These are newsletters I wrote during my recent three month stay in Palestine.
*Arriving in Jerusalem*
So, first impressions – how to get it all down without going on far too long and how to get you to believe it!
From the airport in Tel Aviv our taxi driver Issa drove past Ramallah – “the
prison”, he called it. He seemed to know all kinds of unorthodox ways to
circumvent checkpoint queues and soon we were in East Jerusalem and driven
up an impossibly narrow alley, pinning feral cats to the walls on either
side, to reach our guesthouse. Even at 8.30pm the temperature was still over 30 degrees.
What can I say about Jerusalem. Anywhere else in the world it would be a
source of joy and celebration to be in such a diverse place. On the Via
Dolorosa a parade of Christians carrying a large wooden cross passes two
Israeli soldiers leaning on a wall. A waiter shows an Italian couple to a
table where two Jewish tourists are already sitting, saying “In Jerusalem we
should all be together.”
Yet here diversity is unwelcome. Above the souq we stand on the roof
overlooking the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. Around us flutter Israeli flags, a sign of the many settlements established above Palestinian families. Yesterday one such family, clinging to one remaining room of their house, finally had their furniture thrown out on the street.
At the Western Wall of what was the temple mount orthodox Jews gather to
pray. The viewing plaza is filled with celebrating Jews from around the
world. Israeli soldiers look on from one corner, relaxing, their guns piled
up. As we leave the Jewish quarter there is a clear demarcation where the
street cleaning stops, despite the fact that all Jerusalemites pay rates and
taxes. Back along the Via Dolorosa we pass under
a house , with a huge
menorah and Israeli flag, bought with American money for Ariel Sharon,
although he has never lived there.
*Another world*
Away from the old city there are hills and deep valleys, and views to the Dead Sea and the desert. In one of the valleys lies Silwan. Three days ago two children were run over by a settler. He was seen veering into them deliberately. At the police station he denied he had been near Silwan, but he had been caught on camera. Since then children have been throwing
stones at buses and cars, and many arrests have been made. Mosa, a member of
the community, had his 10 year old son taken away for questionning. He was
kept for three days. One of Israel’s knesset members, Michael ben ari said
at a press conference this morning that he would kill all the children in
Silwan. Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister said that he would have them
all arrested – he’s a little more moderate!
Silwan, like Sheikh Jarrah, is an area where houses are regularly
demolished. Archaeological work is to be carried out in the valley, which is
supposed to be where King David walked. Well, where didn’t he walk! But
these archaeologists are no respecters of a thorough, scientific approach.
The skeletons of Muslims are discarded in order to find the archaeological
remains that fit the programme.
We were driven out to Ma’ale Adomim, the huge settlement between Jerusalem
and Jericho. In a desert the entrance to the suburb is green and ancient
olive trees grow, uprooted from parts of the West Bank. The settlement is
huge and the houses out of keeping with the surroundings. The settlers here
are not the militant religious kind, simply economic settlers, offered
lovely houses at knock down prices.
The road we are travelling on between Jericho and Jerusalem does not go
where it used to, in a direct line, because now the 8 metre high wall with
wire on top cuts right across it. A gas station and shops that used to do a
thriving trade now stand in desultory fashion on a road to nowhere. Families
who used to live five minutes away from each other now have a 45 minute
journey through checkpoints. Although the Israeli government insists the
wall is for security, people regularly breach it through monastery gardens
and through olives groves.
*A rural paradise?*
I am relieved that I shall be spending most of my timein the rural north of the West Bank, in Yanoun. I spent three days there so far, to meet people we will be working with there and get a feel for the work we shall be doing.
Our first night there settlers came into the village after dark and stole fruit from 18 olive trees. The following morning the alarm was raised as a
large group of people descended from the hill top. They were hikers. And why
not? This is a beautiful place. Limestone hills surround a lush valley, and
olive trees climb each hillside. But no locals hike here. Shepherds keep
their sheep on the lower slopes and olive trees higher up are abandoned. And
these hikers carry guns. They come from Israel with maps that do not show
any villages here.
I am reminded that in Sheffield, where I live, people fought in the 1930s
for access to land to ramble and enjoy the countryside. Here people do not
even have access to land which is theirs to make their living. For they are
ringed by hostile settlers – of the most militant and violent kind. Most
recently a mosque was torched. To his credit, a liberal rabbi from near
Bethlehem personally bought new Qurans for the rebuilt mosque. But only a
few days ago settlers came down to threaten the mosque again. It has a
demolition order on it, which so far has not been enforced, so settlers take
the law into their own hands.
With the olive harvest starting people are gearing up for attacks. We
attended a rally in nearby Burin with speakers from the PA, to try to
co-ordinate the olive harvest in all the local villages. A minister from the
PA symbolically plants an olive tree, there are singers and dancers. After
the rally we take tea at the house of the Soufan family, whose house was
burned by settlers, and their solar panels destroyed.
Another village, Madama, used to have plentiful water from a spring above
the village, but twice now settlers have destroyed with pipes bringing the
water to the well, and now, like so many other places, people pay to have
water brought in in tankers by Israeli water companies.
At Rashed, the mayor’s house there is a poster of an olive tree with the slogan “I will not leave”. People have left the village, but many are
determined to stay, and the beauty of the place, and their determination not to lose Palestine are some of the reasons why. Our neighbour Kamal jokes that they have given up trying to travel to Jerusalem because of the difficulty of getting permits. “There are checkpoints even to get into heaven”, he says.
The following morning I walked down to Lower Yanoun to meet the head man there, Adnan, who is at home, as it is Friday, taking care of his three children. Minna Tullah, meaning gift from God, is a charming curly headed four year old and Ali is a nine month old terror. The older boy is studying.
Adnan is a chemical engineer working for the Palestinian Authority in
Nablus. His wife was from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, the most densely populated place in the whole region.
Adnan will not bring his children up there, but prefers to stay in Yanoun,
where it is quiet and his children can study. He says our presence here is
helpful. “Look” he says, “In much larger villages than this settlers attack,
torch houses and mosques, but here things are much quieter, even though
there are only eight families here – why? Because the settlers see
internationals.”
Whilst we are back in Jerusalem we hear that one local village had a
children’s playground demolished by the Israeli army after children threw
stones, and the village will get the bill.
*The Jordan Valley*
The Jordan Valley, although it looks like a desert, is the main supplier of
the area’s water. Israel wants to retain the area between the river and the
rest of the West Bank in the event of any negotiated settlement.It is mostly
a military zone, and so building permits are impossible for Palestinians to
acquire and several dwellings and indeed whole villages have been
demolished, sometimes more than once. The Jordan Valley Support Group
regularly helps the local people to rebuild. Currently at the village of
Farsiya, volunteers search through the rubble for usable materials to
rebuild the village again. The village has an extensive plantation of
aubergines, but the villagers tell us there is not enough water to keep
their sheep as well. In a nearby tent a man says his prayers. Across the
road is a huge plantation of trees that belongs to the neighbouring Israeli
settlement – the trees were donated by a women’s Christian Zionist
organisation in the US. Water is a huge issue, too much for me to do justice
to here – but you can look at www.ewash.org for really good information
about the problem.
the settlements are down into the valley and the peoplebeginning to pic
k olives. Two peoples, who seem destined to live in fear andhatred of each other are for one moment linked by its light.For further news on these and any other stories it is always worth looking at Maan News, the Palestinian news service, who have a website.
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