Jenin

Jenin is a funny kind of place. When I look out from the roof of the apartment where I live, it kind of looks like Los Angeles. There are hillside homes, and lights sprawling out into the distance. Except that those sprawling lights are often Israeli settlements. That’s what makes this place so weird. When you look out from a high place, you can see Israel. You can see the wall. You can see disputed borders and disputed territory.

Jenin is a pretty small town. It has a population of maybe 50,000 people. It’s not very big. It’s generally a farming town. The center of town is a 4 block by 6 block area of very dense population. Most buildings are 4 or 5 stories, with shops on the bottom and either apartments or offices on top. The streets are narrow and crowded. There are sidewalks, but for some reason no one uses them. The streets are packed with pedestrians, cars, tractors, shepards and their big herds of sheep and goats, and sometimes horses and camels all jockeying for space. It’s weird. Even when you walk away from the center of town, the buildings still tend to be a few stories high, with shops on the bottom and apartments on top. Space is very limited here, so you have to make good use of it.

Jenin is a “city” mostly because it acts as a center of commerce rather than a center of population. I would say the population triples during the day. There are tons of people rushing in every which direction, going work, school, or running errands. But at night everyone goes back to their homes in the surrounding towns, and the city is dead. I mean, totally dead. Nothing goes on here at nighttime. There is zero nightlife, no one goes out. I rarely even see people walking around at nighttime. People go to their homes and stay there. Its very much an “early to bed, early to rise” kind of culture. The weekend here is Friday, and the city literally shuts off. Nothing is open, no one is around, and there is absolutely nothing to do. I find that really strange. Back in the states, people do any number of things on the weekend. Folks might go out, walk around, get lunch, whatever. People generally hang around town. No one does anything here. I guess folks just hang out at home. Thursday night is not happening either. Even though people have the next day off, nothing really goes on. There are no art museums or anything, there isn’t really any live music (certainly no bars), not much to do if you are tired of smoking hookah and drinking tea at one of the many hookah places. I also find this really strange. I mean, I get it, it’s an “Islamic” place, it’s traditional, conservative, etc…But Iran is twice as intense when it comes to Islam. The government there is “Islamic”. But I remember the nightlife raging in Iran. Everything- cafes. Hookah places, restaurants- was open well into the night, every night. The only exception here is if there is a Real Madrid vs. Barcelona match (both teams are very, very popular here. The city is virtually split along the lines of ‘Real fan’ and ‘Barca fan’). In that case, the cafes and hookah places stay open until the end of the game, which is usually around midnight. Afterwards, fans of the winning team generally get in their cars and drive around honking and waving that teams’ flag, or folks run around screaming and taunting fans of the opposing team. We always go to the ‘classico’ games. That’s really the only time there is nightlife here.

I wouldn’t really say there is a lot of public space here. There is no real park or open space in the center of the city. There are no squares with public spaces. There are no public benches or places to chill in public places. The only “park” type thing here is really more a ‘promenade’. It’s a 100 foot long walkway with some flowers and trees, a non-functioning fountain, and weird statue of a big white horse, and s few plastic tables and chairs, and that’s about it. During the day and on warm nights people hang out there smoking hookah and drinking tea, coffee (coffee is a popular beverage here well into the night), or juice. I wish I could take a picture of it, but it’s wedged in between the Palestinian security force base and the Jenin Governorate building, and you can’t really take pictures of government buildings here. I would get into big trouble if the police saw we taking pictures anywhere near the army base. I’ve already gotten hassled by the cops twice because I was taking pictures around town, and the police just happened to be somewhere within 50 feet of me. They hassle me, ask to see my pictures, and if there is nothing that they consider offensive or dangerous, they let me go. I asked one of my friends what that was all about. He said that they are afraid that I might be like a spy or something taking pictures of important places as reconnaissance. Whatever.

Everything here seems so….ancient. Something about this place seems so old and historical. Everything here is made out of this beige, yellowish limestone type material that makes all the buildings look aged. Even the new buildings look like they’ve been here for hundreds years. Everything looks the same. There is no architectural creativity or anything like that. Literally every single building is built out of this limestone material, is rectangular, and has a flat roof. There is no variety. The only variety you get is that some buildings have red-tiled roofs and some don’t. That’s about it. There is construction everywhere. Every direction you look, there is a building being built. I don’t know who it is being built for. Jenin is not going through a population boom or anything. You see a lot of half finished buildings here. The might have the basic structure, but no doors, windows, outside masonry, or a roof. That is a really common sight here. No one works on them. They just sit there. Sometime, you see folks living in the half-finished buildings that at least half roofs. Often, you might see people just hanging out in them smoking hookah, or using them as a place to dry their clothes, or other such random uses.

Imagine downtown L.A., but with less tall buildings (and certainly no glass), and a little but smaller. Now imagine that you drove to Silverlake, but Silverlake was a totally different town from where you were. That’s what its like here. As I said, most people who work here don’t live here. They live in one of the many nearby towns. They are pretty close together, but definitely different municipalities. There is nothing really in between these towns but farmland. This is a farming community. The big industries around here are agriculture and stone quarries. In most of the small towns, there is small “main” street with shops, cafes, etc., a couple mosques, and then farmland. Even in the small town, everything is dense. Everyone is packed together. The streets are tiny. Every car that passes by almost hits you, expertly missing you by and inch. In Qabathia, a nearby town where I have been several times, every two minutes you will fund yourself moving out of the way for a tractor. They are used as farm tools and transportation. In the small towns, sometimes you will see the odd red house, or purple house, but that is about it.

All in all, Jenin is a pretty normal, unremarkable place. It’s a small agricultural town that happens to be strangely dense and bustling for its size. But it’s rather beautiful. Jenin lies in a valley. At this time of year, there is greenery all around. From the balcony of the office where I work, you can see several small town, tons of farms, and Israel in the distance. The countryside is gorgeous. Life can be nice here (I mean, except for the no nightlife, no scene of any kind, no alcohol, little interaction with women, etc etc etc…..). It’s normal, but that’s what I like about it. I feel that being here, versus anywhere else in Palestine, has enhanced my experience. If I was in Ramallah, I wouldn’t have had the same cultural experience as I did here. There are a lot of westerners in Ramallah. I would probably hang out with other Americans or Europeans. But in Jenin there aren’t really any other foreigners. I eat, work with, and chill with friends I met here. I meet young Palestinian folks and see how they live and what normal life is like here. That’s what is special about Jenin. Its relative normalcy provides me with the opportunity to really get a taste of what Palestinian culture and life is all about, and that is what I have appreciated most about my journey here.