I emailed Ammous to ask what happened. She wrote back:
I left Ramallah at 5 in the morning on Friday to go to the Allenby Bridge on a 70-mile journey that is supposed to take only 3 hours. I went through three checkpoints before I managed to reach the bridge. When I arrived there I
found thousands of people waiting for the Israelis to open the gates and
let us in. I was among the lucky people who managed to reach the gate
and wait to take a number. My number was 1414.
Around 9:30 o’clock while
waiting under the burning sun, the Israeli side announced that only 1400
passengers are allowed to pass. The reason behind the 1400 quota is that on Friday the Israelis work a half day. So I wasn’t
allowed to pass and was sent home!!! I waited from 10 am till 2 p.m. until we finished the procedures and found a taxi to drive me from
Jericho (where the bridge is) to Ramallah. I didn’t call Noor. I called another friend to tell her that I couldn’t make it. I was sure that Noor was busy. I’ve known her since we were 7 years old. We went to the same university.
When I got home I just slept. All my friends
around the world managed to share Noor’s joy. I was the only one
who couldn’t. And then I felt, it is a burden that I’m Palestinian. Palestinian people are used to such kind of suffering. They are not allowed to move freely all the time, and so this was my part
of the suffering. If I seem angry, it is the suffering that talks not me.
Dana is the public relations officer for an NGO in Ramallah that works on women’s issues: the Palestinian Working
Woman Society for Development.
