The wall cannot stop ourstories

DIARY WRITING IN PALESTINEA Teacher Manual

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Terra Sancta School/Sisters ofSt Joseph

Bethlehem, 2004

© Copyright St Joseph School for Girls, Bethlehem/Terra Sancta 2004

All rights reserved. Subject to the exception provided forby law, no part of this publication may be reproduced and/or published in print or in any other way without the written consent of the copyright holder(s); the same applies to whole or partial adaptations. The publisher retains the sole right to collect from third parties fees payable in respect of copying and/or legal or other actionfor this purpose.

Title: The Wall Cannot Stop Our Stories: Diary Writing in Palestine. A Teacher ManualEditors: Toine van Teeffelen and Susan Atallah

The manual has been developed on the basis of input by thefollowing teachers participating in a diary writing workshop in January 2004 at Terra Sancta School/Sisters ofSt Joseph.

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…….

This publication has been made possible by a grant from AFSC (Quakers), Youth Program, Ramallah, Palestine

Lay-out: RAI, Bethlehem

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The wall cannot stop our storiesDIARY WRITING IN PALESTINEA Teacher Manual

INTRODUCTION

How to encourage diary writing in English at Palestinian schools is the question which this publication, intended for Palestinian teachers, tries to answer. It has been developed as part of a larger Palestinian diary writing project that tookplace in 2002-2004. Students of Terra Sancta School/Sisters of St Joseph in Bethlehem, together with youth from Arroub refugee camp near Hebron, wrote English-language diaries about their daily life under the difficult circumstances of the second Intifada. Their writings have been published under the title: "The Wall CannotStop Our Stories: A Palestinian Diary Writing Project" (Terra Sancta School/Sisters of St Joseph, Bethlehem, 2004).

The present manual is the fruit of a teacher workshop about diary writing in English held during January 2004. The workshop was designed to disseminate the findings at St Joseph School and Arroub butit was found that several of the participating teachers already had their

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own diary writing practices in class and that all of them were eager to discuss their findings. This teacher manual is therefore really a reflection of ongoing practices at various Palestinian schools. We are convinced that the suggestions made will be not far from what English-language teachers in Palestine think is desirable and viable in class.

The manual looks at the following subjects:

What is a diary and why to write it? What are possible topics to write

about? How to start writing? How to make a journal lively? For whom to write?

The manual does not contain difficult instructions but modest ideas which help tobrainstorm, discuss and, hopefully, free the students from those little voices inside that say that writing about yourselfor what happens around you is not possible,not important, or boring for others…

The Palestinian diary writing project has been set up by the AFSC (American Quakers),Youth Program, in cooperation with Terra Sancta/Sisters of St Joseph School for Girls in Bethlehem.

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Toine van Teeffelen, advisorSusan Atallah, coordinatorBethlehem May 2004

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1. WHAT IS A DIARY AND WHY TO WRITE IT?

What is a diary? The word diary comes from the Latin root of "day." A diary is about one's daily life, not just about the great events but also and especially about the very common activities one is doing at home, at school, or with one's friends and acquaintances. A diary tells the stories ofthe day. That does not mean that diary writing needs to be done daily. Once or twice a week is also possible, and some diary writers do it less often.

In most of the cases, diaries are a privateaffair; that is, they are addressed to nobody else than oneself. Many people trusttheir most intimate thoughts only to a diary, and hide their diary so that nobody else will read it. Sometimes people addresstheir diary writings to a somebody who doesnot exist but who is like a "friend" to whom all thoughts and feelings can be trusted. Dear friend, dear Samia, dear Samir, dear Kitty… listen what happened today… People sometimes keep several diaries or notebooks; a common distinction is between the diary as such, in which

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Student question: Have you ever thought about writing a journal or diary? Why (not)?

personal and intimate things are written, and the journal, in which everything else is noted (like "good ideas").

It is also possible to write not only for oneself but for others too. Others may bring out a diary into the public which wasoriginally written only for the writer. Some diaries are published as a book and have become famous all over the world. Our diary project is aimed at a larger audienceunfamiliar with the events in Palestine except for the superficial media images. When diaries are written in English, peoplewho don't know Arabic are able to become informed.

Why do people keep a diary? There are lots of possible reasons which may differ from one person to another. Read the following answers given by people – Palestinians and non-Palestinians, youths and adults - who once wrote a diary. Perhaps they provide clues to students about possible reasons towrite. Diary writing is in order:

"To release and control my emotions. I feel less pressure in myself after I wrote down my worries of the day."

"To move me from not seeing, or seeing the familiar, to seeing the world anew,and so sharpening my consciousness. Look at the following quotation from a

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famous writer: 'The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes' (Proust)."

"To discover and bring out what is deepinside me. As somebody has said, writing is 'the axe that breaks the frozen sea within' (Kafka). Journals hint at what's long been hidden under the ice of my soul."

"To loose myself on purpose, to do freewriting. For me diarywriting is a bit like dreaming away."

"To help changing my own life. When I am writing in the diary, or when I readit afterwards, I learn about myself. This helps me to improve."

In the case of public diaries:

"To leave a trace, to let other people know about my life which will otherwisenot be known to anyone outside my own community."

"To give a message to other people at my school."

"To let people abroad know about the real situation in my country."

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"To change images others have of my people."

Diary writing as therapy

Teachers in the workshop saw diary writing as a unique way of releasing emotions. After all, with all the closures and curfews, Palestinian students in the West Bank and Gaza live in a kind of pressure cooker. Especially students who are not so open or extrovert may find in diary writing a useful way of bringing out emotions which otherwise would build up inside. "Let them show their emotions, and lend them afterwards a mirror," said a teacher. The mirror would be provided by discussing the emotions and the reality in which the students live. Parents confirmed that their kids were emotionally supported by diary writing during or after difficulttimes. Diary writing involves reflecting upon one's life in general, or upon the community. Reflection is also therapeutical. In writing a diary, students try to give meaning to their life and society, give remarks and criticisms, as well as suggestions for improvement. You may decide to have a class discussion about how to overcome negative feelings and frustrations, and about what kind of practical things the youths may do to feel better (having a new experience, putting on music, meeting friends etc.) In this way, the class will build a new level of awareness and group feeling. You can change their mood for the coming days!

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Choose an answer which you like or with which you agree, and explain for yourself why.Student task: Read the statements above. Then write inyour own words why you like or why you don't like diary writing.

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[Drawing of a kid looking happily at his journal, saying: "Now I don't feel pressureanymore!"]

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2. WHAT TOPIC TO WRITE ABOUT?

It is not always necessary to discuss a topic for diary writing. After all, the diary topics are given by the reality whichthe students experience. It is well possible, and if the students can handle it, indeed advisable, to conduct freewriting in the diary writing class. Yetmany students need some direction and focus. For this reason we suggest here waysfor students to arrive at a diary writing topic.

There are various ways of discussing and choosing such a topic. A good way of brainstorming is to draw on the blackboard a web like a spider:

YOU

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Student task: Make in one minute a list of topics about which you would like to write. Or discuss andwrite down a list of topics together with a partner.

In the middle of the web is YOU. Draw from the middle outward threads to important areas of life: for instance,

HOME AND FAMILYSCHOOLFRIENDSHOBBIESJOURNEYSPOLITICS

For each of these areas you can suggest topics. As for HOME AND FAMILY, students may want to write about what they are doingat home alone or together with their family, how they feel about their family's life, the problems their brothers or sisters are facing, or the good moments of family life, for instance during feasts.

It is also possible to write in a (family) diary about the life of family members, such as parents and grandparents. By talking with them students would learn about how important political events like the wars that happened in 1948 or 1967 affected their family. They may even see similarities between circumstances then andnow, this Intifada and that Intifada or rebellion, this occupation and that occupation. There is a book with family stories of students from St Joseph (Terra Sancta) School in Bethlehem who interviewed

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their parents and grandparents about the old days. The book is titled "Your Stories Are My Stories."

As said, journals are about daily life. However, that does not mean that a journal should be about everything that happens each day. You can also have a journal aboutone particular subject like is the case in a

Travel journal Prison journal Dream journal Crisis journal (about a long illness,

for instance) Occupation journal Nature journal Family journal

Some Palestinians have kept a prison journal by writing notes on small papers (even toilet paper!) Especially those who were isolated from other prisoners, said they needed to write in order to survive mentally. You can imagine that many Palestinians could well keep a travel diarythat would be shocking and revealing for

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Student question: Why do you think this title was chosen? To what extent are stories from others also your own stories? What do you think about including stories from others in your own diary?

foreigners uninformed about what is happening in our country today.

Things one never forgets

A good warming up for thinking about diary writing themes is to ask students "which things they will never forget."

Teachers in the diary writing workshop were asked to tell about their own memories and gave the following examples:

- One teacher always remembered the time when their family had to decide whether to stay in the country or to leave. It wassuch a difficult decision…

- During the Intifada a teacher saw a mother in Gaza who was asking herself whether she should join a militant group: "Two kids in one hand, the homeland in the other." A haunting phrase never to forget.

- A female teacher was arrested for two days because of throwing stones during the first Intifada. She would always remember those days being imprisoned.

- A teacher very much remembered that her son took the risk towalk on the streets during the strict curfew in Bethlehem at the time of the siege of the Nativity. He absolutely wanted to come at his graduation ceremony outside the town.

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Student task: choose two topics for diary writing.

- Another teacher would never forget the image of people walking, and donkeys carrying things, over a normally busy road after it was closed off by barriers on both sides.

The responses show that people especially remember difficult decisions and extraordinary events.

Sometimes you may elicit student stories of difficult decisions by asking general questions like:

- Does honesty pay?- What is a lie?- Have you ever told a white lie?- Have you met somebody who didn't keep his promises?- What is a dilemma?

Use models

A teacher at the workshop said that it is very fruitful to employ models. Show students other diary writings by Palestinian students, like the book "The Wall Cannot Stop Our Stories" published by Terra Sancta School/Sisters of St Joseph, or "When Normal Becomes Abnormal" published by the Arab Educational Institute, Bethlehem 2001.

Other possibilities:- teacher diaries- English diaries by Palestinian authors (Raja Shehadeh's diaries of life in Ramallah, Muna Hamzeh's diary of living in Dheisha, diaries included in the volume "Modern PalestinianLiterature" edited by Salma Jayyusi)- a short or longer story about Palestinian life, with good (but not complex) descriptions of emotions, relationships and values- newspaper articles or cartoons

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- a diary from a foreign author- a situation from a different culture or period, such as a fictional diary of life in the Titanic, as a teacher suggested.

TOPICSfrom the diaries of students at Terra Sancta/St Joseph School for Girls in Bethlehem (2000-2004)

Occupation, siege and curfewDescribing life under curfew, the restrictions, the boring routine disrupted by moments of violence. The shelling and house searches. Comparisons with curfews in the past (during the British mandate over Palestine before 1947).

Moments of fearThe scare of nightmares, car accidents, soldiers coming into town, assassinations

Coping with lossThe killing of a school student, a student who lost her father. Loosing one's house.

Special daysMoments of joy (birth baby), special occasions like Christmas, old/new year, Al Adha, but also anticipating and enjoying a day of snow.

Studying At home and at school, sometimes under curfew conditions.

Being together

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About relations in the society. Discussion of morals in relation to boys-girls, parents-children, dealing with the poor, with neighbours. Do you love your city?

Escape from pressureAbout superstitious beliefs, hobbies, music, leisure activities, holiday traveling, puzzles. Funny things.

Purpose and faith, how to go onHope and despair. Wishes, dreams and prayers, thoughts about a future job, staying or leaving the country, pursuing happiness. What are your choices in life and how are you guided by searching for values? Do you feel confident? How does God intervene to help in moments of despair? How can you change routines to feel better so as to keep going on? Looking back and looking in the future.

Thinking about the enemy and the selfReflections about hate and forgiveness. How to look at the American Twin Tower disaster. How to keep dignity and morality. Dreaming about peace.

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[Drawing of a kid who exclaims: I am going to makea prison diary… I live in a prison!]

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3. WATCHING THAT TERRIBLE EMPTY PAPER: HOW TO START?

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Are your students afraid to start writing a diary? Why (not)?

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Most people have difficulty to start writing a diary. In fact, there are lots ofgood reasons why not to start it: you might think that you cannot write, or that it is boring what you write, or that you need to write very often if you want to do it well.People do not want to really write down what they feel because others might not understand. And maybe there is a little voice inside that is warning not to write… The voice of a CENSOR.

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Encourage students to think of something which sparks their emotions, which REALLY motivates them to write, such as:

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Values which are cherished. Values are about important things or aims in life.See the list below for a list of valueswhich many people see as important. Students can also think about other values than the list shows.

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ook for those values with which you feel most connected, and You may ask your students to describe what influence thosevalues have upon their daily life, or upon that of others close to them.

Sometimes people may develop good writingideas by sitting alone and staring at thewall or ceiling. But there are also little tricks that help students to sparktheir imagination and emotions.You might never have thought that they could develop such good ideas!

Take objects that relate to particular themes. Objects are often full of life stories. For instance, a photo of a person or an event (a feast for instance) may bring up a lot of unexplored memories. Put the photo in front of the students and start the writing session. Or ask the students tolook around in their house or neighbourhood for objects with a message; like the old key of the house that was abandoned by their grandparents in 1948, a diploma on the wall, an ancient well nearby, an old mosque or church. Let them talk with relevant people about the history and meaning of the object.

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VALUES TO CHERISH

- Becoming a goal seeker * life is like a journey of discovery - pursue your

dreams;* use your imagination what could be; * set goals and commit yourself to action; * persevere toward your goals despite

disappointments and set-backs.

- Growing closer to others * you belong to a family that loves and protects

you; * you live in a special place; * love means showing that you care; * reach out and make friends; * kindness wins more friends than selfishness; * your friends can like others and still like you; * you may miss your friends when you are not with

them.

- Coming to terms with loss and grief * everyone feels sad at times; * you might feel sad when separated from someone you

love;* death is an inevitable part of the cycle of life; * death is a permanent loss; * expressing sadness is a way to show care about a

loss; * happy memories of someone we loved are a tribute

to that relationship and provide us with comfort when we feel sad;

* funerals provide us with an opportunity to say good-bye to someone we love.

- Offering kindness to others * offer comfort to someone in distress; * take care of someone who is sick or hurt; * share with others; * be generous; * offer others your assistance when help is needed; * protect someone who is endangered; * rescue others from harm.

- Preserving an openness to the world * use all your senses to be aware of the world

around you;* explore and investigate the world around you; * people may disagree about what is true; * gather evidence to determine the facts; * appearances are deceiving; * others may try to mislead you; * deception destroys trust; * fantasies are not necessarily deceptions; * not everyone will believe you when you tell the

truth.

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Encourage the students to think of a place where they would like to return to, if only in memory.

Snapshots: Which objects, places, single incidents during the last two weeks

made much impression upon the students?

Motivate the students

"Motivate them, stir their emotions," said a teacher in the diary writing workshop. It is helpful, when the students are "blank" and they don't know what to write about, to use visuals, like a ten-minute video or posters, because such visuals touch the emotions. Relaxed music is a pleasant background for a diary writing session, or as a background for reading from a diary book. You may wish to have a bit of fun in the diary writing session, by telling a humourousanecdote as a starter, or to use a funny game, or to have a meal at school, or to take the students out to a place. These are good motivators. You may decide not to give marks (or to give extra marks, or a prize, for those who regularly write something, whatever the quality), and to keep your comments at a minimum, and emphasize that the diary writing is helpful for the students themselves rather than a school requirement.

Diary writing and the English language

When diary writing is done in a foreign language like English, students may face "double trouble": the difficulty of writing about oneself but also the difficulty of expressing oneself in English. The lesson set-up may be designed so as to support student.

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Here is the advice of a teacher of diary writing who worked with groups of students from different schools.

"First I explained to them the principle of diary writing; that you write about yourself, your family and community. I took examples from diaries of Palestinian writers. The students thus got an idea what to write about. Together we decided about a general topic for the diary writing, such as family matters, special moments, feasts, or confrontations with the army. The topic helped the students to shape their thoughts. Knowing the topic it was possible to prepare the English vocabulary. In advance I wrote lists of words on the board relevant to the topic, and we pronounced them together. For instance, if we talked about the Intifada, I put words on the board like curfew, tank, grenades, watch tower, checkpoint, and so on. Thestudents would then wrote some diary sentences on board about the topic, which we would read together. In this way they became prepared. Then I asked them to write a diary on the topic at home, and to give it a title. The problem is that the parents usually do not know much English and cannot help their kids. I therefore allowed the students to use Arabic expressions in case they did not know theEnglish word. Sometimes the kids, when they did not know how to proceed, copied each other's writings. (Some teachers in the workshop responded that they preferred their students to write in class, precisely to prevent copying). After they brought back their writings the next lesson, I split them up in small groups, taking carethat there was at least one person in each group who was good in English.

Other teachers suggested that there are various ways of using wordlists:

- words put in a context of use- synonyms

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- related words- opposites- words to be used in a domain, for instance emotion words,

relationship words, value words (emotions, relations and values are always important elements in a diary)

- going from easy words to difficult words in the list, creating a challenge

When giving marks to the writings, you may not so much look at mistakes in grammar but may choose to reward those students whouse new vocabulary, it was suggested.

Teachers found significant improvement in English language use after a diary writing project.

Early diary writing

Several teachers in the diary writing workshop had elementary classes in which it was not yet possible to ask students to write diaryentries. In the 3rd elementary students usually know a few sentences,only in the 4th and 5th grade the pupils can make a beginning with diary writing. In the 4th grade it is possible to start writing small letters in English. There are several ways to involve the student in a preparatory, early "diary" project.

Writing about topics in the home environment which are covered by the curriculum; for instance, animals.

Using little games and prompts to encourage students to say something about themselves, like using flashcards, rhyme games, and feeling sentences: "I like … but I don't like…" Or: "What are your favorite animals?"

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Acting and drawing out the meaning of a word. Students may draw a smiling or sad face on the board.

In the 6th grade, you may use familiar situations, with pictures, games and questions as prompts. A situation consists of a setting and an action, and an action consists of an actor and an act. Visiting a school is such a familiar situation for pupils. How do you go to school, who brings you,where do you enter the school, what do you do in class? Keep the questions concrete. Jointly the students can make a kind oforal diary. Or you may bring a card board on which the students can design a class diary, with pictures, drawings, feeling words or sentences related to the pictures. You may ask them to bring their own picture or photo, and stick it on the board or on the notebook. It is always important to use words they already know.

Props can be used, like an umbrella when the students talk about going to school while it is raining. When the topic is about shopping, you may bring fruits.

You can make charts for students to fill in "I" sentences about something personal.

Check that the tasks are concrete and clear.

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[Drawing of a kid eating his pencil in front of a blank paper, thinking: An empty paper says already everything… No need to write]

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4. LIVELINESS IN DIARY WRITING: DETAILS

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The following paragraphs are from an interview withthe Palestinian author Ahmed Harb, a professor at Birzeit University who writes short stories and novels and who some years ago won the Palestine Prize for his (Arabic) novel “The Other Side of thePromised Land."

“Narrative is power. When you're able to tell your narrative, you achieve power. The Israelis surpassed us, whether their version was correct or not. They are good story-tellers. They succeeded ingetting their narratives across. This situation is now really hard to reverse. We have to work very hard, not to reverse it, but at least to show our version. If you narrate in an artistic form what really happened in Palestine, that will be dramaticenough. It is not only the subject which is important, but also how you tell the story. We should tell the story of what happened in Deir Yassin, Duwaayme and other places during 1948, for instance, and put such story in an understandable, humane and literary form. If you tell about the life of the people, how they lost their land and were killed, you need to show the human depth, and especially the details of the story.”

“I don't want to fully endorse what some Orientalists [Western scholars writing about the Middle East or Asia] say, that we don't look at thedetails but only at the larger concepts. But unfortunately, to a certain extent it is true. If the Israeli soldiers carry out something near the university campus, and you ask the students to tellyou what happened, they will relay the story in general terms, they don't go into specific details.But the specifics make the narrative. The Israelis do the opposite. See when something happens againstthe Israelis, an act carried out by Palestinians, and see how the Israelis tell the narratives about the incident. The Israelis go into the life of the individuals who died, and their narratives are effective.”

(Interview in The Jerusalem Times, 31/10/97)

Details are valuable for any story.

When you write, it is good for the readers to learn about details, little facts or impressions, things which are seemingly notimportant to the topic, like the weather. Awell-chosen detail may help to create atmosphere. The more details, the easier itis for readers to close their eyes and to imagine the situation.

By giving details of how soldiers humiliatepeople at a checkpoint students may create a clearer picture of what they want to say about the occupation: the waiting time, thesigns of tension building up among the people waiting, soldiers looking bored, thestrange questions they ask, and so on. Sucha story would be much more telling than when students would write: “They humiliatedme and I felt bad about it.”

Compare a story to a painting. When people read a good story, it is as they want to paint, to touch, to feel what is written.

Without details, a story is without blood. It will miss uniqueness and interest. Readers would become bored. More than anything else, it is the details of a storythat stick in the readers’ mind.

Moreover, through little things one may better bring out the big picture. When you

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say “it is only a detail,” you say that something is unimportant. However, details do not need to be unimportant. Details can in fact say a lot about something or somebody. For instance, a detail about somebody’s way of walking or looking – slow, careful - may say much about that person’s character.

Details also give a story truthfulness. They show that you know what you are writing about. You take care to observe thelittle things. As a writer, you make your readers real witnesses to what happens in your story.

Now, what kind of details can you give? They may be about:

a person (face, attitude, gestures, behaviour)

an event (what is happening exactly) a place (colours, smells,

characteristics of the natural environment, buildings)

feelings (different types of feelings and images which express feelings).

Details often come through our senses:

Smells Sounds Touch

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Sights Taste.

Looking with different eyes

Teachers remarked that one manner to make a student diary more lively is to encourage them to look with different eyes at the reality they (want to) describe in their diary. Looking at reality anew makespeople aware of all the details that constitute that reality. This is certainly relevant for Palestinian youths who live in such an oppressive reality that they have little opportunity or motive to look at it in an alternative way.

You may introduce a fictional visitor from a different planet, or a visitor (journalist, for instance) from another country. How would such visitors look at the students' reality? You may play the devil's advocate and adopt an opposing point of view, if only to create newideas. Or you may conduct a thought experiment in which students imagine themselves looking at their own reality as if they see it for the first time. They may describe that reality as a lively scene, that is, with details and with the various feelings that are evoked.Choose a drawing or photo which shows reality in a somewhat different light or from a different angle, and ask students to write a caption. Or you may ask the students to imagine and describe a fantasy scene inspired by an oppressive reality – like a youth's dream of flying away. The students can be asked to make drawings about a theme, and to compare and comment upon each other's drawings, and see the differences.

Oral history projects may bring students into contact with elderly people who could give accounts of daily life reality that differ much from those of the students, and which would raise another perspective onto their stories. It may turn out that life now is not in

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all respects so difficult as in the past, and that in the past it was for instance difficult to go to school. All these methods help to free the students' minds.

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Student task: Use now ten minutes to freewrite about aperson, event, place or feelings. Close your eyes. Look in your mind's eye at the places or persons you describe. Paint them in your mind. Think about the five senses. Jot down precise details. Don't forget anything. Imagine that you describe them to a stranger. .

[Drawing of a kid looking with binoculars at a blue sky, saying: I don't see any detail]

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5. LIVELINESS IN DIARY WRITING: SURPRISE

To keep the readers' interest it is helpfulto sprinkle one's writing with small or bigsurprises. Like details, surprises help to prevent the reader from becoming bored. They make the text alive. After all, writers want the reader to keep going on reading!

There are many ways of creating a surprise.Here are some:

A surprising turn in events. For instance, one may write about the thunderous sound ofa washing machine… which turns out to be a bombardment.

Writing about something positive or beautiful to introduce something painful. Most readers expect Palestinians just to write aboutoppression and suffering, and they willbe surprised when a diary starts with something beautiful. The British Annie Higgins in Jenin (see the illustrationssection below) writes first about the flowers she sees everywhere, and then moves on to the flower wreath at a burial. She goes from a topic about beauty and life to one of suffering and

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Think about an event in your life that must be verysurprising to a stranger.

dying. Her diary shows that Palestinians love beauty, and that thatbeauty is destroyed by the Israeli army. Readers may be more impressed than when they read about the sufferingalone.

Describing a quiet scene from daily life to introduce aproblem. Students may start writing about people playing backgammon or eating food (like in the story of Nick Pretzlick below in the Illustrations section). Afterwards they may show how that normal life is disturbed or disturbing; for instance, by explainingthat people are doing these things because they are out of work. Another example: Before writing about soldiers who entered one's house, students can describe how a normal evening for your family looks like.

One can create suspense by writing about a threat without saying what the threat exactly is, or what willbe its consequences. For instance, when Annabel Frey writes (see illustrations below): "They do it in the middle of the night. On dark nights. Quietly, stealthily. In large groups." – the reader becomes interested to learn about whom and what she is writing.

It may be surprising when the diary writer brings in different viewpoints, like in a conversation which is

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quoted. Muna Hamzeh in Dheisheh (see theIllustrations section at the end) quotes a conversation between herself and an Israeli who is part of a visiting peace group. She shows a confrontation between different opinions. She first quotes somebody whois not a friend. Then she gives her owncomments.

[Drawing of a kid sighing: Everything in mylife is a big surprise]

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Student task: write the first paragraph of a diary in such a way that your readers will be surprised.

6. WHY CAN A DIARY BE INTERESTING FOR SOMEBODY 2000 KM AWAY?

Many foreigners are interested to hear about stories from Palestinian daily life. Why? Because many people only learn about Palestine from the newspapers or TV. What the media tell is often superficial and general. It's about how politicians and governments look at the issues, or it is about violent events. The media rarely provide for personal accounts from daily life.

Diaries fill in that gap. They provide those who are interested with information about common people rather than about (big)events. Diaries also show how big events influence people's daily lives. Stories in diaries are concrete, recognizable, emotional and personal. They therefore manage to build bridges to people who don'tknow but who want to learn more. Moreover, journals provide facts and details which are important in order to build up a reliable picture about life here. In a diary foreigners may learn that many commonpeople in Bethlehem or Hebron have not visited Jerusalem/Al Quds for maybe over 20

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Why would foreigners be interested in reading a Palestinian diary?

years. These "little" – but for people revealing – facts rarely reach newspaper reports about the conflict. A diary may help people who have never been here before(or at least not in the Palestinian areas) to imagine how life really looks like for Palestinian youth.

Precisely because they are so detailed and personal, diaries help Palestinians to become more human in the eyes of others, rather than to remain just a name or a political issue. Diaries help people to understand and sympathize with the feelingsof common Palestinians. By doing so, they help to break down stereotypes, general images, or downright negative and hostile prejudices as when Palestinians are considered "terrorists."

So diaries are important for foreigners. Itis therefore helpful to think about how foreigners read a diary. By knowing about their readers, students can prevent misunderstandings.

Here are a couple of discussion points for the diary writing class.

Take care about differences in background information. Foreigners are often not informed about very basic things such as that Bethlehem is not located in Israel, that no Israelis are living in

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Bethlehem, that there are Palestinian Christians as well as Moslems, that Palestinians are Arabs, that Palestinian refugees come from places inside present-day Israel. Sometimes people know something "half," have heard about it a long time ago, are therefore not sure and need confirmation.

Readers may not always share Palestinian opinions even though they are interested in them. That doesn't mean that foreigners (in Europeand the United States, for instance) are pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian. Some indeed are, but many others think that both Palestinians and Israelis have a part of the truth on their side.It is good to treat readers respectfully (although voicing anger can be effective too). Students may give arguments and facts that support an opinion, if they want to bring over that opinion. Or the facts to speak forthemselves but in that case too they have to be described.

Much of Palestinian diaries are about suffering. It’s after all the overwhelmingreality of daily life in Palestine and it is often not sufficiently seen by others. But there is something to say here:

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o Suffering is not only being injured or killed. People suffer also when they cannotsee their friends or when they are humiliated at a checkpoint. People abroad are often informed about killings or injuries or houses destroyed but less so about the daily, often invisible forms of humiliation and oppression.

o Although an overwhelming reality inPalestinian life, there is no need to only mention one's or one's family's or community’s suffering. Sometimes the little moments of pleasure – feasts, journeys, returning family members - that happen under otherwise unbearable circumstances make it easier for other people to understand the Palestinian situation well. Students may write about Palestinian culture: food, landscapes, holy places, customs. Also that culture and identity are barely known to a foreign audience.

o Students can bring out stories which show how people who are victims of oppression do their bestto overcome it. While reading about oppression and violence, people abroad sympathize with the victims but feel that they cannot do

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anything themselves to change the situation. So they become feeling powerless. This changes when they see that somebody is trying to redress the situation in one way oranother. Simply by showing that young people want to change something they inspire hope among the readers.

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[Drawing: Kid after having written a diary,saying: So now the reader will think I am aterrorist].

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Student tasks. Here are some ideas to sharpen awareness about your audience.

Make a roleplay in which you and a classmate play a Palestinian host and a foreign visitor.The host is going to explain about daily life in Bethlehem, Hebron or Arroub, and the visitor asks questions.

Imagine that you are going to correspond by email with a complete stranger. What kind of things would you like to know from him or her?How would the answers influence the way how you are going to tell about Palestinian life?

Choose a diary text from the Illustrations section at the end of this manual. Try to guess what kind of readers the writer has in mind. Are they western readers or Arabs, are they people already informed or still uninformed about Palestinian life?

Address a diary or letter to somebody, to a president, secretary general of the United Nations, to an unknown friend, to God, to AnneFrank (even though she does not live anymore),to a wise man, and so on.

7. FOLLOW-UP: BUILDING UPON JOURNALS

It is possible to use diaries for further activities.

Examples:

Photos: a photo album to illustrate a diary, photos inserted into a diary. Once Palestinian Edward Said wrote a travel diary of a visit to Palestine illustrated by photos from a French photojournalist (Jean Mohr)

Websites which include a diary series, suchas the Electronic Intifada website [www.electronicintifada.org], which every week has several new diaries coming from all over Palestine.

Public reading from diaries. Last year, groups in Britain organized a Palestinian diary reading festival in Hyde Park, central London.

Drama or film based on diaries. The Anne Frank diary of the Second World War has been used for theatre pieces and films. Students of St Joseph have dramatized theirdiaries with the help of 'Inad theatre in Beit Jala.

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Video diaries. During the first Intifada, many common people – themselves not experienced in using a video camera - made video diaries that were shown on TV all over the world.

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Student task: Discuss with your friends or classmates what kind of activity you prefer, and explain why. Then see whether it can be realized.

APPENDIX: ILLUSTRATIONS

The following passages are mainly taken from the Electronic Intifada Diaries series, and other personal emails sent out by English-speaking visitors of Palestine.

Keep a dictionary at hand while reading thetexts.

What about the apartheid wall?International Womens Peace Service, writingfrom Mas'ha, occupied Palestine7 April 2003Destruction of Palestinian farmland at Mas'ha, near Salfit (Photo: AW, 2003)

If you’ve ever sat in springtime in an olive grove, enjoying the shade of the trees and the scent of the fresh earth, perhaps you will understand what land can mean to people who depend on it. Go just once to Mas'ha, Bidya, Sanniria or one of the dozens of Palestinian villages that arelosing most of their land to the Israeli Apartheid Wall and you will get an idea of what kind of pain Palestinians feel at thistheft and destruction.

What is the Apartheid Wall?

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Which senses (seeing, hearing…) does this passage evoke? And which feelings?

Annabel Frey, writing from occupied Jerusalem5 May 2003

SHEIKH JARRAH, EAST JERUSALEM (28 April 2003) -- They do it in the middle of the night. On dark nights. Quietly, stealthily.In large groups. Well-organized militias - armed and all. A crowd of about 50 religious settlers. Came in the night to two houses in Israeli-annexed, Arab East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, over the Green Line. They threw a child out of the broken window they'd entered by. A two-year-old flying baby, falling from the 2nd storey window, five meters high, ending up in hospital traumatised. They hit a man so badly he was driven away unconscious in an ambulance; I saw him go. Three others also hospitalised. Blood everywhere, broken doors, broken windows, chains and padlocks they put on gates to stop the neighbours coming to help.

Why is there suspense in this passage?Give two examples of details in this passage.

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Annie Higgins, writing from Jenin, OccupiedPalestine26 February 2003

Israel's Election Day,28 January 2003

On the twenty-eighth of January, young men were letting out triumphant whoops and jumping up and down in a victory dance. Campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv? No, Faisal Street, a main artery in downtown Jenin. The Army snipers on the roof of a commercial building are congratulating one another on their 'victory' over an unarmed Palestinian policeman in civilian clothes, Rashad al-'Arrabi, wearing no protective vest or helmet, and having no tank or airborne defense.

The first lines of this passage are written in such a way thatthe reader is surprised about the outcome. Why?Why is "victory" put in inverted commas, what does it mean?

Hearts and Flowers Annie Higgins, writing from Jenin, OccupiedPalestine20 January 2003

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Every home has flowers. "It's because we want to show that we still find beauty in spite of all the difficult conditions," explains Im Ayman. But I suspect the tradition pre-dates Israel's oppression. Itmust have its roots in the ancient gardens of peasants and urban classes alike, in a common appreciation of nature's gifts. And they are reproduced in profusion: red and yellow roses complete with dew drops in a ceramic bowl, pink flowers in a basket withthe handle as a halo, apricot blossoms amiddeep green leaves in a white ceramic shell,delicate yellow petals adorning the inside of a large cutaway jug.

They are everywhere, in living rooms, on the school principal's desk, as a backdrop in the photography studio, and hanging fromthe rear-view mirror of the taxi. One youngman's white sportscar-to-die-for has a sleek black interior free of any ornamentation save a single red rose at theglove compartment. Climbing roses in twin frames deck Siham's kitchen wall. In another home, twin martyrs look out from a hinged double frame, each boy's photo graced by an oversized red flower between the portrait and the glass.

On the Eid al-Fitr holiday when the faithful proceeded to the cemetery after the prayer in the destroyed area of the Camp, I heard that the twins' graves were

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"like a garden" with all the flowers peoplebrought. One night their brother-in-law is crafting a wreath in the wee hours when thehouse is still, and I marvel at the fabric flowers he weaves into his design. He assures me they are easy to find in the market.

Give two examples of details in the above text.Do you like the topic of "flowers"? Why (not)?

Swept CleanAnnie Higgins, writing from Jenin, OccupiedPalestine18 January 2003

The idea of Sharon with broom in hand is comical enough, but the suggestion that he sweep the rooms of the Islamic Center that his soldiers left in shambles made me laugh. My friend, who conducts Qur'anic study sessions, always manages to find humor in the midst of the bleakest conditions. Her laughter itself is a resistance against the gravity of oppression.

Do you like this passage, and why (not)?

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Palestinians climb heights to live ordinarylives

by Jennifer PetersonPublished 12/2/03(c)Palestine Report

OFF-THE-BEATEN-TRACK travel guides don't list it, but there is a stunning mountain hike just north of Nablus in the West Bank.As early as January, winter rains sprinkle the slope with soft wildflowers peeping outfrom the grass. Olive orchards terrace bends in the mountain, and every turn affords a view of the surrounding peaks andvillages. While the muddy climb may prove achallenge to some, the proximity to nature and the idylls of village life are well worth the trek.

If only this scenic trail were truly a weekend get-away! To the chagrin of many, the hour's climb is now the sole route fromNablus to the village of Naqura, which has become the gateway to all destinations north. Israeli military orders have banned Palestinian travel on local paved roads, forcing them to forge new paths.

The above passage contains a surprise. Indicate it.

Nick Pretzlik

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Palestine21 January 2003

Only once before have I eaten a breakfast as good as the breakfast in Abu Ahmed's coffee shop in Qalqilya and that was five years ago in Yemen.

Abu Ahmed's is not a fancy place; quite thereverse. It is where men gather to smoke a sheesha (hubble bubble), play cards, backgammon and draughts.  They sit and talkand sip coffee or sweet Arab tea infused with sage.  It is out of bounds for women.

Since the Intifada (uprising) began two years ago and Israel blocked movement in and out of the town, unemployment has risento 70%.  'Goods' may be imported, but not people, and nothing and noone - without special permission - is allowed to leave.  Men have ample time to smoke and to chat.

Like the majority of people in Qalqilya, Abu Ahmed is effectively bankrupt.  However, families pool their resources and somehow they manage.  Although life is not how it used to be, people haven't forgottenhow to live.

My breakfast was prepared personally by AbuAhmed.  He made the foull (bean paste), andthe humous with the freshly pressed olive oil.  The green olives were this season's

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crop.  The chopped cucumbers and tomatoes were also local.  The falafels, spicy with peppers and onions and sprinkled with sesame came from next door, as did the warmArab bread.  The aromatic coffee tasted delicately of cardoman.  With food like that -and providing the Israelis do not shoot them - is it any wonder that Palestinians live so long?

Indicate two sentences that contain details.Why do you think it is interesting for foreigners to learn about Palestinian food?

Crossing KalandiaAnne Gwynne, writing from Nablus, occupied Palestine, with anintroduction by EI's Nigel Parry13 January 2003

Everything in and around this illegal construction is raw and brutal, and everything in this aggressive wasteland moves -- or not -- on the whim of a surly Israeli soldier. Sprawling,bulldozed, dug-up, demolished, destroyed (add all the other words of destruction youcan think of and it will not be too much). All surfaces are pot-holed and covered withpuddles

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metres across; puddles which are surroundedby more metres of mud, broken up by ramp after ramp, making it impossible to use anynon-powered wheeled form of transportation be it cart, wheelchair or pushchair. And this was when it was dry! I can'timagine the horror of a wet and windy day.

As you approach Kalandia from Al Quds (Jerusalem) the devastation is apparent waybefore the barrier - by the time you are a within sight of this monstrous creation, devastation of the landscape is complete. All that once stood for three hundred metres on either side of all approaches hasbeen pushed into enormous mounds containingdestroyed houses, trees, everything. And all around are the fortresses of the illegal 'settlers' on the hilltops.

Stretching through the mud are long lines of resigned, but angry, people - mothers with babies and toddlers in their arms (because they cannot use a buggy) laden with bags, bent old people, sick people, people of all kinds unable to travel the few miles betweentwo of their own cities. Every time people need to go from one side to the other, theywalk the long distance from the dropping-off point on one side to the taxi minivans on the other with their heavy loads. And itis much worse, of course, on the way back, to enter Jerusalem.

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Ramallah is covered with a blanket of mud -- all cars are muddy over their roofs and clothes are filthy nearly up to the knee --how on earth do women manage to keep their families clean with so much mud and so little water? Everything at ground level inthewhole landscape is torn-up, demolished, cleared into piles of rubble, worn out, collapsing, never repaired -- I cannot findadequate words.

Does this passage succeed in evoking an image of Kalandiafor those who have never been there? If so, how?

Muna HamzehRefugees in our Own Land: Chronicles from aPalestinian Refugee Camp in Bethlehem

In March 1999, a group of Palestinian and Israeli graduate students paid me a visit in the camp. They were in a joint Israeli-Palestinian 'peace' studies program and wanted to tour the camp. As soon as I started recounting incidents from the Intifada, one of the Israeli students interrupted. "The Israeli soldiers had no interest whatsoever in what was going on inside the camp," he said. "All we cared about was protecting the main road parallel

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to the camp which thousands of settlers used everyday to get back and forth to Jerusalem."

"You talk as if you were here," I remarked.Staring me right in the eyes, the young Israeli admitted that he had been indeed a soldier in Dheisheh for quite a stretch of time. "And all the time when the soldiers stormed into people's homes, beat them up, wrecked their furniture and tossed the hot meals that they were about to eat on the floor, they did it to protect the settlers?" I asked agitated."Look," he protested. "I was in Shati Refugee Camp [in Gaza] on the first day when the Intifada broke out. We could have easily shot 200 people on the spot and ended everything there and then. But we didn't…""How generous of you not to kill 200 so youcan wait and kill more than 1,000 instead,"I interrupted angrily.

Why do quotes help to make a text more lively?

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