Saje Dmaire (16) and Rana Burqan (17) come from Ramallah in Palestine and have been visiting Trondheim to produce a performance for the Forum Theatre in cooperation with Ringve students . The task was to set up a play that focused on how to solve social conflicts in Norway and Palestine.
The first impressions Saje and Rana got of Norway were the standard.”It is April and it’s cold and snowing!” laughs Saje. Rana has been in Norway before, but it is Saje's first trip to the cold Norway. But besides the cold climate, Norway seems to be a very peaceful country to both. ”It's a little different from Palestine, as it's very quiet here. No worries”.
The conflict in Palestine affects Saje and Rana a lot. They say it’s very sad that this happens. But there has been a conflict between Israel and Palestine for a long time. ”Many think it's about religion, but in this case it's about politics and land”, says Saje. ”We in Ramallah and the entire West Bank are better now. There are many who still live in fear, especially in Gaza, where it is not safe to walk in the streets. Fortunately, I and Saje live in Ramallah, where it is fairly quiet at the moment”, says Rana.
The reason why they have ID cards in Palestine is because of security. The Israelis who are at the checkpoints are in charge of controling them. ”They are terrified that we'll do something wrong and dangerous”, explains Rana.
”It’s not exactly peaceful because of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Not everyone has the same rights.” For example, Rana cannot go to the Israeli areas because she has a green ID card. Saje, however, has a blue ID card and can go to Israeli areas, because his father is Israeli. This means that Rana and Saje cannot go together to the beach, where a blue ID card is required.
On Friday 30 April Rana and Saje performed a theatre play with six students from the first year drama class at Ringve. They received good feedback and next year, the drama students at Ringve are going to visit Ramallah to perform the play for the audience there. During their stay here in Norway, Rana and Saje made many new friends for life. They plan to stay in touch with them. ”Of course.”
Written by Maja Stensvold, Katrine Loraas og Marianne Berg Nilsen