By Doriane More – France

My dear readers, how can I share with you the two most intense weeks of my life? I applied to this program in April with the desire to truly discover Palestine, and to see beyond what the French media delivers to its people. When Zajel posted my name on the Zajel Facebook group, I started to receive a lot of message from local students saying ‘welcome’. I arrived a week before the beginning of the camp.

A crucial element of our incredible experience was teaching classes to the local students. It was more than a touristic camp, as it allowed us to gain some theoretical knowledge about the conflict. To teach added a special human feeling to this camp, and made me feel like I was taking part in a real exchange. I was not simply receiving information from the Palestinian population, as I was also giving something back to the community.

Zajel showed us a lot of places and cities in the country. I still don’t know how to thank Zajel for these experiences. We visited some places that I never could have even considered travelling to if I had been alone. For instance, we went to Hebron. Hebron is famous because of its instability and its recurring violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.

This day was probably the more intense of the camp. The city is overloaded with check points and Israeli soldiers. Even access to the mosque in Hebron is controlled by the Israeli forces. Zajel showed us how to get into the settlement established inside the city walls. I can assure you that this experience was one of the hardest of my entire life. The streets were empty of people and shops (all of them were closed sixteen years ago), As you can see, Zajel worked very hard to show us many different aspects of Palestinian life. Every day the activities were different to the previous days. We had the chance to visit a refugee camp, a settlement, destroyed houses, the UNICEF office, Hebron, Bethlehem, a wonderful valley close to Jordan and many other places. I believe that all of these activities were essential.

In Nablus I met Sedena, an international volunteer who attended the camp last year, and returned to Palestine for ‘Light a Candle’. She said that her experiences with Zajel radically changed her life. Now I understand what she meant when she told us this upon her arrival. I am still wondering how it is possible to be so kind and peaceful whilst living under oppression, aggression and humiliation every day.

To conclude, this camp gave me substantial knowledge about the conflict. But most importantly, Zajel also taught me a human lesson. I’m sure that I will miss the solidarity, the communication, and the kindness between the local volunteers and the internationals when I fly back to Europe. I hope that I will have the strength to bring back to France the voices of the Palestinian people, and to spread awareness of the truths and realities which I had the chance to see in their land.