The last months saw the development of connections between the Music Center that opened about a year ago in the village of Salem, near Nablus, and several people from the well-stablished Alef High-School of Arts in Tel Aviv. Ram and Rutie, who are leading this initiative from the Israeli side, initiated and organized for Jubier, Fadi and Amid – the Music Center’s team, a visit of three days in Tel Aviv. The visit took place during Purim and included meetings and workshops.

The team from Salem met Mario – a teacher for self-expression and communication through music in the Tel Aviv high-school, and three of his pupils; they had a workshop with Fouad, a teacher for music education in Jaffa, and accompanied him on his daily work in the city; and they had the privilege to meet Amos, a musician from Tel Aviv, specializing in building and playing the oud (see attached photos).

The visit took place while West Bank residents were under the closure regularly imposed on them during Jewish holidays. It was possible to hold the visit in these circumstances, due to the efforts of Buma Inbar to secure permits that were valid despite of the closure.

We see this visit as part of an ongoing effort to create connections between this groundbreaking project of music education in Salem and professionals and supporters from Israel and abroad. This effort will continue at the end of next week, when Dr. Felicity Laurence from the University of Newcastle, a world known expert in teaching chorus singing to children, will arrive for her second visit in Salem’s Music Center.

The occasion was the opening of a second school year at the Center, absorbing a second cohort of students in addition to last year’s students who continue their work (see here for a description of the first year’s graduation concert). Some challenges facing the Center in its second year:

• Moving from the local council building to a rented building dedicated solely to Center activities;
• Expanding the teacher staff to accommodate the additional students;
• Expanding the deepening the relationships with professionals in Israel and abroad;
• Deepening the commitment and involvement of student families, including a larger financial participation in covering costs;
• Expanding the donor base to enable the increase in activities.

If you are interested in getting involved and supporting, please do not hesitate to contact us. We have a new email address: villagesgroup1@gmail.com.

Or contact Mr. Jubier Ishteh, the Center’s founder and director: jubier10@gmail.com, or the administrative and financial manager, Fadi Ishteh: fadi.ishteh@gmail.com.

All the best,

Ehud Krinis

We relay and fully endorse this message, from Ta’ayush activists with whom we have been working hand-in-hand for years to protect the right of South Hebron Hill (Massafar Yatta) indigenous residents. Please support their rebuilding effort.

Thanks, The Villages Group.

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The situation of the Palestinian cave-dwellers in South Hebron Hills continues to be difficult. They suffer from permanent harassment carried out by the military and settlers. This year, however, has been even more difficult, due to a severe drought.

As if it wanted to capitalize on the harsh conditions, on December 16th, the Israeli military destroyed 13 water cisterns belonging to Palestinian families in South Hebron hills.
(direct link to video here; Ha’aretz news story here)

The military claims that these water cisterns (or reservoirs) were built illegally and therefore must be destroyed. Some were built in recent years with international assistance, and some were built before 1967 during the Jordanian rule, but still (according to martial law) need Israeli re-authorization. Since the military regime’s “Zone C Planning Committees” are dominated by settlers, there is no chance to obtain such a permit. The cisterns are located on West Bank lands that the Israel has designated for the IDF as “firing zones” – areas the military uses as training sites for live ammunition.

The destruction or the water cisterns leaves the Palestinian shepherds without water sources, and forces them to limit their grazing areas. This is exactly what the Israeli authorities intend to achieve. It makes the life of this population, already probably the poorest in the whole West Bank, all but impossible.

In order to help the Palestinians keep their lands and strengthen the Sumoud (steadfastness) of South Hebron area residents, Taáyush activists have started helping reconstruct the cisterns.

We need $4,200 for each cistern. We have set out to reconstruct ten cisterns, please help us accomplish this goal.

Donation can be made to Taáyush:
Via Bank Deposit

Bank Hapoalim
Branch 574 (‘Hapalmach’)
Account no. 160213
Swift code ‘poalilit’
IBAN: IL61-0125-7400-0000-0160-213

Via Paypal

http://tinyurl.com/taayush-jlm

Please mail Anat566@gmail.com with the donation details.
Thank you in advance,

The south Hebron committee of Taáyush Jerusalem

On Friday, 24.12.10, in the afternoon, the little hall in the building of the local council of Salem, a village located close to Nablus – was packed. We gathered there, ten guests from different places in Israel (Kibbutz Shoval, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Taybeh), and a large number of local residents, adults and mostly children, to see and listen to the playing of the pupils of Salem’s music center, in a concert marking the end of the first activity year of the center.

The center was jointly established by Jubier, a local musician, and members of the Villages Group – a small group of Israeli volunteers who have been regularly visiting Salem for the last eight years. This joint effort, backed by financial support from private donors abroad (from Australia and the US), lead to the opening of the first class of the music center, in March of this year. The 15 pupils chosen for this first class are the first children from Salem having the opportunity to systematically learn to play instruments and work together in a musical ensemble.

The great investment of the founding team of the center – Jubier, the initiator, Amid – the head teacher, and Fadi – the administrative manager, bore fruit that have been acknowledged and deeply appreciated by every visitor who have come to the center’s classes, listened to the impressive progress of the pupils and watched how much they enjoy playing and working together. Last month the music center in Salem hosted Dr. Felicity Laurence, from Newcastle University in UK, a renowned expert in musical education for children. The lessons Felicity gave the pupils of the center enabled her to evaluate the high abilities developed by the pupils in such a short time and the great potential in continuing to work with them, a potential it’s important to continue to realize.

The concert held on Dec. 24 is a peak event and a turning point in terms of the exposure of the music center, its teachers and pupils to the village community. The fact that most of the audience filling the hall were children, might indicate that most of all that there is a great desire for musical education among the young generation in Salem. This evident need gives rise to many possibilities for development and growth of the center. Trying to implement them is the biggest challenge facing the music center in the next years.

The concert itself lasted about an hour and the program consisted of Palestinian national songs (including the anthems ‘Biladi, Biladi’ and ‘Mawtani’), popular Arab songs (such as by Fairuz) and one piece from the western classical repertoire (Ode to Freedom from Bethoven’s 9th symphony). The concert began with greetings from Adli Ishtyah – the head of the local council in Salem, and Erella Dunayevsky from the Villages Group, who translated to Arabic and then sang (in Hebrew) Hannah Szenes‘s poem ‘A Walk to Caesarea’.

We all hope that the special circumstances that enabled the opening of the center and its operation this year – the convergence of determined local initiative and consistent cooperation of friends and supporters from Israel and abroad – will continue to exist, so the music center in Salem will continue to operate, develop and thrive in the next few years.

Check our YouTube channel for short videos documenting the children musical progress in the Salem music center during the first year.

Ehud Krinis
The Villages Group

Our report on the fire that consumed the kitchen of Hajja Sara on Tuesday,December 28, was based on what the Hajja told us when we visited the place, a few hours after the fire. The Hajja’s claim that the fire was set by settlers seemed conceivable to us, due to various incidents of nightly arson taking place during the last years in Susya, in Hajja Sara’s as well as in other families’ living sites, and due to further incidents of attacks by Susiya settlers against people and property, both during the day and at night.

On the day of the fire, while we were in Hajja Sara’s living site, a General Security Service (Shin Bet) investigator arrived at the place, accompanied by several soldiers. The investigator, together with Hajja Sara and one of her sons went down to the site of the fire and looked at the kitchen tent. Since we were present at the place during this investigation and could appreciate its less than serious nature (to put it mildly), we didn’t assign any significance to the rumor spread by the GSS that the fire’s cause was a kerosene stove left burning inside the kitchen. As is well known, the GSS is a secretive body, operating by squeezing confessions and by spreading rumors, and not by openly distributing information in a way that enables verification or criticism.

Recently, we received (indirectly) from the fire department in Yatta more significant information regarding the possible source of the fire in Hajja Sara’s kitchen. As we wrote in an earlier report, a fire truck of the Yatta fire department was called but was detained by soldiers who blocked its way. It reached the location of the fire very late; after the fire was extinguished by the local residents. According to information that reached some of Susya’s residents few days after, the conclusion reached by the fire department staff from Yatta, based on their visit to the site, is that the source of the fire in Hajja Sara’s kitchen is not deliberate arson but fire that spread from the Taboun (traditional earthen oven) installed behind the kitchen. This conclusion seems to us more probable then the one delivered by the GSS investigator, mostly because it was reached by professionals whose profession is to extinguish fires and investigate their reasons and sources. We also know that a request submitted by “Btselem” (Israeli Human Rights NGO) to the Yatta fire department, to receive a formal report on this matter, was not granted until now.

The violence used by settlers from the Susya area against the Palestinian residents there is a well known and persistent matter. The last striking example is the incident on December 13 in which a large number of settlers attacked, in broad daylight, the living site of two families living in the southern part of Susya, damaging property and inflicting severe physical injuries on two elderly men living there – one of them Hajja Sara’s brother. This violent incidence, like many before it, was not appropriately treated or genuinely investigated by the legal authorities of the army and the police.

As opposed to these clear cases of settlers’ violence in Susya, met with deliberate inaction by the law enforcing authorities, in the case of the fire in Hajja Sara’s kitchen on December 28, it is still not possible for us at the moment to reach a definite conclusion. The version given to us by the Hajja is now contrasted by what was informally conveyed by the Yatta fire department to a few of Susya’s residents (including some members of the Hajja’s family ) – that the source of the fire is not arson but an accident caused, among other things, by the proximity of the Taboun tent to the kitchen tents.

When we tell the world about the events taking place in South Mount Hebron and in other occupied places we personally know, we try to be as exact and reliable as possible. But reality is often much more complex than our first conception of it. We live in a space fraught with uncertainties, some stemming from the very nature of reality, others politically manufactured. Things are sometimes crystal clear, and sometimes wrapped with uncertainly that might never be resolved. If we will have any new information on the incident of the fire in Hajja Sara’s kitchen, rest assured that we will deliver it without bias. We thank you, the readers of our reports, for trusting us.

Sincerely,

Ehud and Erella, in the name of The Villages Group

Following news of the incident, family and friends in Palestine and Israel, as well as Israeli and international groups, have enlisted to help in donation and work on the ground. Hajja Sara’s kitchen now stands again. We too have received donations in money and in kind (cooking equipment), and will deliver them shortly to Hajja Sara and her family.

Hajja Sara (seated front left), with family and friends, celebrating the rebuilt kitchen tent

The warm and rapid response has uplifted the spirits of the aging Hajja. However, with all the satisfaction we must not forget that Palestinian Susiya remains under the continuing danger of destruction and expulsion, not just by settlers but by the official forces of the State of Israel. The Occupation authorities, dominated by settler interests, see any act of construction and renovation as illegal.

For example, the cistern demolitions were carried out under the pretense that the cisterns (most of which were built before Israel controlled the region) are “unauthorized”. Who “authorizes” constructions in this remote West Bank region? South Hebron hills are part of “Area C” – the 60% of the West Bank which was kept under complete Israeli control in the Oslo accords. The intent of this arrangement was temporary, but since the accords collapsed, Israel has been treating “Area C” as part of its own territory – except, that is, for according any rights to its Palestinian inhabitants. Construction permits in “Area C” are granted by a “Civil Administration” committee manned mostly by ideological settlers. So a key component of the supposed formal authority of the military rule, is in fact directly controlled and manipulated by settler interests.

On December 13 – one day before the above demolitions – 15 settlers attacked the Wadi Ghesh hamlet south of Susya, severely beating Haj Khalil and Ibrahim (who subsequently needed to be hospitalized in Yatta) and causing considerable damage to their tents (see attached photos) – when we called the commander of the military forces in the area “Colonel Guy”, we were not surprised to hear from his manner of reply that he sees the settlers’ attack against the people of Wadi Ghesh as an understandable outburst. A settler outpost had some sheep missing, allegedly stolen by local Palestinians. Therefore, according to the ruling military-settler justice, it is perfectly understandable that settlers – whether the same ones or others sympathizing with them – take revenge upon some arbitrarily chosen Palestinian families, and we should just move on, “no harm done”.

Settlers, apparently feeling omnipotent on the ground but fearing geopolitical developments that will eventually curb their power, seem to be rushing to gobble up more Palestinian-owned farm and grazing lands, and lashing out in violence against vulnerable communities. The military, supposedly apolitical and formally in complete charge of law and order – but in fact completely dominated by settler interests in “Area C” – collaborates willingly.

And so the settler impunity invites more settler violence. Yesterday, Tuesday December 28, at 3 AM, Hajja Sara woke up to the sound of her dogs barking. Coming out of her living tent she saw her two adjacent kitchen tents going up in flames (pictures above). Then she noticed, on the dirt road, a vehicle starting up and driving towards the nearby Israeli Sussya settlement. Her son Ahmed woke up and managed to get the gas tanks out of the kitchen before they exploded.

Friends and neighbors began arriving to help. A firefighting vehicle sent from Yatta was held up by soldiers at a checkpoint, and arrived only after the residents had put out the fire themselves. They used a cistern dug last year, which we at the Villages Group had helped dig. When it was all over it turns out that Hajja Sara’s entire immaculate kitchen had burnt to the ground. The taboun earthen oven located in a nearby tin shack was burnt as well.

Hajja Sara is the sister of Haj Khalil who was beaten by settlers two weeks ago. She is especially vulnerable, living near the road connecting the settlement with the Israeli-run antique site and the notorious Dalia Har Sinai outpost, an outpost which sees its presence in the area as the continuation of a decade-long feud. This, by the way, is the same outpost whose settlers claimed the theft of sheep as a pretext to December 13′s attacks. A year ago Hajja Sara’s family succeeded in preventing a similar arson attempt, but they are the ongoing target for harassment and provocation such as young settlers speed-driving with ATV’s by their tents (two of the family’s dogs were run over during the past month).

The military and police authorities are, of course, well aware of the identity of the natural suspects for both attacks. Unfortunately, given the track record showing the settlers and military as two arms of the same effort to uproot the local population, and the total impunity accorded to the settlers by the military, there is little hope that any serious investigation will take place.

Instead, we ask you to contact Israeli embassies and consulates to alert them of this escalating wave of government-backed, government-sponsored criminal activity. Perhaps they will be more cognizant of how this makes Israel look.

Not less important, we continue to support our friends in the region in at this difficult time. If you would like to help us rebuild Hajja Sara’s kitchen, please contact Ehud at ksehud@gmail.com. Thank you.

Update, January 12: we received some indirect and yet unconfirmed information, that Yatta’s fire department thinks this might be an accident rather than arson, caused by a fire starting in the taboun behind the kitchen tent. Please see a fuller description here. We will continue updating this post as we know more.

We are quite familiar with these villages. Earlier this year, the Villages Group has established contact with Huda, the preschool teacher at Hashem Ad-Daraj, and we have since helped the preschool with supplies.

The recent destruction of water sources in this hilly desert region is clearly part of the ongoing atrocious government campaign to suffocate Palestinian existence in “Area C”, comprising 60% of the West Bank – in order to eventually annex these regions to Israel.

See also Operation Dove’s press release on the destruction.

On Sunday November 14 2010, around 12 noon, smoke was seen rising from the olive orchards on the slopes of Jabal Kabeer above Salem. Several farmers went to locate the fire’s location, north of the settler bypass road, not far from the cistern. Two local teenagers who were shepherding nearby hurried to the location as well, and tried to put out the fire. They reported having seen two settlers run off towards the “Skali Farm” settler outpost. The farmers immediaterly called firefighters from Nablus and the officers of the District Coordination Office. The military allowed the fire truck to get to the orchards, but the road was too steep. Farmers eventually managed to put out the fire manually.

Several dozen olive trees were burnt. One youth who had inhaled a large amount of smoke, needed treatment at the Rafidiyyeh Hospital in Nablus.

Five years ago, in October 2005, a settler arson in the same region had burnt many hundreds of olive trees. The ID card of a settler from Elon More was found at one of the arson spots, but the Israeli police eventually closed the case without investigating.

“You must come to see Susiya.”

In all truth, I am fascinated by the stories I hear about Susya. I have not been there since the cold, muddy winter of 2002, when we trekked with Ta’ayush activists to bring blankets for those living there, only to be detained by the army. I don’t think I even got to see them at the end of that march. [editor comment: that particular march did reach its destination, see here]

“People in Susiya really want to study Hebrew. I think it’s a fitting task for you.”

Yes, I’ll come to look at it.

But only to look, I cautioned myself. I have no time to travel repeatedly from Tel Aviv to Susiya. I have children and a demanding, endless work, and the trip is so long . . . . Well, maybe I can come just once a month to consult them? So I came, and by visit’s end I was explaining that it’s impossible to learn a language with less than a weekly lesson, and so I promised to come again next week. In short, I fell in love with the community.

First, I got to know the renovated tent that became the “Learning and Creativity Center.” The day I visited, physicians and nurses from the Palestinian Health Organization were using the tent to receive patients. Next week, Inbal and I taught there a large, mixed group of boys and girls, young men and women, and adult men (but not adult women). At another corner, an artist taught some residents to crochet old plastic bags. Two months later, I saw the results of his teaching: artistic, colorful creations of embroidery, beautiful and practical.

As time went on, I got to know the Susiya children – those generous, loving hosts of my daughter, who ran with her all over the place, jumping over rocks and winding among the farm animals. To concentrate on my teacher’s role, I stopped bringing her, but the kids kept asking about her, when will she come again. We ate with the kids, danced, played, and attempted to speak Hebrew. They chased a family of geese.

Then I got to know the men, those who had learned Hebrew through work in Israel. Today, very few get to leave Susiya for work, and there are no opportunities to practice their Hebrew. The women know just a few words, and they are fearful of making mistakes. They speak to me in Arabic, hoping I will understand. Each visit I understand a little more.

Inbal and I take a practical approach to teaching Hebrew. Conversation, familiarity with the Alphabet, practical words and Hebrew/Arabic cognates. The boys were immediately drawn to Inbal, recognizing in her the Israeli incarnation of Pippi Longstockings. Meanwhile, I have been teaching a group of girls of various ages, who have shown extraordinary linguistic talents. And I teach the young children as well – writing and playing with letters and words.

I am used to teaching students who already know Hebrew, who are looking for change, for play, for breaking the routine. I am used to teaching kids who live in far greater comfort than Susiya’s kids can ever imagine. Jewish kids, who live in Tel Aviv and study at the Democratic School.

Susiya is entirely different. The students have no pencils. At times, they must leave to do something else more important. The girls may have to watch a young brother or prepare dinner. Other times, they all go out to look at the Settlers amassing on the hills overlooking Susiya. Their mothers don’t attend my lessons; at most they look on from the side. I am waiting for them to accept my invitation to join. But those who come are eager to learn. They want to write in a notebook, to have a dictation, to memorize; they want an authoritative teacher. I am far from authoritative. Our democratic teaching methods strike them as not serious. But they don’t want us to leave. “Just one more sentence,” begs Wuffa. While we pack our bags, Sara and Islam are still seating and reading the pages we left behind. Kusai understands almost everything we say. See, in spite of everything, Hebrew is being taught here!