Hi, everyone. So my name is Khadija El Karfi. I'm an international student from Morocco. And I'm also double-majoring in international relations and French. So basically, Palestine and Israel was what I focused on this summer. And I'm from Morocco, so I did not really know a lot about Palestine. But then I took a class with [INAUDIBLE] one of my favorite professors. You should take a class with him if you go here. 

So the class was about Palestine, and during that class, I learned about what was going on in Palestine. And then I learned about Israel, and there was, like, so many information that was very overwhelming but was very interesting. And I felt that, during the class, I was getting a lot of information, but I was not getting as much as I wanted to. So when I was looking for internships during the summer, I wanted to look for something that I would be able to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Being Moroccan, we tend to be very pro-Palestinian, and we don't really tend to see the other side, which is what happens in Israel and what they have to go through. 

So a brief history about Palestine. So first of all, there was a partition in Palestine which happened in 1948. So basically, there was this mandate by the UK, and then when the UK left, Palestine was just left like that. And that's when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started. And then we had the first Arab Israeli War. And that's when the UN proposed a partition plan for Palestine that was called the Resolution 181. And this is the most important resolution that the UN has ever passed. So basically, in that resolution, it said that Palestine should be divided in two, and one part should be called Israel and the other part should be Palestine. So basically, obviously, as you can imagine, the Arabs were not very happy about that, especially the Palestinians. So that's when you had the first Arab Israeli War in 1948. 

So this is when the Arabs threatened to take military action, and to prevent the partition of Palestine, and to ensure that the Palestinian rights were established. And then after that, we've had a lot of wars, we had the Six-Day War, the 1973 War, and then we had the PLO that was seen as being a terrorist organization. And then we had the Intifada, which means "a catastrophe" in Arabic, "intifada." And then we had the peace process. And then we still have the drive for Palestinian statehood. So it's like an ongoing conflict that is still happening today. If you go to the New York Times, Washington Post, you will find a lot of articles about what's happening in Palestine and what's happening in Israel. So it's an ongoing thing. 

So my internship side. So when I first went to DC, I was very excited to go, I thought my office would be so big, so many people would be in the office. And then I went, and I saw this little door, and I was like, is this where I'm going to go? So I went inside, and then I see this man inside. I'm like, OK, is this where I'm going to go? And he's like, hey, [INAUDIBLE] whatever. So basically, the office was composed of four people. And I thought it would be bigger. I didn't even imagine having to ask about how many people worked in the office. So when I went, I was like, oh, how many people actually work here? And they were like, oh, just four people. I was like, OK, cool. So it was me, and three other interns, and then the other four people. 

So the mission of the Palestine Center was to raise awareness about Palestine both in the United States and abroad, and also try to help the Palestinians that were living in the United States or in the diaspora. But the thing is that-- I was like, OK, it's a small non-profit, there's not much going on. But me and the other interns, we were going to try and do something new. We wanted to go in the streets of DC, talk to people, tell them about what was going on in Palestine. Please help us. Let's do something all together and stuff like that. So we went to our supervisor. We were like, hey, can go out in the streets and just have fliers and give them to people? And he was like, um, this is a 501(c) non-profit. And we were like, what does that mean? And he's like, so basically, what that means is that they don't have to pay for taxes. But the disadvantage is that there's limited [INAUDIBLE]. 

So that means we could not go out into the streets and just be talking to people, how it's going on in Palestine. Because then we would have the Israeli Lobby that would come and try to end the Palestine Center. So basically, we had to stay in our office, just do research on the computer, which would get really boring. So I was really not satisfied with my internship. So every day I would go to my other interns. Three of them were from Georgetown. And I'd be like, listen, guys, this is not OK. I did not come all the way to DC just to sit in an office. I want to do something. So every day we'd go to our supervisor and be like, hey, can we have something to do? And he's be like, no, you can't do it today. So we'd just be in our office writing blogs and trying to do something. 

So this is the history about the Palestine Center. It was founded in 1977. And basically, when it was founded, it was just to give scholarships to Palestinians to come either to the US or go to university in Israel, because it was really hard to go from Palestine to Israel. But then they expanded to the Humanitarian Link. So basically, the Humanitarian Link gives money to hospitals, clinics in Palestine. And then there's a Palestine Center. That's where I interned. And then there's the Gallery Al-Quds which is like this gallery where they have paintings from Palestinian artists and stuff like that. 

So this staff, this is the four people I worked with-- Mohamed Mohamed, Samirah, Dagmar Painter and [? Ali. ?] So this is all the goodies that were on the website. But I ended up only doing this and this. So it was only the two things that I was doing throughout my internship. So it was a little disappointing. And this is all of the other stuff that were on the website but I didn't get to do. But I got to do the Summer Intern Lecture series. 

So basically, throughout the whole summer, we were supposed to plan this Summer Intern Lecture series, which actually was very interesting. So throughout the summer, we were reaching out to people in the DC area, sending them emails, telling them, hey, like, we want to talk. So basically, we decided to talk about the distortion of the Palestinian story in the media, how it was narrated. So basically, we reached out to NPR, we reached out to the Middle East Institute. We reached out to a lot of people, but we would never get any responses. So we have been reaching out to people for three months, and then we got three people that came to our lecture series, which was not bad. 

Overall, I was not really satisfied with my internship. I'm not going to lie. Because my previous internship, I had an internship with the courthouse in Springfield. And in that internship, I used to talk to people on a daily basis and actually meet them and help them with paperwork, go to the courtroom. And it was just like so much action that was happening. And when I was in a small office doing the same thing every day, it was a little frustrating. But the good thing about my summer internship is that I was very honored to stay with an alum from Mount Holyoke. She was the Chief of Staff during the Obama administration. And she was very, very nice to host me throughout the whole for three months. And she actually cooked food for me, invited me to her beach house. And it was just an awesome summer. 

So now I'm actually interning at the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren in Springfield. And once again, it's very interesting, and I get to do a lot of stuff that I really want to do, which is talk to constituents, help them with casework, and feel like I'm actually doing some change. So that means if you want to apply for-- one thing I have learned is that if you want to apply for an internship, please make sure to talk to people that went through the same internship. Reach out to them through LinkedIn, through Facebook, and be like, hey, I'm thinking about applying to this internship. Do you think this is a good idea or not? And then you're going to hear about their own experience. Because I feel like if I thought about that, I wouldn't probably have been doing that internship. I would have been doing something else. But it was also something that I had to learn. And I now I know that I could not work in non-profit and I could not work in a small organization. So that was all. Thank you. 

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