Here we come-

Tuesday, June 29th 2009. 20.30, On our way to Tel Aviv.

As I write, we are flying over clouds. Under us lays Berlin. After almost two months of planning, filled with many 'technical' problems, sitting on this plane I am taking a deep breath. Berlin is already far away and as for every departure, I have mixed feelings of nostalgia, fear and excitement.

Traveling is always an adrenaline boost, but this trip is something more important to me. I feel like it represents a smart compromise between my curiosity to understand a little bit more about human beings and the need to invest my time to 'give something back'. As a student, I have been feeling pretty much like a leech. I have been sucking knowledge left and right. I have been traveling, exploring, reading, writing and taking silly tests; it has been all about me. Now, when I say that in this project I want to 'give back' I am aware that what a 22 years old has to give is not too much as I am aware that I will probably end up taking a lot anyways…but it is a fair balance, it is more 'sustainable' learning, and it makes me feel energized.

The idea of going to Palestine has been in the back of my head for a couple of years at least. I have internalized this dream so much, that I can barely remember where it comes from. As I am getting so close to realizing it, I only yesterday started rethinking about what are the reasons that pushed me to spend so much time working on this project. The quick conclusion is that what brings me to Israel and Palestine is a sense of frustration. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict echoes in politics all around the world and understanding it, or trying to, is a must of every international relations student. However, when one tries to figure out the chain of events and the root of the problems it is very easy to crash with a list of biased analysis of history, religion, culture and politics that make it challenging to have a general picture of the story. Every article, discussion and book on this topic left me with a sensation of looking at a half-megapixel picture, of a thousand years old tale. So, after having repeated for a while this exercise of frustration, I decided that trying to understand people without getting to know them is just pointless, and here I am, on this flight to Tel Aviv.

I am definitely here for the stories aware that I will have to process them, put them in prospective and make my own puzzle, which will remain doubtlessly unfinished. I expect to go home in a month with a ‘feel’ (and not an understanding) of what it means to live in the West Bank which will share my suitcase with a lot more frustration and a new list of unanswered questions.