Waking Up in Israel: The Return of Gilad Shalit and 1,000 Prisoners

(Written while listening to Katy Perry's "Waking Up In Vegas")

Generally, I wake up with the sunrise. To the sound of the muezzin's call to prayer, a beautifully eery song echoing throughout Jerusalem. Sometimes I wake up to the crowing of a rooster. Sometimes to the banging around of my roommates in the kitchen.

This morning I awoke to the sounds of firecrackers, fireworks, sirens and helicopters. It is the day that Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who has been held captive, will be released after 5 years in captivity, held by Hamas. In exchange, Israel has/will free 1,000 prisoners. Today, 477 of them will be freed.

Let me tell you, it is INCREDIBLY unnerving to be woken up by fireworks. To look out the window and to see an IDF patrolling balloon thing in the air. To hear parades of cars honking and people shouting: everyone is celebrating.

But everyone is celebrating something different and I cannot help but feel nervous. Many of the prisoners being released in exchange for Gilad helped mastermind suicide bombings and terrorist attacks on Israel. Most of them were foiled, resulting in their capture. But they are being returned TO Israel (although some of them have been expelled to Egypt). Wherever their final destination, their reincorporation into Hamas and/or Fatah seems only imminent.

I am a complete humanist. I am so excited that all these people are being freed, that they are returning to their families after years spent in a horrible, suffocating cell. How amazing it must feel to finally see the sun, feel the wind on your face. I cannot imagine how amazing it must be. There are celebrations taking place everywhere, people speaking, tons of people amassed to greet those who have been freed. I can actually hear joyful shouting and singing from my window.

But all of it makes me incredibly nervous. I live in East Jerusalem, so the people who are celebrating are/were Palestinian. I live in a Kfar of Hebrew University, so those who are celebrating on campus are Israeli/Israeli supporters. It creates so many questions in my mind. Of course everyone deserves to be celebrating. But they are celebrating such different things! What will come of it all?!?!? More deaths, more abductions?