Posts Tagged ‘west bank’
Wadi Fuqeen: Valleys of Hope and Despair
November 15th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: occupied, settlement, The Friends of Wadi Fuqeen, wadi fuqeen, water, west bank
Al Jazeera’s documentary series, Witness, highlights the crisis in Wadi Fuqeen.
from Friends of Wadi Fuqeen: “This is a film about our adopted village of Wadi Fuqeen, its link with people in the Israeli town of Tsur Hadassah and their struggle against pollution. The villagers work closely with people from Tsur Hadassah to try to win peace for the whole community.”
Witness – Valleys of Hope and Despair
The battle over access to clean water sources is ongoing across the West Bank, with illegal Israeli settlements frequently blocking access and polluting Palestinian farmers’ irrigation.
But in the valley of Wadi Fukin, Palestinian and Israeli villagers work together on projects to preserve water supplies and protect their local environment. This cooperation is exceptional in the region, but the huge gains both sides have made are now threatened.
The separation wall is approaching and will physically divide the communities, putting an end to their collaboration and adversely affecting local water sources.
Local farmer Abu Mazen, some of his neighbours and their Israeli counterparts took the authorities to court to halt the construction of the wall. This timely film looks at an issue of crucial importance to both Palestinians and Israelis and sets the context to the villagers’ legal fight.
The story of how Palestinians and Israelis in one West Bank village are working together to preserve water supplies.
Israeli Settlers Step Up ‘Price-Tag’ Policy
August 6th, 2010 • News
Tags: kings torah, punish, rabbi, settlements, west bank, Yitzhak Shapira
Jonathan Cook for the UAE’s National:
A rabbi from one of the most violent settlements in the West Bank was questioned on suspicion of incitement last week as Israeli police stepped up their investigation into a book in which he sanctions the killing of non-Jews, including children and babies.
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is one of the leading ideologues of the extreme wing of the religious settler movement. He is known to be a champion of the “price tag” policy of reprisal attacks on Palestinians, including punishing them for attempts by officials to enforce Israeli law against the settlements.
So far the policy has chiefly involved violent harassment of Palestinians, with settlers inflicting beatings, attacking homes, throwing stones, burning fields, killing livestock, and poisoning wells.
It is feared, however, that Shapira’s book The King’s Torah, published last year, is intended to offer ideological justifications for widening the scope of such attacks to include killing Palestinians, even children.
Read more at Anitwar.com…
AJE’s Inside Story had a discussion about the book last year:
… The book offers a theological backing to Jews killing those perceived to be violating Jewish commandments or threatening the Jewish nation.
Are such calls harmless or do they drive official policy and manipulate the masses?
And what about Palestinian extremist rhetoric, what harm does it cause?
We discuss religious extremism among the occupier and the occupied, and the damage done to peace prospects.
Inside Story discusses with guests Lamis Andoni, a Middle East analyst, Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, from Rabbis for human rights, and Gerald Steinberg, a chair of political studies and director of the conflict resolution program at Bar Ilan University.
People, Places, Perspectives.
July 23rd, 2010 • Events, News
Tags: amos trust, baptist, caversham, Centre, checkpoints, church, education, palestine, People, Perspectives, Places, Rev Jeremy Tear, sterile streets, west bank, Wi'am
We’d like to thank Rev Jeremy Tear for holding his talk “People, Places, Perspectives” on Wednesday in Caversham.
Rev Tear is the new Community Priest in Caversham and he recently visited West Bank and Jerusalem as part of an Amos Trust tour. The talk included a slideshow of maps and photos from his trip followed by a lively discussion where both sides were discussed. The event was well attended by parishioners from a number of local churches, Follow the Women and members of Reading PSC.
It’s always interesting to hear the firsthand experience of visitors to Israel/Palestine, you always hear something new. A few standout points from Jeremy’s talk:
- Checkpoints – The checkpoint that he went through looked like a “ferry terminal” where some 5,000 people pass through each morning. Members of his group saw Palestinians from the West Bank starting to queue at 01:00hrs, and though the checkpoint was meant to open at 05:00hrs, it often did not. It took him over an hour to make his way through the checkpoint and said that that was not the ‘rush hour’ when Palestinian men struggled to get through in time to get to work – thus the queuing at 01:00hrs. Jeremy likened the checkpoints to having Reading and Caversham bridge cut off and being forced to queue for hours to get into Reading.
- Zoughbi Zoughbi – a Palestinian Christian who operates the Wi’am Centre (conflict resolution center) in Bethlehem.
- Sterile Streets – Jeremy showed us photographs of “sterile streets” he saw. A “Sterile street” can be created by the Israeli military who can block off any street they choose using metal gates and barbed wire in order to stop people traveling through it. Obviously, if you live on that street you are suddenly unable to enter your own home through the front door and Jeremy showed us the picture of an aged Palestinian woman he met who could only get into her house by climbing a ladder in her neighbour’s back garden.
We had trouble believing this, but here’s an article from February 2010 in which a Rabbi explains that on his visit to Hebron: “The Israeli military had designated the street we were walking a “sterile street,” a street on which only Jews can walk! The Palestinians who lived on the street could not leave their homes through their front doors which were also bolted by the Israeli military.”
- Shunned – Jeremy also informed us that he was guided on his tour by a Jewish lady who had refused to serve in the Israeli military as a conscientious objector. This action had specifically limited her job prospects – it is hard to get a good job in Israel if you have not served in the IDF – and had caused her many in her family and Jewish community to shun her.
- Education – Israeli Jews have a separate education curriculum from non-Jewish Israeli citizens. So Jewish Israeli have one Biology lesson, and non-Jewish Israelis have a different lesson. Even the marking system is different, a Jewish Israeli receives 300 points for writing their name on an exam paper, whereas the non-Jewish Israeli receives on 200.
We hope to organise more events like this in future. If you know of venues or would just like to express you thank to Rev Tear, please make a comment below.
[Updated with corrections from Rev Tear]
The West Bank – What About Fairness?
July 20th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary, News
Tags: Bedouin, hebron, israel, Nicholas D. Kristof, NYT, settlements, west bank
NYT columnist Nicholas D. Kristof‘s video report on the living conditions of Bedouins who live under Israeli control in the Southern Hebron Hills in the West Bank.
This was made during the recent trip he mentions in his “Waiting for Gandhi” Op-Ed. (Original NYT video)
NYT Op-Ed: Waiting for Gandhi
July 11th, 2010 • Action, Awareness, News
Tags: bilin, gandhi, india, new york times, Nicholas D. Kristof, non violent resistance, palestine, salt march, wall, west bank
Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times:
Waiting for Gandhi
BILIN, West Bank – Despite being stoned and tear-gassed on this trip, I find a reed of hope here. It’s that some Palestinians are dabbling in a strategy of nonviolent resistance that just might be a game-changer.
The organizers hail the methods of Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., recognizing that nonviolent resistance could be a more powerful tool to achieve a Palestinian state than rockets and missiles. Bilin is one of several West Bank villages experimenting with these methods, so I followed protesters here as they marched to the Israeli security fence.
Most of the marchers were Palestinians, but some were also Israeli Jews and foreigners who support the Palestinian cause. They chanted slogans and waved placards as photographers snapped photos. At first the mood was festive and peaceful, and you could glimpse the potential of this approach.
But then a group of Palestinian youths began to throw rocks at Israeli troops. That’s the biggest challenge: many Palestinians define “nonviolence” to include stone-throwing.
Soon after, the Israeli forces fired volleys of tear gas at us, and then charged. The protesters fled, some throwing rocks backward as they ran. It’s a far cry from the heroism of Gandhi’s followers, who refused even to raise their arms to ward off blows as they were clubbed.
(I brought my family with me on this trip, and my kids experienced the gamut: we were stoned by Palestinian kids in East Jerusalem, and tear-gassed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank.)
Another problem with these protests, aside from the fact that they aren’t truly nonviolent, is they typically don’t much confound the occupation authorities.
But imagine if Palestinians stopped the rock-throwing and put female pacifists in the lead. What if 1,000 women sat down peacefully on a road to block access to an illegal Jewish settlement built on Palestinian farmland? What if the women allowed themselves to be tear-gassed, beaten and arrested without a single rock being thrown? Those images would be on televisions around the world — particularly if hundreds more women marched in to replace those hauled away.
“With nonviolent struggle, we can win the media battle,” Mr. Morrar told me, speaking in English. “They always used to say that Palestinians are killers. With nonviolence, we can show that we are victims, that we are not against Jews but are against occupation.”
Mr. Morrar spent six years in Israeli prisons but seems devoid of bitterness. He says that Israel has a right to protect itself by building a fence — but on its own land, not on the West Bank.
Most Palestinian demonstrations are overwhelmingly male, but in Budrus women played a central role. They were led by Mr. Morrar’s quite amazing daughter, Iltezam Morrar. Then 15, she once blocked an Israeli bulldozer by diving in front of it (the bulldozer retreated, and she was unhurt).
Israeli security forces knew how to deal with bombers but were flummoxed by peaceful Palestinian women. Even when beaten and fired on with rubber bullets, the women persevered. Finally, Israel gave up. It rerouted the security fence to bypass nearly all of Budrus.
The saga is chronicled in this year’s must-see documentary “Budrus,” a riveting window into what might be possible if Palestinians adopted civil disobedience on a huge scale. In a sign of interest in nonviolent strategies, the documentary is scheduled to play in dozens of West Bank villages in the coming months, as well as at international film festivals.
I don’t know whether Palestinians can create a peaceful mass movement that might change history, and their first challenge will be to suppress the stone-throwers and bring women into the forefront. But this grass-roots movement offers a ray of hope for less violence and more change.
Read the accompanying blog entry: Palestinian Civil Disobedience
Related: Times of India: Shades of Gandhi in Palestinian movement
Gandhi spoke at length about Palestine, this piece published in 1938:
The Jews In Palestine
By Mahatma Gandhi – Published in the Harijan – 26-11-1938.
Several letters have been received by me, asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.
My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became lifelong companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close.
Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews. But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.
The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine.
Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war.
Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.
Read the rest at Countercurrents.org…
Gandhiserve.org has a full archive of his words on Palestine here…
Don’t forget the old joke:
Palestinian Joke #134
Question: Where can Israel find the Palestinian Gandhi?
Answer: Exactly where they put him, in administrative detention. (ie. Prison)
(via Mondoweiss…)
NYT: Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank
July 6th, 2010 • News
Tags: deductible, funds, money, settlement, tax, west bank
The Lavi family of Har Bracha, in the West Bank, operates a vineyard. Twice a year, American volunteers go there to work.
HAR BRACHA, West Bank — Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines.
Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ’s second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers “to labor side by side with the people of Israel” and “to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah.”
But during their visit in February the volunteers found themselves in the middle of the fight for land that defines daily life here. When the evangelicals headed into the vineyards, they were pelted with rocks by Palestinians who say the settlers have planted creeping grape vines on their land to claim it as their own. Two volunteers were hurt. In the ensuing scuffle, a settler guard shot a 17-year-old Palestinian shepherd in the leg.
“These people are filled with ideas that this is the Promised Land and their duty is to help the Jews,” said Izdat Said Qadoos of the neighboring Palestinian village. “It is not the Promised Land. It is our land.”
HaYovel is one of many groups in the United States using tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories — effectively obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state, widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace.
The result is a surprising juxtaposition: As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them.
A New York Times examination of public records in the United States and Israel identified at least 40 American groups that have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade. The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law. But it has also paid for more legally questionable commodities: housing as well as guard dogs, bulletproof vests, rifle scopes and vehicles to secure outposts deep in occupied areas.
Read more at NYT website…
The Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence
July 2nd, 2010 • News
Tags: fence, Nicholas D. Kristof, NYT, Op-Ed, west bank
Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times:
The Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is widely acknowledged to be unsustainable and costly to the country’s image. But one more blunt truth must be acknowledged: the occupation is morally repugnant.
On one side of a barbed-wire fence here in the southern Hebron hills is the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir, where Palestinians live in ramshackle tents and huts. They aren’t allowed to connect to the electrical grid, and Israel won’t permit them to build homes, barns for their animals or even toilets. When the villagers build permanent structures, the Israeli authorities come and demolish them, according to villagers and Israeli human rights organizations.
Eight Days in Palestine – Day 8
May 2nd, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank
A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.
Day 8 – Dead Sea to Tel Aviv Airport
This is about travel – we 4 men in a Ford Transit bus – the colour of licence plates identify the nationality of the driver, blue for Israeli, yellow or white for Palestinians. This makes all vehicles readily identifiable to the police and army. When we were nearing the Dead Sea, 400 metres below sea level, we were overtaken by an unmarked car, executive class, something like a Vauxhall Omega. This car pulled in, in front of us, and we then proceeded at a more leisurely pace behind the car and a large goods vehicle in front of that. We were late and our driver saw an opportunity to overtake and did so – we could see it was a bit dodgy as the road unaccountably narrowed just then – but he did it. The driver of the unmarked car, which turned out to be an Israeli policeman, overtook us and flagged us down. Our driver got out and having spoken to the policeman was fined 500 shekels.
This apparently is a routine procedure, not performed upon Israelis, perhaps part of the morale sapping routine – and the creation of income. Abed later asked for a whip round for the driver and we having put up 450 shekels suggested that the driver should pay something as he had been over-ambitious. Abed replied that the driver could ill afford even that and that his brother had been killed by the Israelis – so we put up the full amount, the equivalent of about £90 for a bit of dodgy overtaking.
The day was very warm, something like 350, and we much enjoyed our soak in the Dead Sea. Like an idiot Ted plunged into the sea and swallowed some water and got some in his eyes. I had never tasted anything quite so salty and the salt in my eyes was akin to teargas. Beth was kind enough to pour water from her bottle onto my forehead and this washed out the salt. The women had caked themselves in the mud from the sea bottom and they looked gorgeous – when I got the salt out of my eyes.
Back at Friendship House we were told to be ready to leave at 3.30 although the coach driver had wanted to leave for Tel Aviv at 3pm and was very restive, if not angry. It was clear why when we got to the town of Aizaria where the traffic snarl-up was horrendous – the result of a lack of traffic lights or any traffic control was very clear. However, with great skill, our driver who was also an ambulance driver (he also had been in prison) weaved his way through the traffic and across traffic lanes to find a quiet route and we arrived at Ben Gurion airport in good time.
It was fortunate that we were in good time as our passage through immigration was tortuously slow. In the initial queue we were each asked where we had been and where we had stayed and our passports temporarily taken away – our bags were then given a sticker. On arrival at the usual belt-drive through a scanner our bags went through and we followed them to a rectangular area of desks, inside which were an array of x-ray and other machines, with their operatives. Rob, who is tall and lean and 29 years old was told to put his bags on the desks when a lengthy period of taking out all his clothes, cameras and laptop followed. Ted put his bags on the desk but was told, ‘no need’. Apparently our stickers showed a number – in Ted’s case ‘2’ and in Rob’s case ‘6’. A minute search of all of Rob’s belongings ensued, followed by his being taken away for a strip search – down to his underpants – it took 2 hours from entry into the first queue to our sitting down to a coffee inside the airport. The women of our party fared even worse, all 14 of them – their ages ranging from 22 to 65 – were put through the same rigorous procedure as Rob, but in their case taking 2¾ hours; we later found they all had a ‘6’ sticker on their bags.
Why the rigour – in the case of Ted who got away scott-free, it may have been his age of 74 – in the case of Rob, well he was of an age and strength to be a terrorist? But was anyone less likely to be so than our group of women – they did go through as a group who had attended a Women’s Conference on the West Bank and this was perhaps their undoing. We two men had been told to have no connection with the women at the airport and had been careful not to claim to have stayed in the West Bank.
It was good to get on a BMI flight home and return to Heathrow with no fuss or harassment – but what an adventure.
Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009
Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association
Eight Days in Palestine – Day 7
May 1st, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank
A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.
Day 7 – in Bil’in
Saturday 7th November 2009
Ted, representing Liverpool Friends of Palestine who are twinned with Bil’’in, together with Rob a photographer, Phil who represents a Harringey organization which is twinned with Aizaria and Jon who at his own expense has volunteered to teach English in Abu Dis for 3 months, left Al Sawya by taxi. We were hoping to catch the start of the protest demonstration which begins immediately after midday prayers each Friday. Although our taxi driver stopped at the previous village, thinking we had arrived he went into the mosque and stayed for prayers, we arrived at Bil’in in time and were immediately contacted by Sareem, who was to prove so helpful.
We joined the 200 or so marchers from all over the world but primarily Europe and Israel, with the majority of the rest being boys and young men from the village. It was half mile or so to the barrier which is not yet a wall.
Bil’in turned to the courts in the autumn of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction permits for part of the settlement Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred metres west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s land to the village. To date, the high court ruling has been ignored – settlement construction continues and the barrier remains in place.
On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahme was shot in the chest by Israeli forces at the fence with a high-velocity teargas projectile. He subsequently died from his wounds, at a Ramallah hospital – we were later to find out much more of this incident.
On our way to the barrier fence, at the end of a rutted farm road, there is a flanking fence to the side and it was here that young village boys of 14 to 17 were hurling stones at the Israeli side, after cutting a large hole in the security fence. They were running into trees out of the path of the retaliatory tear gas being fired at them. They appeared to be very brave and this was to be the pattern for their elders who were at the gated entry through the fence at the end of our road.
Notwithstanding the repeated barrages of 7 or 8 grenades at a time Eyad, with a brother of Bassem who had been killed, was leading an attack on the barrier fence. They eventually cut through and pulled back the barbed wire and Eyad went through to the Israeli tar-macadammed road on the other side but shortly returned. Every so often 3 Israeli soldiers would come out onto this same stretch of road and return stones at the protestors – this semed to be more effective than the tear gas. We could hear and then see the grenades coming and could by and large step out of the way; the wind was blowing strongly towards the Israelis and as long as we stepped upwind most of us could avoid the tear gas most of the time. Each one of our party did get caught twice at least – tear gas is extremely effective and unpleasant in closing down one’s eyes and breathing; fortunately we got only a mild whiff but Eyad really caught a packet which put him out of action for 15 or so minutes, he then returned to the front line, calling on all to join him at the front fence.
The demonstration finished after about an hour at which time we all made the return to Bil’in. Sareem – Eyad’s second in command who had met us from the taxi and had been extremely solicitous and caring throughout, particularly for Ted’s welfare – took us to the Association’s HQ. Here Eyad was interviewing people and we were given facilities to clean up and given refreshment. We were introduced to their photo-journalist, Ashail Yusri, who began editing his video of the day’s event – for YouTube. Ted had been caught on this film three times and it is of interest to note that his daughter in Liverpool was able to see the edited version a few hours later – he only appears once on this edited version, at the end.
We later repaired to Eyad’s house where we met his family – his wife prepared lunch for the four of us. Ted handed over our contribution to the office expenses of the Association of Friends of Freedom and Justice – Bil’in and also bought some fine needlework for his colleagues in Liverpool; he understood that this had been made by Eyad’s wife and a colleague from the village. We also met the local school science teacher Al-Katib Haitham who runs the sports club, together with Eyad’s brother – all of whom made us extremely welcome.
We left at 4pm to visit a couple of homes, again led by Sareem, the first being a house which the Association lets out to visiting activists, mainly from other countries – this contains about 15 beds, complete with kitchen, living room and bathroom.
We then moved on through the village past the cemetery where Bassem had been buried , his grave being decorated with Palestinian flags and flowers which we photographed. We then moved on to the house of Bassem’s mother and family. Here we met two of his brothers and his mother, where we took mint tea. Rob our photographer recognised Bassem’s brother in his red tee-shirt; he had been prominent in the earlier demonstration. When Ted expressed some concern regarding this brother’s involvement, his mother – who did not speak English – merely lifted her thumb in a gesture of courage. We are forever being impressed by the Palestinians’ display of indominatable courage, from the teenagers and young men at the fence to their elders in the besieged towns and villages.- the Israelis will never conquer them.
Baseem’s mother and brother told us how Baseem, apparently a very big man in stature as well as in his nature, was much loved throughout the village. He was always at the forefront of the marches – which he insisted should be peaceful, with no stone throwing – and he spoke quietly to the IDF soldiers. They must have known him well and fired at him directly and deliberately.
We then returned to Eyad’s house, up the hill to get a taxi to Abu Dis. In a surprising gesture, the hawklike moustached younger brother of Baseem, who had been so prominent in his red tee-shirt, noticed Ted was walking with a little difficulty on the uneven pavement up the hill – he immediately took his arm and they walked together to Eyad’s home.
We then returned to Abu Dis to a much needed Saturday rest day. I am however typing the last 2 day’s reports here in the Friendship centre, in a now noisy atmosphere of a rehearsal. Teenage boys are rehearsing a song about the Palestinian troubles and the invasion of Gaza which they will sing in a Concert tonight – the tune is good and we hope they are successful in making it into a hit. We attended this concert, where the boys also performed the traditional ance we had seen in Asawya, which was held to mark the opening of a diabetes clinic – apparently diabetes is on the increase, thought to be as a result of stress.
Ted from Liverpool – A visit to the West Bank
1st November to 8th November 2009
Arranged by Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association
Eight Days in Palestine – Day 5 continued…
April 30th, 2010 • Awareness, Film & Documentary
Tags: 8 days, checkpoints, diary, journey, liverpool, nablus, palestine, road trip, ted, west bank
A new feature with excerpts from a Diary by “Ted from Liverpool”.
Day 5 – Arrival in Al Asawyia
Thursday 5th November 2009
We had a warm reception from the mayor of this small village at the local community centre/ council office – he was accompanied by other leading men and a group of women who had been involved in the twinning appeal. After a speech from the Mayor, translated by Abed, we retired for a meal and were then entertained to traditional Palestinian dancing, something akin to our Morris dancers. This was performed by eleven boys whose leader Isaac, a boy of about 14, performed with great skill and elegance in a routine of about 20 minutes. The tone was a little lowered when he invited Ted to join them in an intricate stick and arm routine.
The Mayor told us that the village formerly occupied an area of 11,500 dunums (3,000 acres) but more than one third of its farming land had been confiscated for settlements, Like Azzoum, this had also been an agricultural community, the main source of income being its olive and fig trees, renowned for decades
Further land (and produce), he said, has been destroyed – the settlements use it as a dumping ground for sewers and garbage –forming a health hazard.
Formerly recognized for its interest in education and farming, but relatively poor, because of its location far from major towns and cities and lack of industries, the confiscation of its farming land along with natural demographic growth had caused a severe rise in unemployment.
Afterwards we were again addressed by the village elders who spoke of the loss of land to the settlements and also how the IDF regularly entered their school to cause disruption, bringing trauma to the children and teachers also. On one occasion a teacher had been killed. After nightfall, we went onto the roof of the Community building and were shown the brightly lit settlements which ringed the village
We stayed the night at the house of Arafat’s father, a local former landowner – a man in his late sixties. His wife told us of a harrowing experience at the hands of a security guard from one of the nearby settlements. She had gone with her daughter and donkey to their remaining olive grove (the bulk was on the wrong side of the settlement security fence) to gather in their olive crop. When the guard saw them he shouted at them to leave – the wife said it was their own grove and that they were entitled to be there. Nevertheless he went to them and ordered them again to go, whereupon the wife started to lead the donkey away – the guard then started to pull the donkey the other way. She still resisted whereupon he hit her with his baton and she fell to the ground where he then proceeded to kick her viciously. He left with the donkey and she has never returned to the grove.
This procedure seems to be a pattern with settlers on the West Bank – not content with illegally occupying the villagers’ lands – perversely preventing the Palestinian from utilizing those remaining lands which lie immediately adjoining the settlement fences.
This attack on the Palestinians appears, in microcosm, a replica of what seems to be the Israeli tactic of seeking to lower the morale and to break their spirit. In this they seem not to be succeeding in that perhaps shared adversity is strengthening the bonds which tie these villagers together – they are also much tied together by family relationships.
In the morning Mary and Karen, the Llanidloes ladies, with Ros who was to find a twinning village at Yatme, left to look more closely at the village and the two schools, together with Rob who would take further photos. The Mayor also wanted them to look at the 68 homes which the Israelis had scheduled for demolition – these plans are currently being resisted through legal action, although destruction of part of some of these homes has in fact commenced. One is occupied by a carpenter who makes goods for sale in his home – apparently IDF soldiers enter and break up these goods regularly. The reason for the demolition order is that these 68 houses have been built without building permission – notwithstanding demographic growth none has been given since 1992. This is an Israeli decision and if implemented will leave several hundred people homeless.
There are two schools – long established; we later saw, when leaving the village on the main road to Nablus, how the main gate approaches off this road had been bashed and padlocked by the authorities.
Jon and Ted went for a walk round the village which consists of widely scattered houses on these hillside sites and we were warmly met by Isaac and some other boys with whom Ted had danced their traditional Palestinian dance the previous evening.
We later made our way to the Council offices where Ted wanted to email the Arabic version of the Mayor’s address to Nahida for translation. However the offices were not open, it being their Sabbath. Whilst we sat outside we spoke with a man who had been collecting some litter in a bucket outside the newly built mosque which lay opposite. He told us he had been working in Kuwait for 20 years as a production manager and had returned 5 years earlier to live in the village and build his own house.
Opposite the mosque there was a fine looking stone faced house which belonged to his brother who was working in Saudi and behind which lay his own equally fine house; these were men who were of some substance and our new friend told us how he helped to build the mosque by bringing in the materials and also in organizing the work.
We also met a well dressed man, Abdulrahim Khalil, who told us he ran a ‘human rights and women empowering’ group in Ramallah.
We were later invited to a nearby house where the owner showed us a traditional bread oven in an outhouse and we then took tea with him and some of his neighbours. He also had worked abroad, as a tiler, and spoke good English. He had returned to the village to raise his 7 children, 4 of whom were at university, the eldest going on to train as an anesthetist. The fifth daughter was handicapped in that she was either deaf or dumb, I am not sure which, but who attended a special school in Ramallah. Her father proudly showed us her exam results for the year end, she being 16; her overall mark was 98% and her headmaster had written to say how exceptional were her results.
This man was very good company being resilient in the light of his troubles; he had damaged his back and could not work full-time – resulting in a much reduced income – his wife was in hospital, having lost a breast to cancer. Everywhere we went we were struck by the resilience and fortitude shown by all to the daily misery administered by the Israelis = in addition to the normal ups and downs of life. Perhaps his clever daughters, particularly the fifth, will in future keep him in the luxury which he presently does not have.
Another man joined us at this house, he had been successful in an import/export business until the 2nd Intafada – it was he who spoke of the Israeli down-grading of Nablus as the power-house of the West Bank
During the morning we left for Bil’in.
