DAY 1

Hi, this is Philth.

Hugs and ball-clutching thankeries to Ashwin for setting up the blog, and kicking things off in style.

I'll write first person now, so he doesn't have to cut and paste my texts any more!

So first day - getting there.

Many people ask how to get to Palestine. It is simpler than you think to go into a 'conflict zone'. You can just get on a plane to Tel Aviv, then get a bus or taxi to the checkpoint near Gilo, between Jerusalem & Bethlehem, and blam - you're in the West Bank.

But whilst the physical transportation may be easy, the experience can be anything but.
It was late 2007 I was last in Palestine. On my first visit I knew nothing of the Israel Palestine conflict save that there was one. I certainly didn't think that I would receive 3 1/2 hours of interregation and threats by the Israeli authorities for simply wanting to visit.

To activists, the fact that I straight up (when asked at passport control) told the Israeli aiport authorities that I was visiting the West Bank to pick olives with Palestinians, is the funniest thing they've ever heard.

No-one tells the truth!

Why? I was soon to discover.
Israel & Palestine are not two countries at war, as the uninitiated may think. Israel illegally & militarily occupies the Palestinian territories of Gaza & the West Bank. The aim? In Israeli president Ehud Olmert's words: to achieve "maximum jews, minimum arabs." Literally forcing out or killing the native Palestinians, and making life hell for those who refuse to leave.
So why do you get a hard time at Tel Aviv airport for saying you want to visit this place? Simple - they do not want you to bear witness.

Before I became a witness to the daily human rights abuses caused by the occupation, I couldn't understand why me, a British citizen couldn't just go where I please and meet whomever I choose. Why would Israel care what I do? I repeat: because they do not want you to see what it going on - they do not want you to see what they are doing.

And from the moment I stood in front of the separation wall - the 9m concrete barrier that surrounds Palestinian towns and villages - I understood why. From that moment, I became an activist."