Ghada Issa Ghabboun
Posted on | March 3, 2009 | No Comments
Co-Director of Hope Flowers School in Bethlehem
My father worked ten years before he managed a room for us outside the refugee camp. Even the walls and windows weren’t complete, but it was a palace because it was outside the camp. Father used to say, “We are the victims of the victims.” He meant the Holocaust victims, but my Israeli friends try to build bridges. We have a painful history, and it has to stop. We can’t keep killing each other.
I would say we all deserve good lives, and there are things on this earth that deserve to be lived for. I would say the same to the Palestinians, we must stop fighting each other. It is shameful to kill each other.
Bethlehem. Birthplace of Jesus. Where is God now?
I’ve seen masked men with guns in Bethlehem, and the Israelis just built the Wall only 200 meters from our school. Sniper towers will be built, the military roads will expand, and we will be threatened with demolition because we’re in the buffer zone. When such terrible things happen, you ask where is the wisdom in that, but I believe in God. We must keep this faith. Even in the most difficult times God is there to give mercy to people. My belief gives me some hope.
Hope?
If everybody lost hope, they would stop working or going to school. I can’t be desperate before my children, and I have so many things to do that I can’t take time out. If I had time, I would sit down and think about these terrible things.
Your school is called Hope Flowers School. How was it started?
My father was a refugee. His father, that is my grandfather, died heart broken after becoming a refugee. My father himself was embittered by his experiences in the refugee camps. His idea was that for children, the best thing to deal with the situation is through education. He believed in educating the children in the philosophy of peace rather than in the mentality of killing, retaliation, and war. That’s where the school’s name comes from. Since establishing the school in 1984, we have been integrating the laws of peace and democratic education in the curriculum.
Do you get tired?
Yes, especially after having my third child. But sometimes I feel that it’s a gift from God when people stop feeling. At times, I’m up all night and then in the morning, I start my day. I cook breakfast for the children, give them baths, in addition to all the tasks and responsibilities I had before giving birth. Mothers seem to have this gift from God of not surrendering to exhaustion. I think this is true for mothers all around the world.
We work under difficult circumstances. It breaks my heart when I go to school and see the road closures, settlements, sniper towers, and the wall. It has a material affect, as well as a psychological one. Because of all the restrictions and barriers, we are rarely able to finish a project according to its plan. We confront difficulties that are beyond our control.
I’ve heard people say that Palestinians should be better organized and build a better infrastructure for their own social services. What would your response be?
The chaos is not always the Palestinians’ fault. This is a bigger problem that has to do with politics and other issues that are not in the hands of the people. The sanctions are destroying Palestinian institutions. For example, so many organizations and the governmental hospitals had to close because the employees weren’t receiving salaries, which created chaos in the private institutions. I agree we have to be better organized, but it’s not enough to look at the chaos—you have to look at what’s happening in the larger picture.
What do you want for your children?
I want them to live a better and easier life than mine. When I think of my childhood, I see things that were taking place around me during the first intifada. I remember that we all spent it being scared. We endured the army, the curfews, and being away from school for weeks and months because the schools were closed.
My father worked for 10 years to build a house outside the refugee camp for his family. I remember when we lived in our home outside the refugee camp when it wasn’t complete. It didn’t have enough furniture, the walls and windows weren’t finished, and we used to sleep on the floor. For us, it was a palace because it was outside the refugee camp, but now when I think of that—oh my God, it was terrible.
Yet, I learned a lot of things from my father: to be strong. to go ahead, not to surrender, and to know what you want and don’t want, what you need and don’t need, and to be frank with oneself.
What is compassion?
Compassion is to see the human being inside each person.
The human being in someone who builds a wall or wears a mask?
It’s difficult to see the human being in the soldier at the checkpoint who makes decisions about me without knowing me. But it’s important to understand why this person is doing this. I have many arguments with soldiers when I try to cross a checkpoint, but I try to dig inside for the human being.
When I was nine months pregnant with my daughter, I had a terrible argument with a soldier at Qalandia checkpoint. He didn’t want me to return home to Bethlehem from Ramallah. He was older, not a young soldier, so I asked if he has children. I asked if he has someone to worry about, and he said “yes.” I wanted to see him without a gun. We spoke for ten minutes and he let me in.
For peace, do people have to forgive each other?
There must be a time, if we want to make peace with other people—even on the personal level if I want to make peace with someone who hurt me—that we overcome and forgive. It doesn’t mean forget, but to forgive because I will be killing myself thinking this person did that and this person did this. I must forgive for myself, for the sake of my inner self.
Ghabboun co-directs Hope Flowers School with her brother Ibrahim Issa. The school was established in 1984 by their father, Hussein Issa, who, after years of struggle, brought his family out of Aida refugee camp. Before the intifada, Wall, and checkpoints, the school had 550 students from Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jerusalem. With enrollment at 250 students, Ghabboun is focusing on women’s empowerment programs.
