Staying Connected: a Brief Reflection on the Importance of Our Community Jessica E. Heller
Photo by Jessica Heller
In the summer of 2019 I was granted the opportunity to travel to Palestine through the PACC’s Homeland Project. Looking back, I was both enamored and deeply pained during my two weeks of experiencing the ancient cities, walkways, and landscapes of Palestine, Filistin. Palestine brings to mind bountiful culture, hospitality, delicious food, mint lemonade, tatreez, graffiti art, spirit, walls, border crossings, pain, loss, colonization, injustice, unearthed people… Prior to my journey there, I felt anger, despair, and sadness, especially when learning of the historic and current events taking place. Upon my return, I am still experiencing the undulations of anger, fear, and sadness – however, I also now feel a sense of hope in the coming together of community, a community empowered by the collective desire for peace and the right to thrive. I am an Arab American of half Syrian descent. I never had the opportunity to visit Syria, especially due to the war in recent years, nor did I grow up in a
local Arab-American community. My Teta was a fundamental person in my life, and thanks to her, the customs, culture, and language are near and dear to me. It was not until my adulthood when I realized my yearning for a connection with a community beyond my family, who I shared an ancestral heritage with. I am fortunate to have found a meaningful and enriching relationship with those who are a part of PACC. Moreover, I am grateful to have joined them in the return to the homeland – a pilgrimage that unites us through heart. Our group traveled throughout the West Bank as well as to cities beyond the wall. I learned more about the daily experience and life lived under occupation. I felt shock, despair, anger, and suspicion. Though these feelings may have been new for me, they were not new to those who lived here. The segregation and disparity was so glaring that it made my stomach turn, especially the overt racism I witnessed. I was dismayed to learn that families kept a 18
