the hijab with the opposite of modernity. It’s a matter of choice, of religious belief, not your level of civilization. I have cousins who are veiled and are extremely modern and open-minded. My mother is veiled. It’s not an impediment preventing you from working or being educated—more women are educated than men, and our labor market has a high percentage of women.
A modern young women who returns to a refugee camp in Hebron on weekends …
You always long for the warmth of homemade food and the company of your family. I like the simplicity of the camp—people are united. It made me who I am. There is not a lot of money so people focus on education and the refugee issue. I have ambitious parents who helped us to look up and believe the sky is the limit.
My mother’s uncle was on his way home and was shot in the head by a settler. He died on the spot. My mother’s brother, the Israelis hit him on the head for no reason. He was 40 or 45 years old, a simple man coming back to his family after work. He’s been blind since then.
My sister was attending a high school in Hebron during the second intifada. Often, random shootings would start in the school’s neighborhood and the teacher would tell the students, “Call your parents and say goodbye.” The city of Hebron is four or five minutes from the camp, but as it was so difficult to go through the checkpoint, our parents rented her an apartment next to school. Not that the convenience came with safety. My mother witnessed bullets go in and out of the apartment. Many times, she would make herself into a body shield on top of my sister so that if someone where to die, it would be her.
Do you feel angry?
What do you expect? I am amazed at how we as Palestinians can just accept it and just go through it. People have resisted, but they are at a stage where they have given up. It’s a matter of survival now. I hate it when people give up and leave. Courage is having faith we will have a just solution, staying and resisting in every nonviolent way possible.
It’s time for concrete action with the help of the international community—an end to the occupation, dismantling the settlements and checkpoints. They talk as if these are hard issues. It’s easy to remove a checkpoint. They are added every day, they can be removed every day.
How do you act at a checkpoint?
At times, I wonder, “Why am I here or how can I respond to the Israeli soldier humiliating me?” I’m tempted to shout back at them, “Why are you treating me this way just because I happen to be a Muslim or an Arab or Palestinian?” But it’s a matter of taking a deep breath and thinking, “What can I do to resist the injustice?” My choice is to join different groups working to bring about an end to the occupation through nonviolent resistance.
What is courage?
Courage is having faith that we will have a just solution in this region. Staying in this land and engaging in non-violent resistance is the expression of courage.
Can there be peace with Israelis?
If it’s left to the people, we will be fine—politics divide us. How to maintain friendship when you are separated by barriers, walls, checkpoints? Older soldiers at checkpoints see Palestinians daily. They understand we are not monsters, and become better in how they treat us. When they see you every day, they change.
People are wrong in thinking that the key to solving the Palestinian and Israeli conflict is to focus on the two sides getting along. It’s not. If left to the people, we will be fine. It’s the politicians that divide us.
Mukbil, raised in Al-Arroub refugee camp near Hebron, received her BA and MA degrees in the United States, where she became a consultant for the World Bank. In 2006 she returned to work with UNSCO, monitoring Palestinian institutions and the impact on them of reduced funds. Mukbil is a coordinator for Seeds of Peace, which brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth, including herself and Noa Epstein, who is also interviewed.
