It’s a hot day in Aida refugee camp, 5 minutes from Bethlehem, West Bank,
I m walking with some of the kids from the summer camp organized by the center where I m staying, kids are happy, laughing, running, shouting, at some point, we reach the center and the situation I witness there is chaotic, one of the guys from the center is shouting the kids to go away, and I notice that nobody stands in the street but the group of kids gets divided into two sides. I’m confused I do not understand what is happening,
despite the “order” to move away, kids do not leave, not all of them, instead, they look up by the apartheid wall, (which is surrounding a large part of the camp), and there I also see it, is an Israeli soldier standing few hundreds of meters from us inside the camp just behind the apartheid wall holding his rifle.

Kids are not afraid, looks they are ready to fight, some of them are even smiling, my heart starts to speed up, I think about the kid killed a few years ago in the same spot from an Israeli soldier, the kid was just chilling with his friends. Eventually, the soldier stands there for a while, but the situation in the center is back to normal. I keep a bad feeling inside me for the rest of the day, I get to know that many of the youngsters from the center and from the camp, in general, have all been arrested for short or longer period. One guy was forced to stay inside until the soldier left because he is not allowed to be around there after his arrest, and he is too afraid to risk that the soldiers would catch him again.

A few days later I get to know that a 15 years old kid was shot and killed by Israeli forces in a refugee camp just 10 minutes from the refugee camp where I’m staying.
Arkan Thaer Mizher, 15, was shot in the chest during a raid on the camp early last Monday.  People are not surprised,  they are ready that this kind of things can happen any day.

Sometimes it just does not feel real, I think how all of this can be possible. I see the kids I look at them, I see their big expressive eyes, it is simply senseless, they have to fight for their freedom, for their rights, they are supposed to have fun, playing with friends, getting an education, they are supposed to LIVE!