Hanging with the Shabab

Not that you’d know it from reading this blog, but over the past 2 and a half months, I’ve spent lots of time with lots of youth. More specifically, Bethlehem-based youth who are active in the “youth movement.” And, as you can imagine, leading up to the 15 May, the anniversary of Nakba which many this year were also dubbing the “Third Intifada,” there was quite a lot of discussion and concern about what to do and the best way to do it. My closest friend in the movement had yet another issue to contend with; her parents. They were worried about her safety, wanted her to focus on her studies (which is perfectly understandable, given she’s in her final year of high school) and essentially made her promise that she wouldn’t participate in the demonstrations – but more on that later.

Extremely distraught and depressed, she arrived at my house one afternoon with a noticeable pout. Leaning against the windowsill in the sun-room, there were only storm clouds in her eyes. She removed a cigarette from the pack, placed it behind her ear and started to vent.

“But I have to be a part of this – I want to do something meaningful for my country, I have to be a part of this movement on the 15th – there’s people all over the world showing their solidarity with us. Being there is more important to me than anything.” And then lighting the cigarette, she uttered those infamous four words exclaimed by teenagers everywhere, “It’s just not fair!”

After an hour or two of conversation we concocted a sort of ‘plan b’ – something that would ensure her contribution even if she could not be at a demonstration in person. Essentially she was going to call some of her other friends in the movement and encourage them to make a video with her to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of Nakba. She wanted to make a short, punchy vid in black and white, in both the Arabic and English languages, about life under Israeli occupation from a young, Palestinian perspective.

Only one of her friends was available so together the three of us spent that afternoon compiling a list of things that outrightly sucked about life in the occupied West Bank. The list as you can imagine was long. Too long in fact, for a successful Youtube video – so we then spent time prioritising and culling points until we were left with a strong list of 25 aspects of life under Israeli occupation that apart from being a blatant abuse of human rights and civil liberties, we were all – to put it bluntly – extremely sick of. We took some photos, sourced others, recorded the vocal track and edited the following video together. It went viral very, very quickly. Within the relatively short period of seven days it had received more than 50,000 views. Needless to say, my friend was over the moon. She felt that she had made a very real contribution but, like all determined teenagers, snuck out to the demonstration on the 15th, anyway.