Soldier Boy

So here I am sun bathing next to the pool before my last lecture of the day. I can't swim, so I only go in the water to refresh myself and keep the others company. And to be honest, the pool is a major eye candy store so there's no reason to miss out.

We've been in BeerSheva a few days now and so far the lectures are fantastic. guy Ben Porat is a charming genius and his lectures stand out as some of the best I've had. Apart from Guy, we also had Ilan, or as we call him, "Soldier Boy". Ilan's presentation was the first that really opened my view to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

I've read a handful of books, taken a class about the conflict, and watched a few documentaries, but today was when I was closest to understanding. Ilan, a former Israeli soldier came to speak with us about his experiences in the army. He used to be right there in the West Bank securing checkpoints and patrolling the streets with his automatic. Now he's passionately involved in his new project, Break the Silence, that documents Israeli army treatment of Palestinians.

Yossi, our group leader, said we were going to watch a short movie and see some disturbing images. My mind immediately went to photos of dead babies lying on the streets. Once I saw Ilan's documentary and photos, I realized disturbing didn't mean gory, it meant unfortunate. They were photos of graffiti reading "Arabs to the gas chambers!", IDF soldiers with automatics standing next to children, Israeli settlers robbing Palestinian businesses while IDF soldiers stand there, unable to legally do anything about it.

Listening to Ilan speak about his project unraveled new perspectives inside of me about the IP conflict. After all, he's a former soldier who's passionate about his stories. I could see that in his eyes when our group took a break from the classroom and sat outside on the grass. We sat in a circle, Ilan spoke quietly, the breeze swept past us, and the sun began its orange sunset glow.