Download Subtitles for 'I Ignored the Media and Visited Palestine' Video

I'm going to visit Palestine. For the past couple of years, the world has not been quiet about the war happening there. Politicians, celebrities, universities, activists, and even whole countries are all involved in this conflict. The war has united many and caused division for others. It has brought people to Islam and at the same time increased Islamophobia. After watching all these videos about what is going on and asking so many questions, I decided to go and see it for myself. I'm planning to visit the third holiest site in Islam, Majid Ala. And even though I won't be able to enter the places where the war is happening, I really want to see how the people of Palestine live there, if they can even live a normal life. What is daily life like? What about the soldiers? This might be a dangerous journey, but it might also be something that changes my life forever. This side is the West Bank. But in order to go to Fine, I had to go through Israel first. So I booked my ticket to Tel a Viv. And my trip started in Dubai. So I flew from back home Dubai all the way to Tel Aviv. Right. All right. Time to go. Got my stuff packed and ready. Alhamdulillah. And now before we go, one of the most important things, dua before we leave the house. Dua before traveling. The moment was here. I finally left on my journey to Palestine. I don't know what to expect. What I can already tell is that everything is very heavily secured. You can feel that you really have to watch every step you make. But we'll see what it will actually be like once I arrive. >> How are you, sir? Good. All right, here we are. Dubai airport. Need to get used to the vlog style a little bit. It's been a while, but I like it. Let's bring you on a new experience and let's explore. How is Fine? How's life over there? We'll see. Here we go. The trip went very smooth. Alhamdulillah. But when I arrived, I immediately felt a little bit of tension. I was asked a lot of questions. What are you going to do here? What is the purpose of your trip? Who are you going to meet? where the leaves in the Ramala. >> Where in Ramla? >> Where? Uh I don't have the exact Yeah, if you want I can look it up, but >> but alhamdulillah I made it through. A driver picked me up and brought me to the West Bank. And on the way there, the driver told me a lot of stories about the situation there, how they live, and also for me what to expect when I arrive. How are you? They uh they took me apart in an office and they asked me questions for 60 minutes long about everything. They wanted to know everything. Why I became Muslim, why I was coming here, >> who I was visiting, everything because they wanted to know everything at the security. So I cannot I cannot lie. I had to tell the truth. But they wanted to. How is the situation here right now? >> The same. >> The same. >> No change. >> Nothing change to checkpoints. Is it going to be hard? Today is not going to be a problem. >> Not different. No. >> It was maybe a 45 to 50minute drive to reach the borders of the West Bank. Until the point of us reaching this this checkpoint, there was nothing really going on. The streets were pretty clean, was peaceful, not much not nothing too crazy. But when we entered the borders, you started feeling it. IDF soldiers were there to check and question again what we were going to do. And when we passed through this checkpoint, we entered the West Bank. >> You can see the difference directly. Uh, >> of course, >> the buildings, the streets, >> everything, >> but they have mosques here more. >> Yeah, of course. And I immediately felt the difference especially because of the huge wall that is in between Israel and and the West Bank in and of itself. Also the quality of the streets, the buildings and just the area in general. I stayed in Ramallah. It's one of the bigger cities in the West Bank. To my surprise, the West Bank actually is huge. It has different villages, multiple cities, and from the moment when I entered, you see Palestinian flags everywhere. It's beautiful and you really feel kind of that you are in Palestine. It's a very weird feeling because you have seen everything online, all the stories and now I was finally here. But one thing that you have to keep in mind and that is very important to understand is that I travel to the West Bank. Extreme things that we've seen in Gaza is not what is happening over here because that area is impossible for me to enter. While on the other hand, the West Bank is still an area that you can access. Even though the situation is not ideal, people are living here just normal day-to-day life. They have a job, they have their families, they have their houses, and they get around with limitations of course, but it was beautiful to see. I was hosted in such a nice way and they made me feel safe right from the start. I arrived on a Thursday and the next day was Juma. And one of the biggest goals that I actually had for this trip was to visit Masid Alaka, one of the three holy mosques in Islam. So I asked people what I could do in order to get there because the mosque is actually just a little bit outside of the West Bank in the middle of Jerusalem. So from Ramla I had to go through the borders, the checkpoints again in order to enter Jerusalem. All right. So I just crossed the border. This side is the West Bank. the side to the salah part of Israel. You can see it even over here. They're checking every car and the flags over there. It's actually crazy. The whole wall around the area, it's insane. I don't know. And for me, because of my passport, my foreigner passport, it's easy to make these travels and go in and out. But for the Palestinians themselves, it's not. They're actually not even allowed to go out. It was not far away. It was maybe 20 minutes or something like that. And then I entered Jerusalem. It's actually a beautiful big city. First entered the old town, you saw these little markets and beautiful areas, especially because it was a Juma. You see so many Muslims, local markets, nice food, and actually a very good vibe. So I took some time to explore a little bit, get some food. But then very quickly, it was already time for the Juma prayer. In the middle of the day, I made my way to the masid, to the mosque. It was a huge area and like I said, there was not much going on. The only thing that you saw was soldiers everywhere keeping an eye on what's going on. And maybe that's the only reason for me to actually feel that there was something, you know, just because of the soldiers, but other than that, it was pretty peaceful to walk around. The beautiful golden dome that I've seen online for so many times was now in front of me. Alhamdulillah, we made it. Falstine at one of the three holy mosques in Islam. It's even mentioned in the Quran and multiple uh narrations of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam that praying over here one narration says it's equal to 500 prayers another says a thousand no matter how much it is it's really really really beautiful to be alhamdulillah and was the first kibla of uh of Islam the prayer direction Muslims uh they used to pray in this direction and After that it became the Cabba. It's beautiful. And also like people think that this is the mosque but actually the mosque is over there like a little bit further. This is the place the the golden uh uh thumb that it actually um marks the place where the cave is where the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was uh raised to heaven during the Israel that in the right way. [clears throat] was the the night where the prophet Muhammad wasallam was raised to heaven [music] and where he heard the obligationary prayer like the amount of prayers we as Muslims [music] do. We do five prayers every day and it happened over here high up in the sky. Subhan Allah. I mean I'm still new to Islam, you know. I learn every single day. But it's beautiful and especially if you're able to walk around and visit those places. And the thing is, I mean, it's pretty peaceful here. Everything is fine. But the the thing is just that you have a lot of uh soldiers everywhere. Every gate is being protected and checked and you see soldiers everywhere. Even over here, you see it like I'll zoom in a bit with this. Even there, you see soldiers checking IDF, Israeli soldiers just it's a bit weird, you know, the whole situation, but alhamdulillah actually do have a lot of gates. There are a lot of gates around this area. It's actually huge. Um, [music] I looked it up online and it says that it's close to 150,000 square meters. This whole area of the of the mosque. And this is the actual Axa Mosque. And this is, [music] like I said, the uh the golden thumb. It's uh it's huge. It's beautiful. So, as you can see here, here's the dome. And this this is the entrance of of the mosque. This is the real AXA mosque. When you search of AXA, people always think about this. The real real mosque that's here. Now I'm officially inside the uh Alaka Mosque is about to start in a little bit. It's beautiful. And the funny thing is when I entered the Muslims themselves hold me back for just a second because they were questioning if I was actually a Muslim or not. A lot of people were very confused. A foreigner, white guy, blonde guy entering the masid. So I actually was asked to do my shahada and recite the fat to to show them that I actually a Muslim. The thing is they made me even recite and do my shahada to prove that I'm Muslim. I get it. Especially in this time here, you know, you don't have a lot of tourists here that go here, especially like blonde guys. I even see a lot of people just looking at me weird. But it's uh it's great. >> It was funny and they also could laugh about it. But then I finally reached the famous part of Pachaka. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> It was beautiful and it was actually so busy. A lot of Muslims were there and of course especially because it was a Friday. It was very nice. I made my way into the mosque and made sure I was on time so I could, you know, sit, reflect a little bit. It was beautiful. I really felt the peace in there. So I took my time. I enjoyed the hudba. Did my prayer and then it was time to explore the area of Jerusalem a little bit more because you know it is the holy land for the Muslims but also for a lot of other religion. You know the Christians, the Jews. So you also do see a lot of different things at the same time. On one hand you see a church, the other hand you see a mosque. There's a history for all these religions in there and all these people really live hand in hand like they live in peace together. You know, the whole thing is that this whole situation and what people hear online about the war going on, this and that, it has actually nothing to do with religion because I spoke to a few Christians. You even have, fun fact, a lot of Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank. So, it was actually very beautiful to see. I even visited some churches myself, the birthplace of Mariam, also something that we Muslims believe in. It was nice to explore this and to learn about these histories and also beautiful to see that these people really live in harmony. something that we online never really hear or see, you know. And let me tell you something, the Palestinian food. It's it's delicious. It's beautiful. I had so many different little things from food to me, [music] little candies. I was really enjoying my time there. And from there, I made my way back into the West Bank into Ramallah, you know. Now, I also want to dive a little bit deeper into a lot of questions that I received after publishing a story that I was actually in Falstein cuz people are asking like how how did you get there? Is it even safe to go there? And you know, it has two sides because yes, it's a controlled area. You have to go through the checkpoints. There's a whole border around the whole area of the West Bank. But inside, like I said, it's actually pretty normal life. Day-to-day life, people go to work, the families are together, they eat, they have their houses. It's it's actually very peaceful. But you do feel a little bit of that tension [music] when you have to cross the border. When you see those soldiers around, but the people inside, they were so friendly. And I mean, for me, it is easy to go in and out. But for the Palestinians themselves, they're more [music] limited. They grow up in a place where it's almost impossible to go in and out. They have a lot of limitations to travel and the situation is not ideal. But when I started talking to them individually, you really see that they the strength that they have and the faith that they have in in Allah and the plan, it's it's it's beautiful. You know, they were born into something that they didn't chose for themselves, but they still smile. They don't live with anger or frustration. They're just very sad that they are so limited and most of them they are not even able to go to the mosque to go to Masal Aa because it's just a little bit outside of the border. For me it was 15 minutes to drive there but they themselves are not able to go there and that of course is very unfortunate and beautiful thing is in Ramallah it's actually a beautiful big city. You have a lot of cafes, restaurants like stores even a big mall. There is a lot to explore and it was beautiful to to just see and also something that you sometimes don't realize. You hear all these things online, but in the West Bank it's actually huge. You have a lot of different cities, a lot of different villages and towns. And they showed me around everywhere [music] from the bigger cities to the smaller villages and the nature over there. The way they live, it's very simple, but that creates the beauty actually. You know, these families are very united together like eating every single evening. It's it was very nice to see. It was an eyeopening experience. It was very nice to see all these people and I also felt that there was still hope. Speaking to the Palestinian individuals, the families, you also see and feel that they have hope. They are attached to their religion. They trust the plan of God, the plan of Allah. And that's what we Muslims all should do. They are a big inspiration for all of us. We can learn so much from them. You know, we have to keep making dua, keep them in our minds, and not forget about the whole situation. May Allahh bless you and I'll see you in the next video. Asalam allaykum.