THE LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION

THE LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION

by Bi
The life under occupation is such a miserable life; it has demolished the future of
many people, although it has had a huge constructive impact on my life. To be occupied means to deal with your enemy every day and to face many obstacles every day, but my day was like an adventure or a journey. It started with the sunrise and ended with the sunset. I was born in Jordan in a poor family and we barely could cover life’s expenses.
Some years later, we learned that my grandpa in Palestine was very sick; therefore, we decided to move to Palestine to stay with him. Although two of my uncles were there in Palestine, my father was really eager to be with his father.
While we were in the small car heading to our village of, we were stopped at a
checkpoint by Israeli soldiers. We got out of the car. The weather was extremely hot and the humidity was high too; thus, all of us were sweating like peasants who have been working the whole day. That time was the first time for me meeting Israeli soldiers. I asked my father, “Who are they?” “Do not be anxious; tomorrow you will know,” he said. After hearing these words, I got terrified and thought I was going to see these soldiers with huge Dobermans and plenty of
weapons hung on their military suits every day. After we arrived to the village, we fell into a long sleep because it was such an exhausting day for us.
Everything changed in my life: new school, new friends, new environment and the occupation issue which I had never experienced before. The First week went quickly and a lot of people came to greet us. By the second week, almost everything took its place. My father started working with my uncle in his grocery store and my brother and I registered in the school.
On the second day of school, while I was heading to my home, I saw a lot of children running away. I thought something went wrong, but I did not pay any attention. I had almost made it to my home, but suddenly while I was walking in the alley, I faced him, the one I was worried of. Yes it was the Doberman dog with widely opened jaws and his tongue was leaning to the left, with spit falling on the ground like a lava flow. I could feel his hot breath burning into my face; at that moment, I was sweating. Although the weather was nice, the situation was not. While the dog was barking at me, a whistle came from behind me, and the dog responded to it by running to its direction. The sound of the whistle was like a relief for me. After reaching home, I learned that the dog belonged to the Israeli soldiers and because of this, the children were fleeing to their homes.
That situation took out the fear from my heart and I started to look to everything around me as a challenge. The First step I took forward was demolishing the myth of the Doberman dog. By encouraging others not to fear that dog and to be as one hand all the time, so that the dog would fear us and never come back. After the dog had become a usual thing in our society, my friends and I started to think about the soldiers and the curfew, and what we could do about them. After a week of discussion, I came up with an idea that we cooperate with friends from

other neighborhoods; therefore, I went with a bunch of friends to the nearest neighborhood, and we talked to the children there about our ideas and we mentioned to them the success we had before. The results were that all of our allies in this plan would ignore any curfew, and if any one of us got caught by a solider, we would do any thing to release him.Two years later, my grandpa passed away; therefore, my family decided to go back to Jordan.
This decision shocked me, and I felt that my heart exploded like the big bang. “I want to stay in Palestine, I want struggle and strive with my friends” I said, “It is time to leave Bilal, enough is enough” my father said.
Night before we left, all of my friends came to see me; although there was a curfew. Fortunately, all of them hade made it safe to my home. Many of them brought me gifts, I remember a friend who was very poor, and he could not buy me anything, but he gave me a little stone, with the word of Palestine was sculptured on it. This stone was very valuable to my heart.

When almost all of my friends gathered, I said to my self, “I should say something to them”. As I stood front of them, the words started going out from my mouth, like pure water from spring. “What we have done in our small village, is considered to be a big victory in the minds of all children. Tears will never bring us a victory or even do anything for us. Yes we are occupied, so lets take the advantages of this occupation. Lets make it constructive to us, not destructive”. Then we all went out to the street and shouted “soon or later you will see Palestine will be free”.