Doptka, Ulaz, and National Politics

The end of the academic year is approaching, and to celebrate graduation, each school hosts its own party. The festivities including dancing the Doptka (guys only please), the distribution of certificates of appreciation to student government members, and photo ops with the family. The particular day I attended also included a fight between two small groups of students which managed to disrupt the flow of the festivities only a bit. I was told that in the past, students from each political party (Fatha, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc) would organize their own celebrations (national politics, for obvious reasons, infiltrates all of life, including college campuses, in ways vastly different from those in the lives of Americans in there 20’s and 30’s). In an effort to unite students and minimize the negative results from political divisions, the university has forced the student groups to organize joint celebrations. I’m not sure how well this is working. Somewhat curious to the outside observer, the banner hanging over the stage displays the leading “martyrs” from each of the major political parties (I'm delaying posting the photo of this at the request of my boss here who does not want the University Administration asking him why his international volunteer is making the university look like it's supporting armed resistance or extremism. I'd like to note that there is a policy on campus that prohibits the posting of the types of "Martyr Posters" that are plastered all over the streets of the city). Please visit my Picaso albums to see more photos of the celebration and the An-Najah campus, which is quite beautiful, and not full of political paraphernalia.

On leaving the celebration some kids were tapping me on the back trying to knock a cigarette off my backpack (it unfortunately burned a small hole in it). At first I wasn’t sure if I should thank the kids or suspect them. Later on down the road they were still walking near us, and either their conscience or the admonitions of Alaa caused them to confess (at least this is what I gathered from the sparse translating that was being done for me). We eventually let them walk off in front of us with a girl, perhaps a sister to one of them. Alaa explained that kids in the refugee camps (he must have concluded their origins by their accents) grow up with the idea that they are the most oppressed, and that the fighters from the camps are the toughest.

There is also quite a bit of discrimination towards those in the camps. Alaa pointed out that the girl with them would not be thought of as a suitable match for any guy who wasn’t from the camps himself. During my first weekend here, we conducted a workshop for this year's Student Ambassadors for the international exchange program (like the one I participated in 4 years ago). One of the staff here asked why it was important for the Student Ambassadors to do the volunteer work at the refugee camps during the international exchange (each morning the Local Volunteers and the Internationals go work at a kids camp in Askar Refugee Camp). It became apparent that most of them had never been to the refugee camps, nor did some of them even know anyone from the camps. I began to wonder how many student at the University were coming from the camps. Much Israeli attention is paid to the camps, as many militants come from there. This is the population that was kicked out of there homes in 1948 and pushed east from what is now the state of Israel. It is here that the pain of that time is most concentrated in the newer generations. Interestingly enough, as Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary as a country (banners may be in some of my photos from Jerusalem), the Palestinians are remembering 60 years since the Nakba ("The Great Catastrophe"). An exhibition commemorating this time will open at the University next week... more to come. I began to wonder if the University could systematically reach out to youth in the camps to try to encourage them to follow a path of education as opposed to the alternatives. When I asked one of my roommates (an upper level staff member), the response was a bit defensive, arguing that getting into the University is very easy if you have the requisite grades (which apparently are not difficult to attain), that funding was easily available... this apparently is a sore/delicate subject, and so I will tread lightly and observe some more before I formulate any further thoughts.

To celebrate Roman’s (volunteer from France, pictured at left, doing a pretty good job at the doptka) last day of work in Nablus we went for some traditional Nabulsi sweets (see pic below of freshly made ulaz, a crispy sugary topping over goat cheese. This again is the theme for most Nabulsi sweets; lots of sugar syrup over goat cheese. It's delicious!). Following this we took a leisurely walk back to the city center. Earlier on, at the graduation festivities, I had been asking about the political climate, and Alaa had mentioned that he had voted for Hamas just to punish Fatha for their mismanagement and corruption. This surprised me, that someone as moderate as Alaa would vote for Hamas even though he didn’t agree with their policies. In some ways it reminded me of the reactionary voting that swept the Democrats into power in the last congressional elections, as dissatisfaction with Bush and the Republicans was mounting. Along the way to the city center I questioned Alaa about why folks would vote Hamas. He mentioned that Abbas (the current president, a Fatha member) was seen as conceding everything to the Israeli’s and that he was betraying the resistance at all levels. While, he said, that he doesn’t believe in violence, the existence of a resistance gives you some power at the bargaining table, and that Hamas, unlike Fatha was not seen as extinguishing the resistance. He noted also that Palestine was a country in disarray, without any real strategy, and that from his point of view Palestine should not become a separate state but part of Syrian or Lebanon.

The sentiments about voting against Fatha (as opposed to voting for Hamas (which, are in their practical outcome, the same thing) were echoed in several other conversations I had. In particular, one with a Physics professor who I will hopefully have a chance to meet with again (he was quite a personality, quite fiery, and had a long history with Nablus and the University), and the Mother of a family I am close to here. The latter mentioned that Abbas is completely absent to the people, that he has been to Nablus once in so many months or years (remember its a small place and Nablus is one of the largest cities). She talked about Arafat being present. He would go to mosque with the people, and he would walk amongst the people. As I read the news about Abbas meeting with Rice and Olmert (our Secretary of State and the Israeli Prime Minister, respectively) toward a peace process, I seriously question how much of his effort will be worth anything if he does not have the people behind him.