FLAVIA
My internship was the perfect fit for me: I was at the Laylac Center, a youth center in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, where teenagers and young adults from the camp organize activities, some of which my fellow ffippie who I was partnered with and I attended, including a Palestinian culture evening with the teenagers and a hike around Battir with the older kids.
Life at the camp has never been easy but the violence from the Israeli army has been worsening. There were multiple days in which we woke up with texts from our coordinator at the center telling us not to go and work from home because of heavy IOF invasions in the camp at night, which happen almost on a daily basis.
Our main contribution during the internship was making a report about injuries by the IOF in the camp that was requested by an Italian organization in order to send a donation of money and medication for the treatment of injured people. We had meetings with multiple people from the camp, including doctors, nurses and directors of the UNRWA clinic, a pharmacist, workers of other organizations that provide aid and injured people. We then wrote the report based on the questions the donors had and our coordinator sent it to them.
During our time in the West Bank, we got to visit cities, villages, rural areas, refugee camps, and we got to understand so much about the complexity of Palestinian society and the extent of the impacts of the occupation on every aspect of life in the occupied territories. There are so many things about Palestine that you can read and study all about, but you will only truly understand by being there.
Palestine has taught me the true meaning of the word resistance. Physical resistance, like the families of Nabi Saleh who fight for their access to a water spring, like the kids in Dheisheh Camp shot by the IOF for not being submissive during the night raids, like the daily struggle to thrive under an occupation; and symbolic resistance, a people existing in their land and refusing to let it go in spite of all the hardship, bleeding also through art: the plays at the freedom theater in Jenin Camp, the graffiti on the apartheid wall in Bethlehem, the big key over the entrance of Aida Camp.
I say I now carry a Palestine-shaped hole in my heart. Understanding and connecting so deeply to the struggle of the Palestinian people has brought me anger, sadness and revolt, but also love, compassion and hope. It has energized me to continue relentlessly fighting for a free Palestine and it has made me even more sure that I am on the right side of history.
My internship was at the Laylac Center, in Dheisheh Camp, in Bethlehem, during summer 2024, and I was partnered with Simeon. Our coordinator was Naji, who runs the center.
Laylac is a youth center where teenagers and young adults from the camp organize activities, some of which we attended, including a Palestinian culture evening with the teenagers and a hike around Battir with the older kids.
We usually went to the center in the morning, arriving at 10am and leaving around 2pm. There were multiple days when we were told not to go and work from home because of IOF invasions in the camp at night. During our stay, we would stay with Naji and sometimes some of the youth who were there hanging out and organizing activities.
Our main contribution was making a report about injuries by the IOF in the camp that was requested by an Italian organization in order to send a donation of money for the treatment of injured people. We had meetings with multiple people from the camp, including doctors, nurses and directors of the UNRWA clinic, a pharmacist, workers of other organizations that provide aid and injured people. We then wrote the report based on the questions the donors had and Naji sent it to them. He was with us for some of the interviews and for the others we would have the help of one of the youth of the center for translation.
I really enjoyed the internship and I think it was a great fit. I got to learn a lot about life in the refugee camp and Naji is such an incredible person with so much to share. It was a bit frustrating that most kids did not speak English, but then I got to practice my Arabic a little bit and they all welcomed us very well and seemed very happy to have us there.
Work was very flexible and Naji was fine with us having days off when we had other activities. I wish we had had more work to do and felt more useful, but everything is very unpredictable in the camp because of the occupation and violence, and sometimes things did not work out the way they were expected to.
If the situation at night with the invasions wasn’t so bad, we would be able to stay over at the center for a few nights, but unfortunately it was not possible.
Overall I think it was a great experience and FFIPP should definitely keep the partnership with Laylac.
