When Lily discovered there were a few spaces left for an eight-day tour of the West Bank in Palestine, she made a quick decision to join the group. She didn’t know what to expect and decided to delete all her social media posts before going, thinking that the fundraiser she had set up for Palestine a few years ago might cause her problems at the airport in Israel.
She admits that she was scared when she set off from London in November 2022 just six months after the well known Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Aqla was shot in the head by a live bullet during an Israeli military raid on Jenin; a refugee camp in the West Bank. But on her arrival at the airport and when crossing checkpoints throughout the trip it became clear that being a white British passport holder put her at an advantage.
“I felt really scared before going away, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I wanted to learn more. There were times when I felt uncomfortable going through checkpoints but I saw myself passing through checkpoints easily but the Arab and Palestinian women were hassled,” explained Lily, who lives in St Werburghs.
