By Bruno Balsa

Anyone: “Hey mate, what are youre plans for the next month?”
Me: “I’m going to go to Palestine.”
Anyone: “Palestine? What do you want there? You’ll get bombed.”

Yap…this is a common thought in Germany and unfortunately almost the only one. People back there just don’t care about Palestine, because in their opinion the whole Middle East is dangerous. But besides the fact that this is not the case in Palestine (at least to a certain degree), Palestine has a deeply interesting history and a sad fate everyone should know about.

When I came to Zajel Youth Exchange Program in Palestine I had an absolutely no idea what would I expect. I read something about workshops and thought that we would learn together how to speak in public on daily basis. I was wrong. It was more than that. Zajel gave us profound insights in the everyday life of Palestinians, the opportunity to set up and lead our own workshops and explained us the history of the conflict in details. Everyday we would hop on the university bus and be brought to different exciting places where we would either experience the hospitality of Palestinian inhabitants, listen to the stories of ex-prisoners and war crime witnesses or get an impressive view on the Palestinian countryside. But it was the close contact to the local volunteers and internationals that helped me to gather huge perspectives during my stay.

Speaking to people of different backgrounds of the world and experiencing the relaxed lifestyle and kindness of the locals worth it’s weight in gold. It helped me to improve my english skills and to draw conclusions for my own life since I began to realise that if people here can be happy and remain positive everyday…why should I ever complain about my life? My sorrows are nothing compared to the worries of the people here but still I use to overestimate them -unlike people do here. I think that the Workcamp at Zajel had a big impact on my future and provided me with important perspective through the perfect mixture of political seriousness and social convenience.

It is important for Palestine to get attention of foreign countries because otherwise their isolation will never end. It needs the support from outside to fight together the injustice. Plus: People there need to contact the internationals since it is very hard for them to get abroad so that they barley even see the sea once in their lives. Everyone should have the chance of gather perspective because that is the key for establishing Peace. So come to Palestine, come to Zajel and be -together with the enthusiastic and dedicated Palestinian students- the change!