Our trip took place on the 30^th of October 2009. It was organized by our history teacher Mrs. Lilia. We were accompanied by Mrs. Daisy, Mrs. Suzy and our school volunteers Matteo, Philipp and Linda. There were about 46 students from the 9^th-12^th grade. Our aim was to learn more about the Palestinian villages destroyed in the 1967 war. Eitan, our Israeli guide, told us the truth behind the origins of Canada park, where the three villages of Imwas, Beit Nabu and Yalo used to stand, while our Arabic guide Omar revealed to us the Palestinian roots of Ein Karem. Here are some of the student’s impressions: Jihan Azar, 10th grade:

I don’t think a history trip can be more effective & interesting than the one I had 6 weeks ago. I have to admit that it was one of the best trips I’ve ever had. The most touching part of all was that the guide, who explained everything & showed us pictures, was an Israeli. This trip didn’t only show me how Arabs were unfairly and unhumanly treated, which they were, but also introduced me to the Israeli people, who I didn’t know even existed, who fight against the Israeli establishment to tell their people the truth about everything that happened in those 3 villages & elsewhere. These are the people who one should admire. How many of them have enough bravery to do so? I respect them wholeheartedly because they deserve it. When Eitan, our guide, told us the stories about Bet Nuba, Yalo & Imwas, I was shocked at first, then I felt anger. Although I knew that the Arabs suffered a lot throughout the past years, it felt much more real when Eitan told us the stories, the horrible stories, not only about Arabs, but also about the Jews who were sent to war straight after escaping the holocaust. The reason for destroying those 3 villages was even harder to absorb, I thought: “This just didn’t happen, this can’t be.” But I knew that it did. Imagining the people who once lived there, leaving their homes, unaware of the plans Israel had for them, was horrific. Einkarem was something totally different. Extremely different. Who knew that Einkarem was once a Palestinian village?! I didn’t. I felt disappointed hearing all those stories about what had happened there, but in the same way, I had hope. I felt hope, because I had that feeling that not everything was lost, I still felt the spirit & the soul of each single Arab who lived there & got expelled, and all those souls shouted for desire of getting their homes back. And I know they will. Someday.

Juliana Mikhail, 10th grade:

During our trip to Canada Park, I learned lots of facts about the ‘Six Days war’ which broke out in 1967 in Palestine. We talked about the three villages Yalo, Beit Noba and Imwas, but mainly about Imwas, which I’m going to talk about now. I want to tell you how I felt while listening to the heart breaking story of Imwas. Imwas is a village which was destroyed and razed to the ground by the Israeli forces at that time. The people, who lived there, were forced to leave their village, with the hope that one day they would return to it. Some of them stayed there refusing to leave their homes and refusing to be driven out of the land of their ancestors. After that the village was reduced to rubble as if it had never been there. Later on it was planted with trees and turned into what is now known as “Canada Park”. It hurt me to hear the story of those people, those fathers like my father, children like my sister, mothers like my mother and youth like my brother that were forced out of their homes to the unknown future that they knew wouldn’t be bright. This immediately reminded me of my grandfather and my grandmother who were forced to leave their home in Ramleh while my grandmother was pregnant with my oldest uncle, later on they went to Ramallah and in the end settled in Jerusalem. I’m mostly grateful that they clung to Palestine and didn’t leave it. And since then my grandmother’s brothers have been separated from her, one went to Spain and the other to Britain and the fate of her other family members is unknown to us till now. But what hurt me the most about this village is that those people who did all this to the Palestinians were never tried for war crimes and were never stopped. Furthermore, they keep committing crimes up to this day. The perpetrators of this crime not only erased the village, but also tried to obliterate the very memory of this village by planting trees and turning it into a recreational park, as if these material things can erase the village’s memory from the minds of all those people, who still live in refugee camps in Palestine and in neighboring countries, dreaming about coming back to Palestine, the land of their fathers and grandfathers.

Nadine Yaghi, 10th grade:

Our trip to Canada Park inflamed in me many complex emotions which I couldn’t comprehend at that time. We walked through the invisible ruins of three peaceful villages (Imwas, Beit Nuba and Yalo) which were destructed in the 1967 war. At first sight you would think that you are in a regular park which can be used for random purposes, but if you meditate in its hidden truth between the modern planted trees, your conscience would start questioning the existence of the metal bars screaming to be noticed and most importantly to be acknowledged along with the buried tragedy. The eradication of their entities was exactly the purpose of the Jewish National Fund; building parks such as “Canada Park” in order to erase any memory or connection that indicates the inhabitation of Palestinians in the present settlements and what they claim to be “rightful Israeli territories”. To our extreme surprise and dismay we learned that the main reason for the obliteration of these 3 villages was to create an alternative road to Jerusalem, where no Palestinian citizens would intersect with Israel’s grand plans which embody their now overused alibi, safety measures. After their failure to take over Latroun in 1948, one of their targets in the 6-day war was the area of Latroun which they failed to take over completely due to their confrontation with the Jordanian army that insisted on protecting those three villages. The Israeli commander of Yael Kibbutz openly said that it was a revenge for the failure of the 1948 war where around 150 Israeli soldiers were killed. Then we headed towards Ein Karem which was originally inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. However the houses there were not demolished for a number of reasons: the first was because of their importance for Christianity and the international world , and the second was because the houses mirrored beauty, civilization and development , vital aspects that made them suitable to be occupied by the growing number of Jewish immigrants due to the lack of housing. As we were introduced to each part, I sensed the silent resistance of the old stones that crave to be re-united with their deprived souls, I felt that their foreign inhabitants are strangers to their walls and my heart was confused at the sight of the happy deceptive drawings on a primary school that echoes the cackles of its lost children. By the end of this journey of self and identity discovery, I realized that it is not about how many stones fell, it is about what these stones represent, for each stone tells a story, carries a lost dream that was never fulfilled and catalyses a whole civilization. I was able to decode what seemed in the beginning strong irrational emotions. I decided to tell the stories of as many stones as I could and help a fraction of a dream to become reality. I was motivated to follow the initial steps of our courageous extraordinary guides Eitan and Omar, in order to open people’s eyes to the truth. It is institutions like Zochrot which hold the key to one of the many locked doors to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Only by acknowledging the past no matter how painful and shameful it is, we can take a real step towards a peaceful future, where I hope someday we will be able to safely turn this black page over and start drawing our voices of equal freedom on a new one.

Reem Salem, 10th grade:

Our first stop was Canada Park, a park where Israelis go to during their weekends, to enjoy their time, to have a picnic. They are totally ignorant of the fact that before this park existed there had been three Palestinian villages in that area: Imwas, Beit Nuba & Yalu. Ethan was our guide there, an Israeli risking his life each and every single day because he simply chose not to turn a blind eye to the solid facts he saw around him. He showed us pictures of the inhabitants of those villages being expelled from their own homes, being stripped off everything even their dignity. Children, women, men and elderly, all expelled, all clinging to a thin line of hope, hope of returning some day. Nothing was left, the houses were destroyed, the land was taken and only a memory remained. Walking around this park, we saw some pieces of iron here and there, indicating that the lives of those villagers really existed; they were rooted deeply into the ground. I think that this trip, for me, was an eye opening experience, a motivation to keep gaining knowledge about my country. It was an overwhelming experience which stayed with us long after we all arrived home.

Nancy Barsoum, 10th grade:

It was the best and most interesting trip ever. I don’t really know much about the history of the Arab – Israeli conflict, and I am interested to grab as much information as possible to enrich my knowledge. Having said that, I was excited to go to this trip and meet both Eitan and Omar. I think they are both brave and smart, plus they have such extensive information about the conflict. I would be more than happy, if they would share their knowledge and thoughts with us, the next generation, and tell us more about other destroyed Palestinian villages. I benefited from this trip, for there were many things I hadn’t known and hadn’t heard of before. I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to know more about the history of Palestine, our country, and the history of the Conflict.

Sandra Kudsieh, 10th grade:

This trip was very nice, but it also was very heartbreaking. It was full of information (old information and also new) most of it I didn’t know before. This trip was different and not like any other trip. I was surprised in Ein Karem because I usually go there to pray in the church or to visit but I never knew that once it belonged to Palestinians and that they were forced to leave their homes. But it is different from Canada Park because in Ein Karem you can at least still see the houses and the year they were built written on them.

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