Freedom Bus ‘official’ blog plus a few musings

by ray goodlass

March 30: Freedom Bus trip is over now, and I’m in East Jerusalem, basically on a few days cultural holiday, so I’ll only post if something really significant happens. In the meantime the ‘official’ Freedom Bus blog can be viewed here: http://freedombuspalestine.wordpress.com.

The Freedom Bus project ended with a very moving group session in which we shared our final feelings about what we had experienced. I had brought with me an Australian Aboriginal flag as a present for the Freedom Theatre, which I gave to Faisal and it clearly moved him greatly. I had several times made the point that, just like Israel, Australia is a white colonialist settler society.

On the way from Bethlehem to Jerusalem we had of course to pass through an Israeli border checkpoint. As we were traveling on a regular bus the ‘international’ passengers got their passports checked whilst we remained comfortably seated on the, but the Palestinians had to get off, wait, have their IDs checked and then re-board the bus. What a time wasting humiliation for them. I can’t for the life of me see what difference it makes whether they are on the bus or off it!