cash for Palestine

In my rucksack is a brown envelope with £50 cash and a letter asking me to take the cash on my trip to Palestine next week and to give it to someone there.  The note said I can't help in reality but here's some money for me to give to someone in need. I didn't know what to do or say or think,  £50 is more than a day's wages. But mostly I was struck with a strong sense of inadequacy.

The trip is funded by UNITE and supported by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and I'll even be getting a living wage from the union for the shifts that I'll be unavailable to work.  My participation is perhaps motivated by the opportunity to boost my sense of purpose and for stimulation.  It also comes with considerable responsibility, to report and to use this extraordinary insight to become more active in the solidarity campaign.  And now I have the responsibility of finding the most appropriate recipient for this cash from my co-worker. It's a person to person baton of solidarity, shit, makes me stop and wonder. 

I am humbled.

And, I'm reading a very insightful book in preparation for the visit by Tom Sperlinger who spent a term teaching literature at Al-Quds University in the Occupied West Bank 'Romeo and Juliet in Palestine, teaching under occupation' ISBN 9781782796374.  The book is a series of anecdotes from the author's interactions with students in the Occupied West Bank, and it's a good read.