First thing anybody does when they are making a commitment to Palestine is they sign up to be added to the Ramallah Ramallah Yahoo group and they frequently check out EnglishPal to get situated in Ramallah. They are great resources for those who really have no connections here, and so their English language becomes their only vessel to navigate. Of course, the first thing a person wants to do when they come from abroad is they want to know where they are living in a region already unsafe to live in.
With a group membership of over 2,000 people very frequently will one find messages about apartment availability when checking out Ramallah Ramallah. More than once, since at least I have been here, people have complained about the housing situation in Ramallah. It is not that there is not enough space, on the contrary developers and land owners are making a cool million as they house both foreigners and Palestinians from surrounding areas. Since Ramallah is becoming the sister city of Jerusalem, most jobs and functions occur in Ramallah. Thus people look for a place to crash that is convenient, and will more than likely find a place to stay.
The complaints are not about availability, but rather access according to background and privilege. Once I was helping a friend of mine, someone whose only citizenship is Palestinian. We were looking for an apartment in Ramallah for a short term stay. As I hunted, it became obvious to me that I should not speak in Arabic and insist that I was simply an American. After all, laws in Palestine protect Palestinian renters, and there are many squatters in homes whose landlords cannot do much because the law protects them from being thrown out.
So I went and checked out this apartment building, in Al Teera, where the young man stood before his jeep in Douche Bag fashion. He spoke English, I did too. But it was obvious we were both Palestinian. He talked about how he lived in Tel Aviv, and his Douche Bag ratings went through the roof at that point. He said, "This building is only for foreigners. The people on the first floor are French. Third floor are from Spain," so we went to check out the second floor.
I myself am living in my family's home, and have not lived in an apartment since my days in university back in Los Angeles. I am used to apartments being small and stinky and falling apart. So I did the dumb things of saying, "Oh ,wow this is big."
This is how this young man, Tarek, reached the all time Douche Bag Achievement Award. He said, "If you think this is big, you should see my parents' home. Look, if someone from the refugee camps lived in this building, it would go to hell. No one from al Am`ari is allowed."
Al Am`ari is a refugee camp in Ramallah and is often the reference point for locals when they want to refer to something as ghetto.
I found this guy off of the Ramallah Ramallah email list. Another apartment landlord I had questioned went so far to ask me how many people were in my friend's family because he didn't want the apartment to become the village "diwan." My family being renters of property (old school renters, not these bougie new wealth Ramallah folks) never really had this attitude. We have squatters in some of our houses, and sure it gets frustrating. But what are you going to do-throw them out into the street? It becomes a Palestinian obligation to make sure a family has a roof over their head, even if they havn't paid rent for 30 odd years.
Times are tough, and Ramallah is becoming ruthless and money hungry. One family that rents from my father's family used to pay their rent in bushels of onions and whatever they grew in the yard. Sometimes they brought sacks of sugar. My grandmother, a very stern woman on the outside, was actually pretty soft. I have come to find that she allowed these people to stay, and often protested their payments in food. But when honor is so big in our culture, she would accept so the family did not get offended. They were poor. The Israeli military threatened to demolish the home because one of the sons was involved in a militant group--something poor kids due when they need to support their families in some way.
With this memory not more than 10 years old, many Palestinians are looking for housing in Ramallah but they often have to search for months until they find someone who is, dare I say, comfortable enough to let another Palestinian rent from them. And while Ramallah was smaller, it is now an urban center where people no long know each other and their family names.
And so if you check out Ramallah Ramallah you will see this debate going on of finding housing and costs. While the privilege of foreigners lands them easier access to these housing establishments, they also have complaints of their own.
I found this guy off of the Ramallah Ramallah email list. Another apartment landlord I had questioned went so far to ask me how many people were in my friend's family because he didn't want the apartment to become the village "diwan." My family being renters of property (old school renters, not these bougie new wealth Ramallah folks) never really had this attitude. We have squatters in some of our houses, and sure it gets frustrating. But what are you going to do-throw them out into the street? It becomes a Palestinian obligation to make sure a family has a roof over their head, even if they havn't paid rent for 30 odd years.
Times are tough, and Ramallah is becoming ruthless and money hungry. One family that rents from my father's family used to pay their rent in bushels of onions and whatever they grew in the yard. Sometimes they brought sacks of sugar. My grandmother, a very stern woman on the outside, was actually pretty soft. I have come to find that she allowed these people to stay, and often protested their payments in food. But when honor is so big in our culture, she would accept so the family did not get offended. They were poor. The Israeli military threatened to demolish the home because one of the sons was involved in a militant group--something poor kids due when they need to support their families in some way.
With this memory not more than 10 years old, many Palestinians are looking for housing in Ramallah but they often have to search for months until they find someone who is, dare I say, comfortable enough to let another Palestinian rent from them. And while Ramallah was smaller, it is now an urban center where people no long know each other and their family names.
And so if you check out Ramallah Ramallah you will see this debate going on of finding housing and costs. While the privilege of foreigners lands them easier access to these housing establishments, they also have complaints of their own.
Housing might be way overcharged for the foreigner, and landlords begin to charge them for ridiculous things and milk it as much as they can. And so in my experience as being Palestinian AND American in renting for my friend, Sir Douche reared his head at me after a month and a half of the entire transaction being over, keys surrendered, life resuming.
He stated I needed to pay a heating bill because his brother wouldn't. What the hell did that have to do with me?
He stated I needed to pay a heating bill because his brother wouldn't. What the hell did that have to do with me?
Although I begged him for a contract at the time of signing, he joked and said it wasn't needed and "the apartment was worth shit anyways." So when he started saying a lawyer was coming after me, threatening and barking loud, I told him that is fine, his name is recorded, and my crazy uncle in the PA will just have to settle it.
Not that the sort of treatment is valid; I honestly do not have an uncle in the PA except one who likes to pretend he is. But a foreigner would not know that you have to deal with people like that in this manner, that it is customary, especially if you are a female, that people may try to manipulate you for your money.
Another complaint that occurs are particularly from Palestinian men. When they look for housing they always are asked, "Do you have a wife?" to find out if there is some sort of commitment and long lasting intention at renting. They also get asked who is your dad, where are you working, and a basic run down of his life to feel him out.
Now I am not going to say everyone has bad experiences like this, because there are some amazing, amazing people who can help you find a place to say. George of Dana Flats, a new housing complex built just by the Ramallah hospital, was absolutely helpful and there are random families who actively look for finding tenants. So if you are looking for a studio to crash in, ask about good old George and he will come to the rescue or network through personal connections. The internet is not dependable.
Just as landlords in Los Angeles were absolutely horrific, landlords in Ramallah can too be horrific people. If you are a foreigner in Ramallah, take a Palestinian with you when you are looking around so that the language barrier is not an issue. And if you are a Palestinian like me, I honestly would just take one other person and a recording device: a witness and evidence are nice to have in case they come telling you that you stole from the apartment or try to scare you so they can take more money.
Which did happen with Douche Bag Tarek as he tried so very hard to just score an extra couple of hundred bucks. He said he had lawyers and that something from a French girl's room was missing (he demonstrated it was locked when I checked out the apartment. While he thought I would be typical and throw money at him so he would leave me alone, I did the opposite. My Palestinian nature kicked in. I made up the story of my PA uncle, and I lost my cool and stopped speaking English and started screaming in Arabic as most of us diaspora women do when we can't take it anymore. I told him he should be ashamed of himself for trying to lure me because he saw me as a weak woman, to take advantage, that everything said was recorded, and those in the refugee camps had more honor than him to set foot into a home made by bigotry. That they know their obligation to take care of the women as sisters, while his time in Tel Aviv had only made him a hungry soul, as shameful.
As do most things in our culture, honor was enough for him to apologize and I never heard from him again.
Of course Mr. Tarek was a guy around my age. Not old enough to really own property. I came to find he had rented all of the apartments in the building for cheap from the owner who was at the time in the US, and was subleasing these apartments to foreigners at higher prices. The Douch Bag Ramallah landlord was playing the game, as is iconic of Ramallah. Everyone in one way or another is playing someone.
Of course Mr. Tarek was a guy around my age. Not old enough to really own property. I came to find he had rented all of the apartments in the building for cheap from the owner who was at the time in the US, and was subleasing these apartments to foreigners at higher prices. The Douch Bag Ramallah landlord was playing the game, as is iconic of Ramallah. Everyone in one way or another is playing someone.
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