Archetype in Action Organization

The Long Walk to Freedom!

This is a foot that could have walked in freedom. This is a foot that could have known victory. This is a foot that could have seen the end of occupation, oppression, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing and hate. This is a foot that has a story even though the body is not there.

In Palestine our land winds with many new roads for settlers. These roads are called "Bypass" roads. They bypass all the misery and grief that we the Palestinian people have to deal with on a daily basis. They bypass our suffering, our challenges, our rights, our peace. These bypass roads are called "sterile" by the Israeli's. Sterile because the sole of a Palestinian foot has not contaminated it by walking on it. Sterile because according to them, we are nothing more than beasts which walk on two legs.

The paths that we tread lead us in ever tightening circles. A journey that could have taken mere minutes before the bypass roads and the apartheid wall cut us off, now takes hours. We have to circumnavigate our way around 700 blockades and checkpoints. Sometimes the gate in the wall is open, but most often than not it is closed. Sometimes it is open on the same day of the week, and then they change it without telling us. The hours and minutes change, and to get through you have to show your papers, your ID, your permit. Each permit is stamped with a certain gate, if your permit does not have that specific gate, you will not be allowed to enter no matter what. They keep us on a long trail. We need the nearest gate, so they assign us one twice as far away. Our farmers suffer terribly. They are not allowed to bring vehicles through, so they must carry their tools for harvesting by hand. Once produce has been hand picked, they must then carry their goods on their backs, one heavy bag at a time. It takes hours, it's painstaking. And sometimes you have to wait hours on one side just for a gate to open, if it ever opens that day at all.

To walk in Palestine is to walk on ancient land. Our land. A land rich with history, with stories, with heritage, with pride. But to walk on our land today means treachery, danger, mines planted where you least expect them. To walk our land today is to be bombed, shelled, sniped at,

target practice for Zionism and all it supposedly stands for. To walk here now in our ever shrinking land is hazardous to your health.

This is a foot that has been rejected by the world. Rejected by our occupiers. Rejected freedom liberty, rights, dignity, humanitarian aid at any cost. This is a foot that could have done a lot of good. This is a foot that walked humbly on the earth. This is a foot that would have reached out, walked over to you and given you the very shirt of the missing bodies back.

There is a saying that goes: Until you have walked in someone else's shoes you really have no idea what that soul has been through. This foot doesn't have a shoe anymore. This foot doesn't even have a body anymore, let alone a life that once went along with it. This is a foot that nobody of the world would want to exchange places with. This is a solitary foot missing it's brother, the sole and balance of what it meant to walk in wholeness in this life. This is a foot that has now been silenced forever.

Who knows what good deeds this foot did as it walked it's daily round. Who knows what this foot has experienced before it lost it's owner. Did it run like so many of us do when air strikes threaten to wipe us out. Did it scramble through rubble looking for an innocent child to save. Did it march in protest hoping the world will wake up and take notice of our plight. Did it walk in someone else's blood before it was left in a pool of its own.

This is a foot with a story. This is a foot to remember. This is a foot that wants you to know, all it needed was a chance. A little hope. A helping hand, to get it walk to freedom. If you world had of been there for the owner of this precious foot, then maybe it would still be attached and the person could have walked over to you to shake your hand in thanks.

Take a walk in Palestine's shoes. You will never be the same again.

The Palestine Pearl! I AM YOUR WEAPON ~ YOUR WARRIOR ~ YOUR WRITER ~ LET MY WORDS ~ BE THE CONSCIOUS STONE ~ THROWN TO HIT THE TARGET - OF HUMANITY'S BLINDNESS