Summary: The first interview was of a women named Ibtisam Ilzghayyer who was born in Battir, West Bank. She is the director of Ghirass Cultural Center, Ghirass serves more than a thousand youth annually and also provides literacy programs for women. Living in Battir most of her neighbors were farmers, her parents farmed as well but her father was also a chef. There were nine people in her family and she explained how there was no tv's no computers and there wasn't even any toys. She likes this because she felt that everyone was pretty equal. At two years of age she got Polio which caused her to have to wear a brace in order to be able to walk properly. People looked at her differently and she was excluded from a lot at school because of her disability. Her parents wanted her to do well in school so that when she grew up she would be able to be independent regardless her disability. She did not do well in school until one day she succeeded on a test and she said " I tasted success just that one time, and I realized I loved it." Then she continued to do well in school and loved attending the University of Jordan in Amman. When she returned home she wasn't able to find a job with her economics degree, so she ended up working with people that had disabilities. At first she wasn't too happy about that but later realized that she actually enjoyed it. When she went to school she learned a lot of history but nothing related to Palestine and her own culture. They wanted to start the center during the first intifada, in order to teach children the Palestinian culture, but it was hard because it was forbidden for them to read any books about Palestine. The way she was treated at the Palestinian checkpoints was indescribable. She fights everyday for her rights and for the rights of the young children in Palestine.
The second interview was of Jamal Bakr who was born in Ganza City, Ganza. Both times that they saw Jamal he was not fishing, he was just watching the boats come in with all the sardines that they had caught that day. There are about 4,000 Gazan fisherman that make a living from catching fish in the Mediterranean, but the distance that they can travel has been very restricted. Jamal always wanted to be a fisherman ever since he was a young kid, it was like a family job that was passed down. During the blockades Jamal wasn't able to make a single penny and there were even days when he owed money to the gas stations, so when he did find fish he still wouldn't make any money. He would some days just feed his family with the sardines that he was able to catch and they would eat them for dinner, sometimes even for lunch. Jamal was scared for his life every single day because fisherman would be shot to death everyday for no reason. One day he was scared that he almost lost his son, and the soldiers even destroyed his new boat. "But I never feel discouraged. I'm always hoping for the best."
Comment: Both of these interviews were very interesting and very heart felt. While reading these interviews I just thought to myself that it's absolutely crazy that people treat each other like this, it is completely inhumane. Everyone deserves to be equal and deserves to get an equal chance at everything. Living in Palestine was very difficult, I don't think I would have been able to keep living my life normally with everything that was going on. It is amazing to me how in most of these interviews people do not seem to lose any hope. They continue to do what they love and fight for what they believe is right. When reading these interviews it makes me happy to know that people did not give up and it sort of in a way gives me hope and motivates me to do well because I have a lot of freedom in my life which they did not have.
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