To be a palestinian....

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I arrived in London yesterday at 1:00 am. As soon as they noticed my Palestinian passport at the airport they stopped me and the questions started, they treated me as if they knew that the Palestinians are used to being questioned and searched for hours and hours, they even started to ask about how I got to Italy and how long I will stay there when I go back. The only thing which helped me to enter to the country that night was that Carolyn and John (two ISM activists they were in Palestine in December campaign) were waiting for me at the airport. The officer went out and he called them and started to ask questions to at least be sure that I am leaving the country soon. After a while he came back and he told me that I can go, my friends are waiting outside, and my statement was “are you sure that I am in safe hands now”, his answer was “I hope so…”!!!
Next morning Saturday the 15th of Feb, we went out to meet Camilla and John to join the march, Carolyn the ISM activist whose flat I stay in. She went to have a meeting before the march and I joined Camilla and john and some friends. The march started about 11:30 Camilla received call about the ISM table and we should move to make it ready. We went to the side and a group of the organisers for the march said that we can’t pass from this side and they asked us to go and pass through the bridge, we went to the bridge and the police stopped us and they said that we can’t pass now the march started. I asked the group to go back to the organiser’s side and they said they will not let us pass, I said just follow me, we went to the organisers and I did the first successful negotiation in London and we passed from that side, we moved very fast to reach Hyde park were the march was to end to have the speeches, we prepared every thing and the people started to come and ask about the ISM and our actions and some were interested to know more,” I hope we will have more people joining our movement” ; many people started to arrive and good news arrived too, the number was increasing from time to time, many people all over the world, the number in London reached to 2 million and I received a message from a friend, she is an Indy media activist, saying that the number in Rome reached to 3 million, at 5:00 we were already freezing and we decided to leave to look for a warm place.
The wonderful day finished with a great Lebanese dinner.
Its great chance to take part in these actions, which surly going to increase my experience in the direct action and making me look forward to be back in Palestine to do my part in our movement, and looking forward to be in Palestine soon, and looking forward to join our group actions in Nablus. Miss You PALESTINE.
Saif, London.
nablus_ism@yahoo.com