I started making chopsticks because I thought it was unthinkable to get a normal job without being involved in Palestine.
It was in 2018 that I visited Palestine for the first time with a journalistic pretentiousness.
At the time, I was in my third year of university.
Although I had a preconceived notion of a "conflict zone," I became friends with Palestinians on the street and wanted to learn more about them, so I experienced a one-month homestay in the summer of the same year.
From the first day of my stay, my host family treated me as a member of the family as a matter of course, and worried and protected me as if I were a toddler because I couldn't speak Arabic (in fact, I got lost, my stomach was broken, and I was inconvenienced in various ways).
They were ordinary citizens, going about their daily lives, shopping, going to school, getting together with their relatives, going on picnics, etc.
However, as "Palestinians," they are not guaranteed the right to live their lives freely under occupation. As an outsider, I don't have to go anywhere and I don't have any danger, but they are like criminals even though they are constantly getting permission, being monitored, being checked, and not doing anything wrong. Being under occupation is a special thing that is difficult to understand from the outside.
Until about 100 years ago, Palestine was a region where pagans coexisted.
Although of different faiths, Jews, Christians, and Muslims spoke Arabic, and their food culture and music were mixed.
In 1948, when Israel, a country of Jewish immigrants, was established in Palestine,
The people who were originally there fled to the surrounding area and became refugees, or remained in their hometowns and were under control.
We don't have a country even now.
Palestine as conjured up by the expression "conflict zone"
Despite its bitter history, Palestine is kind to people and lives strongly.
In order to convey what we have seen and heard, we have started "Kake Chopsticks" to deliver handiwork.