Tuesday 13 May 2014

ID GAME

Yesterday, Holly, Jessica, Mya and Saffron change their identities for an hour during a game

Holly was Israeli settler in the West Bank
Jessica a Palestinian living in the West Bank with a green ID
Mya was a foreigner
And Saffron was a Palestinian living in Jerusalem with a blue ID.

We first speak about where could they live on the map of Israƫl-Palestine according to their identities.
Then they had to pick up cards and I asked them, according to their IDs, if they could do what was written on the card or not.

With her green ID (Palestinian living in the West Bank), Jessica couldn't do almost anything. She had the worst situation and a lot of things were forbidden for her. Not being able to go to Jerusalem was a big issue because she couldn't live with her husband who has a blue ID, couldn't go to take care of her mother who lives in Jerusalem and who is ill, couldn't go to pray at Al Haqsa mosque, couldn't find work in Jerusalem, couldn't travel with her fatally hill husband to the hospital in Jerusalem....
She was also shocked that she has to go throught checkpoints on her way to university (she picked a card saying that she lives in Hebron and go to university in Abu Dis). If I remember well, she said : "I can't do anything even in my own country".