'I’m not an activist but I wanted to know what it was like in Palestine': Fermoy man reveals role as volunteer

Imagine having neighbours capable of disturbing cruelty that includes everything from blocking access to your toilet, to subtle torture strategies.

James Ryan from Fermoy in Cork saw this firsthand on a recent trip to Palestine where he volunteered with the anti-occupation initiative Protective Presence. 

The project was set up to support vulnerable Palestinian communities, with a focus on herding villages and farming hamlets.

The presence of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank has only strengthened over the years and is intensified by a sharp rise in brutality towards Palestinians.

Armed with just his mobile phone, James was able to document settler violence to highlight the abuse and hostility continuing to grip these areas. His motivation came just months after quitting his tech sales job of eight years in California to explore different parts of the world.

The 32-year-old emphasised that he is not an activist and simply wanted to learn more about the situation in Palestine. He admits that the scenes which played out in Umm al-Khair, a village located in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank deeply shocked him. 

Footage he captured included the view from a teenage girl’s window as settlers shone torches to prevent her from sleeping. Another clip shows a Palestinian woman being kicked by a man as she desperately tries to protect her vegetable patch.

Mr Ryan elaborated: “For me it was disheartening to see how the world is just turning a blind eye to all this. I’m not an activist but like a lot of other people I wanted to know what the situation was like in Palestine. 

"It’s not a simple subject, but people just do not deserve to be treated this way. 

"I met one girl facing right onto the settlers, who is kept awake at night by settlers playing loud music and lighting torches in her window. 

"It meant she had to give up sleeping at nighttime. Her only option was to sleep when she got home from school and then stay awake at night studying. She is only about 17 but she plans to go to college next year. 

"Her determination was very inspiring. She had such a passion for school. When you're being oppressed, education can often seem like the only way out. It was really sad because she was really afraid about getting changed in her room, knowing that the settlers were looking right into her window. 

"They even blocked the access to her toilet which used to be around the back of her home.” 

He explained how volunteering with Protective Presence works.

“There are normally four or five other people with you. What happens is that the settlers will come in and bring the sheep to graze on the vegetable patch of a Palestinian home. Sadly, the Palestinian people cannot stop the settlers from destroying their vegetable patches. In these situations it can become a little bit aggravated. 

"One Palestinian lady was sitting down beside one of her plants. She didn’t want the sheep to eat it. A settler involved kicked her. Your role as an international is to get out your phone to document what is happening. The hostility was never directed towards an international person, or at least not towards me. 

"However, I was pretty conscious about trying to maintain peace rather than aggravate anyone. The settlers weren’t very afraid or intimidated by the volunteers, but it did feel quite tense. I had the IDF right in front of me. One of them put a gun to a fella’s head. 

"What’s happening now is that Israel are trying to force the Palestinians into the cities, which are referred to as 'territory A'. They want to do a land grab.” 

James said he was often taken aback by the attitudes of some Israelis. “I was chatting to an Israeli girl around the same age as myself. When I brought up about the situation in Palestine, she just said they all needed to be gone and that they can go somewhere else.” 

In the same conversation she commented on how sad it was that Israeli people are travelling the world and people aren’t being nice to them on their holidays. I just couldn’t believe what she was saying. It was really frightening to see that kind of disconnect.”

He mentioned some other bizarre occurrences, adding:

“Hebron is a pretty unique city because the Palestinians and the Israelis are living right on top of each other. You are dealing with a situation where the bottom floor of a building might be Palestinian and the second floor could have a settler living there.

"There's a wall that typically separates both sides and you can access both floors from each side. For Israelis crossing into this Palestinian area, the IDF will shut down every business there. This could result in the closure of 20 businesses for as long as an hour. 

"If you speak up in any way you can expect the IDF to put a gun to your head. There was never really any fear when I was there that things were going to escalate, but there was a lot of tension.” 

The Cork man is currently preparing for a cycle from Cork to Cape Town in South Africa for more volunteering roles.

“I'll set off from Fermoy on the bike and will be taking the ferry from Rosslare to Bilbao. Then I’ll travel along the whole coast of Spain and Portugal and cross over into Morocco. 

"After that, I’ll be hugging the west coast of Africa. I’ll have to go through the Sahara, which is a bit of a contested region right now as well. You have to time this properly because it will either be too hot or too cold. My hope is to volunteer as much as I can along the way.”