June 21, 2021/ Larry Lanza/ ARTICLES/ Comments: 31

photo: tom brambell

If you live in the Western world, then recently you’ve seen the conflict between Palestine and Israel heating up again. Palestinians, though, are aware that the conflict has never cooled down. Ceasefires, regime changes, and peace talks over the last 73 years have only put band-aids on the disputes over land, representation, and war crimes.

To get a sense of what life is like for everyday Palestinians, we spoke to 23-year-old Palestinian skateboarder Aram Sabbah. Aram was born and raised in the West Bank and works with SkatePal – a non-profit that promotes skating in Palestinian communities.

Because live videos of bombings and raids on famous mosques have been flooding social media, we hit up Aram for an update on what life is like on the ground. That update then turned into a more in-depth interview about his life and what the people of Palestine are living through. We are incredibly grateful to Aram for opening up to us and letting us share his experiences with the world.

You were on a panel speaking about using skating as an escape. When you’re living in a war zone, is it tough to use skating as an escape?
It’s hard, man. I’ve been going through a roller coaster of emotions after recent events. Usually, if I don’t skate for a week I get mentally fucked. I need to skate every day.

When I’m feeling down, the first thing I think is, “I should go skate.” But I don’t want to go out and skate and forget about what is actually happening. We live in an ongoing trauma so it is difficult to find that escape, even if the board is in your hands.

When I go skating I want to come back brighter and not actually mix my personal life with my mental life with my skating. Sometimes all of that is difficult. You can skate to clear your mind, but you don’t want to skate and clear your mind of what you’re connected to.

Where in Palestine are you living?
I was born and raised in Burqin which is in the West Bank in Palestine. Now, I live in Ramallah, which is also in the West Bank.

How were you first exposed to skating?
From cartoons and video games. I was exposed to a lot of things like Ninja Turtles, Bart Simpson, and just watching these American cartoons. It was portrayed as the “cool kid” sport, and that made me feel like I did not want to approach it because I would be trying to be cool, so I never had the interest in trying to step on the board.

After a while, my friend wanted to start skating and I had a board so I gave it to him. You know when you have something that you don’t use that much and you give it away and then you want to use it for some weird reason? I felt a bit jealous, so I tried skating with him and I loved it.

How hard is it to get skate gear over there?
It’s so hard. Not only because of all the drama we’re in but because Israel restricts everything. Our electricity, water, shipping, everything. It’s really hard to bring equipment to the West Bank. It costs a lot of money, and you need a lot of paperwork, and a lot of the time it’s still impossible. We’re still trying, and when we find a way to get access here, we’re going to try to open a skate shop. We just want to provide for the kids because it’s been so hard for us.

What do you mean Israel restricts everything?
Gaza is closed and you can’t leave if you live there. The only people who are allowed in are the UN, national organizations, or that kind of shit. It’s the most packed population in the world in the smallest space.

In Gaza, there is no electricity, no water, no borders, no shipping. It’s all controlled by Israel, there. Israel restricts people in Gaza to 4 hours of electricity a day. Gaza is demolished from years of being bombed. If you see videos from Gaza now, there are buildings on the floor. Kids are playing between stone and rubble. There is no infrastructure. There is almost no life because Israel controls everything.

The media used the term “open-air prison” to refer to Gaza. Is that what you would call it?
You can’t even call Gaza an “open-air prison” because an open-air prison means that there is infrastructure, laws, rights. In a prison, you get basic human shit like food, electricity, all of that. There is nothing in Gaza. They’re beyond fucked, to the point that it’s an ongoing trauma for Palestinians. But, unless you live in Gaza, you can’t imagine this kind of stuff.

photo: clement legall

Is your life in the West Bank restricted at all?
The nearest skatepark is like an hour and fifteen minutes away from where I live. If I want to go there I have to cross three IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) checkpoints. If there is anything happening in other parts of the country I might just not get to the skatepark. Sometimes we have to leave the park early because we might hear that the checkpoints are going to close.

Have you been stopped? What happens at the checkpoints?
Sometimes I can go for like a month where I don’t get checked. A lot of it is just “random.” Random people being stopped for nothing. They ask for your ID, if you have anything in the car, where are you from, where are you going. They want to make sure you don’t have an easy day going where you want to go. They just like to fuck with you.

The IDF does this thing that we call a flying checkpoint. That means they’ll just open a checkpoint out of nowhere. They’ll just put two stones in the middle of the street and they just start stopping people and harassing people. This has happened to me a few times. They stop your car and they make you sit down on the sidewalk for about an hour and a half. You keep asking what is happening and what’s up, and they don’t answer. They just fuck with you.

At the checkpoints, the IDF soldiers are like 18-23 and they’re holding a fucking machine gun, and wearing the whole outfit and everything. I drive by them going to the park and I just look at them like, “Why would you spend your day wearing all that, holding a gun, when nothing is actually happening?” It’s just people driving in their cars and going through their lives, and you’re there to fuck with them.

photo: reid allen

Do you ever skate with any Israeli skaters? Is there any animosity?
There’s a skatepark in Haifa, and I’m not supposed to be there but I snuck through. I got there and I skated in the park and I met a lot of skaters. Some of them were Israeli Jews coming from Poland and other places in Europe. Almost all of the skaters I met didn’t know anything about the West Bank or Gaza. They only hear that people are getting bombed and that they should be afraid of Palestinians. They don’t know anything about our history or our politics.

But for me, I’m not allowed to leave the West Bank. I try to think about living all together, as it should be, so I can’t tell someone to leave anywhere, but if you don’t know what is going on, don’t be here. I’m not that racist motherfucker saying “Go back to your country,” but I can tell you what is happening here. You can pick a side to be on, and if you pick the side of the oppressors, you’re a fucker, man. If you were a person from the UK going to South Africa just fuck with people there, you’re an asshole. That’s pure honesty.

Would you say Israeli is an apartheid state?
We have a saying in Arabic, “بدهاش ثنين يحكوا فيها” Which means, “It’s so obvious that two people don’t have to speak about it.”

They made the apartheid wall. There’s literally a huge wall around the West Bank keeping us in. We try to jump it, but still. It’s a fucked up wall. It’s like 10 or 15 meters high. It is an apartheid state.

Besides that day in Haifa, you don’t normally skate with Israeli skaters?
Yeah, there’s no intersection. I live in the West Bank so I can’t go there and skate with anyone normally. I’m not trying to limit myself, but I don’t think I’ll go and skate with Israeli skaters just to prove the fact that we’re just all skaters and a big family. I know all that, and Israeli skaters know that, too. But because you’re a skater, you should know who the oppressors are. My people, we are oppressed.

You should know that serving in the army is fucked up. I know a lot of skaters in America and other countries who refuse to go into the army because it’s all made-up shit. Capitalism and imperialism are fucked up, so why do it? I’m not here to say bad things about Israeli skaters but you’re not serving your country. You’re serving oppression.

photo: kyle seidler

What effect did Ryan Lay’s video have on the Palestinian skate scene?
It’s brought a lot of attention here. Ryan knows a lot about Palestine, but he didn’t want to actually speak about it or do anything about it unless he came to see what it’s like on the ground. The first time he came here we traveled around the West Bank a lot and we saw a lot of shit together. When he decided to come back and do his part, it was important because he knew a lot of shit about us. He didn’t make it political or make it about who is with who. He just showcased the place, the people, the spots, and the skating itself. That’s the aspect that I would like very much for more people to see. We have normal lives. We go to work, we go skate, we try to live like normal people.

However, we have this ongoing struggle that we were born into. It’s hard to showcase these parts about how we live without it being misunderstood. If you show people this video, or how Palestinians live, people will say “They’re lying. Look, their life is okay. Blah blah.” No! Just because we try to have a normal life doesn’t mean our life is okay. Our life is shit, we’re fucked up, we’re miserable, we’re being removed from our homes, killed, bombed, all of that shit. But we’re still living, and we’re still making the best of it. We’re humans. All of us want to have fun, go to parties, chill out, smoke a joint, have a drink, skate with our friends. We want what everyone else wants.

“You can almost feel like you are in Gaza or in Sheikh Jarrah just by looking at your phone.”

Aside from Ryan’s video, what else has helped get the word out about Skate Pal, and the lives of Palestinians?
Social media really helped with the cause of showing people what we are doing here and what
organizations like Skate Pal are doing. Social media has allowed local people to connect to the other local people who skate. It makes it easier for someone to get a board or just have someone to go skate with.

Because of social media, this is the first time in my life that people are actually hearing us and seeing us. You hold your phone, you shoot a video and everybody just saw what you saw. People can see what is happening and make their opinions. You can almost feel like you are in Gaza or in Sheikh Jarrah just by looking at your phone.

Is it making a difference for people to be able to witness these things?
People are seeing the lies that have been told by the Occupied State of Israel and the media. We’re not trying to say, “Oh look at Israel, they’re gross, blah blah,” we’re just saying, don’t lie about what is happening to us. Tell people what is going on here honestly. Don’t say you’re a democratic state yet you’re still killing us, bombing us, removing us from our homes. Also, Israel should stop taking money from the USA. The USA is one of the main reasons for corruption around the world, and social media shed the light on those lies.

photo: kyle seidler

You mentioned Skeikh Jarrah, what is happening there?
Sheikh Jarrah is a neighborhood in the West Bank and it’s really close to the old city of Jerusalem. There are like 27 Palestinian families living there. Since Israel was created they believe that they are the ones who should live there and have a right to the land. The Palestinian families have been on that land for years and years. Israel pays for Israeli settlers to come from all over the world to the West Bank and build so many fucking illegal settlements all over Palestine and take people’s homes. You’ve seen the guy Jacob from New York, right?

The fat guy from Long Island?
Yeah, exactly. But like he said, if he leaves some other settlers will come, and that’s a fact. If Jacob leaves, another guy is going to come and live there. If the next guy leaves, Israel will keep sending settlers there to keep Palestinians out. They just want to push people out of Jerusalem totally. It has gotten to the point where whatever fucked up thing they’re going to do, that’s going to be the new normal for us. We live abnormal lives so we are abnormal people and get treated abnormally. That is normal for us now.

The Israelis tried to make a deal with the families living in Sheikh Jarrah. They said you can stay in your homes for now, but you should pick a Jewish Settler from outside of the country, like Jacob, that he will inherit the house when you die. So you give it up now, or you give it up when you die. Either way, they get the land in the end. The courts announced that deal and, of course, the Palestinians refused that fucking deal [laughs]. It’s dark.

So that house that Jacob Fauci moved into will never be home to Palestinians again?
Yeah! Like why would he leave New York to come here? Why would he leave all of the nice spots and nice people and everything and you come here? I wouldn’t take a million dollars to be in the middle of this shit.

A lot of times one of the reasons the US justifies sending $4 billion annually to Israel, is that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas. What is your response to that?
I have met a lot of people and have seen a lot of things, and I don’t believe in violence at all. However, violence creates violence. When the Israeli military and state fucks up lives, kills people, and bomb their countries, the only reaction a lot of people have is violence. And that will create a current of political thought, an aspect that will lead to revolutionary ideas against the occupation.

I’m not saying that what Hamas is doing is right or wrong. I can’t actually say anything because they’re actually just fighting back. Whether they’re Palestinians, or Muslims, or Christians, or Jews, they’re fighting violence with violence. Israel has the most advanced military technology. The Iron Dome? What the fuck is that? One Israeli rocket would demolish a whole neighborhood in Gaza.

Have you noticed that skating in the Middle East is getting more popular or is that not the case?
In Palestine, you don’t get the boot from places. You either get a hooray! or a cup of coffee. It’s really heartwarming to see how people react to skateboarding here. It’s like something exotic. They want to see you do a trick. If you land something when there are a lot of people around, they will be really fucking hyped for you [laughs]. People go through day to day seeing the same shit, the same people, not being able to leave or whatever, so when they see someone skating it’s exciting.

photo: tom pajdlhauser

What are some things that Americans, or people in the west in general, can do to show support or help?
I mean, unless all of the people march into Palestine and all stand together against the occupation [laughs], that would be the dream.

In general, just speak. Don’t be shy in public. Don’t be shy because your friends or someone you know are pro-Israel. Just be publicly honest and support our cause because that is helping our people. When more people know about what is happening, more people show support. When we see people standing up for us, standing with us, it gives us hope, it gives us strength in our place of Palestine.

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  1. Free Palestine

    June 21, 2021 2:08 pm

    Thank you Jenkem for being real. Personally, I have apprehensions talking about the Israel / Palestine issue, because I don’t want shitty people to use it as fodder for anti-semitism. It’s hard. When I do talk about it, I make sure to make clear this caveat. This whole thing is basically the sequel to America and its westward expansion. Nazi Germany tried to exterminate an whole ethnicity of people. Of course they failed, thank god, but that group of people is responding by trying to exterminate a different group of people. Ugh, once again, the world needs a healthy dose of psilocybin mushrooms to be reminded that we’re all cut from the same cloth.

    • #20FrankWhite

      June 24, 2021 11:23 am

      Let’s see…..
      There were one million Arabs living in Palestine during the British Mandate before 1948.
      Today, there over 1,893,000 million Palestinians living in Israel today as citizens of Israel.
      So……if my math is correct, there are 893,000 more Palestinians living in Israel today, than during the British Mandate and Ottoman Empire. If the Israelis are practicing ethnic cleansing they are doing a horrible job. Also, comparing Israeli to Nazi Germany is anti-Semitic.
      Amir needs to direct his anger at the PLO, Hamas, Islamic brotherhood, Fatah & other factions within Palestinian leadership. Israelis want peace and has extended the olive branch many times only to have it slapped away.
      The Israelis are not going anywhere and the Palestinians are not going anywhere. Peace needs to reached between both sides, bc the status quo is not sustainable for either population and future generations. It would be amazing if skateboarding could somehow be apart of the equation for a lasting peace.

      • Math

        July 2, 2021 11:06 am

        The world population has grown during the same period from 2.5 billion to 7.8 billion. Israel from 1955 to today has grown from 1.7 million to 8.6 millions. If the population would have grown the same way you would have a Muslim population in Israel of 5 million people. So indeed it is a deficit of 3.2 millions. Does that means it is a genocide?
        (Do your math the whole way)

  2. YassirGurion

    June 21, 2021 3:23 pm

    Been to Israel and also Westbank a couple of times and will go back (if corona restictions allow it) in november this year. I am not a near-east specialist, but am always wondering what the problem of the palestinians is. They had three times the chance to get their own state (1948 UN-Solution, 1993 Oslo I and 2001 Camp David) and never consented. Always wanted the whole cake while drowning in corruption and beeing a strategic “play ball” of the interest of their so called arabic “brother-states”. Hands down – Israels politics are fucked up in a lot of ways, but that can not apologize the immaturity of the palestinians. They should rather stand up against their own politics and kick Hamas out of Gaza and sending Abbas to retire instead of complaning against Israel and its interest to protect them selve against terrorism that is also breed by the palestinian inability…

    • shut up

      June 22, 2021 2:27 am

      all the smarts history bullshit you spat out to encapsulate your narrow minded beliefs is irrelevant to the suffering so blatantly exposed by this young man (whos likely better at skating than you).

      nobody asked for a fucking political opinion in response to this stuff, especially from a privileged person like yourself. If you want to actually respond to this in an open hearted way maybe choose humanity and caring for human lives/freedom in its simplest form.

      • YassirGurion

        June 22, 2021 7:42 am

        Thanks for your comment – i only have a problem with people that spread the same old story again and again (like most of the palestinians do). And i think it is important for young and enlightened readers that they also know about the other side. Historical facts are very important to understand that the palestinians are not only victims… Sadly a lot of people (espiacially left-wings) around the world still believe in this “victims-narrative”. And if Education is sort of a privileged person – i am proud of it… BTW – hopefully skateboarding is a way to free the peoples minds to free palestine itself ;) Also to free the LBTGQ+ people and the womans rights down there… If you believe about human lives and freedom, also think about that…
        I will definitly get in contact with Aram if my visit works out in November and then send you a pic of me kickflipping into crocks on a handrail only for you :)

      • shutupiskatebetterthanyou

        June 22, 2021 10:19 am

        just amazing how you turned this into who skates beter.

      • Kleenex

        June 22, 2021 5:56 pm

        Calling someone’s beliefs narrow minded with the most narrow-minded response possible is a big LOL. Need a tissue?

    • Chris

      June 22, 2021 2:02 pm

      thats what you got from this article???

  3. evil zionist scum

    June 22, 2021 2:47 pm

    Hamas literally calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the mid east (article 7 of their founding charter) and has backing from Iran to kill Jews. Shoots thousands of rockets into civilian areas.

    but yeah…. “they’re actually just fighting back.”

    So let’s just keep pretending like the government in Ramallah is a bunch of pro-democracy social justice warriors who want nothing but peace and coexistence while the bloodthirsty Jews are colonizers who want to overthrow the region.

    A remarkable story and interview, but this article is going to reinforce a lot of false conceptions about the region to a lot of people.

    With that being said, just donated to skatepal. Perhaps one day our dumb wood-pushing toys can be a force for mutual understanding and acceptance between Israelis and Palestinians.

    • Chris

      June 22, 2021 7:57 pm

      A better solution might be for Israel to cease to exist. It’s basically a historical mistake coming at the very end of the colonial era. Area was mostly Arab for the previous 18 centuries

  4. Concerned Reader

    June 22, 2021 3:29 pm

    The interviewee is ranting about Israel and the interviewer does not seem interested in asking critical questions. This is not balanced journalism. I realize that this is a highly polarizing topic, but that’s exactly why it’s paramount to be extra mindful of the complex sociopolitical intricacies of the conflict. I was under the impression that Jenkem, despite all the silly stuff, had some kind of journalistic standard. A shame.

    • concerned idiot

      June 22, 2021 3:57 pm

      What are the sociopolitical intricacies of removing a family from their home so a fat bitch from America can move in?

    • Brendan doyle

      June 22, 2021 4:27 pm

      The interviewee is ranting about Israel?
      Motherfucker lemme see someone bomb your neighborhood and you just sit silent about it.

      Free Palestine, end the Zionist occupation.

    • Brendan

      June 22, 2021 4:30 pm

      The interviewee is ranting about Israel?

      Free Palestine, end the Zionist occupation.

    • Ian Bremmer for POTUS

      June 22, 2021 5:49 pm

      Agreed. One example of sociopolitical awareness needed is acknowledging that Hamas is a terrorist organization claiming to be the voice and representation of Palestine and using a legal dispute over land ownership (Skeikh Jarrah) as justification to launch rockets into Israel so as to instigate a war. Can you imagine if Antifa or the Proud Boys claimed to be representatives of the American government and started firing on another country’s people?

      Another thing to consider is that Palestine is now more alienated from the rest of the Arab world than it ever has been before. Countries like UAE and Bahrain have signed treaties with Israel in recent years and see no strategic value in supporting Palestine. Say what you want about the ethics of that, but more countries would rather benefit financially by warming up to Israel than to continue to hitch their wagons to Palestine.

    • Euroskater

      June 23, 2021 3:55 am

      You are absolutely right about unbalanced article which I did not expect from Jenkem. I have very bad feelings after reading some of the posts here like “a better solution might be for Israel to cease to exist” and some others. No hate go skate.

      • Concerned Reader

        June 23, 2021 7:25 am

        These comments are deplorable and do not contribute to the debate in any way. There’s a difference between voicing criticism towards aspects of Israeli politics and vilifying a whole people. This also counts for people posting hurtful comments about Palestinians, of course. You can, simultaneously, defend Israel’s right to exist and feel bad about Palestinians who suffer during and after military attacks. Just as you can feel bad for Israelis who are killed in Hamas-led terrorist attacks. Why Jenkem would want to fuel undifferentiated and hateful debates when their original goal was — I presume — to contribute to a larger debate by shedding light on an underrepresented aspect of it is beyond me. As it stands, this is not helpful (as evidenced by the hurtful comments in this section).

      • fuck imperialism

        June 23, 2021 2:17 pm

        which side does the US give 3.8 billion a year to? the one with 250 deaths here or 5k? the us and israel should cease to exist

      • Chris

        June 23, 2021 2:32 pm

        who cares that you feel that way?

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