Here is the unlikely battlefield. You have a mountain slope, baked dry, thousands of sun-bleached rocks, millions of thorns. It issues into an even drier wadi, on the other side of which another slope of rocks and thorns rises up only to descend into the next wadi, and so it goes from ridge to ridge and wadi to wadi until pure desert takes over and rolls on as far as the horizon. On the slope in question, there is a functional well, its mouth encased in stone. The well belongs to the Palestinian shepherds of south Hebron, specifically to the Al-Murgh family, which has been chased off its lands here, in the tiny point called Al-Tawamin, by Israeli settlers and soldiers. Settlers from nearby Havat Yair or Sussya covet these lands and this well, as settlers covet every arid centimeter in south Hebron. We’re here, among other reasons, to see that this slope, this well, don’t fall victim to their greed.

Actually, we have a larger ambition, though it will take time to achieve it. We want the Al-Murgh family to come back, as some families have come back to Bi’r al-’Id, with our help. It’s not the only spot we want to save. It’s a slow process, full of danger, and the forces arrayed against its happening are powerful.

But there were some good signs this week, as Amiel informs us on the minibus on the way down. Apparently as a result of continuous pressure by Ta’ayush activists on the ground, backed up by our lawyers, the army and the occupation bureaucrats have moved toward recognizing that Palestinian farmers and shepherds in south Hebron do have some rights—an almost unimaginable thought under the standard conditions of the occupation. The new Brigade Commander in the area is said to be reevaluating army policy in the area to ensure Palestinian access to fields and wells.

There was a flurry of phone calls and faxes between our people and the officer in charge of land rights and the custodian of what are called “state lands” (miri), that is, lands not registered in the name of private individuals or families (much of the land in south Hebron, including large areas traditionally owned and used by the villagers, falls in this category). The Brigade Commander is said to have acknowledged that the wells were dug long before there were Israeli settlers here and must therefore belong to Palestinians, who should, in that case, believe it or not, be allowed to use them. If this idea seems to you axiomatic and unproblematic, you don’t know the reality of south Hebron.

Everyday, normative violence by settlers is the heart of that reality, and it hasn’t changed in recent weeks. We hear the usual stories. Shepherds were out grazing their sheep when armed settlers arrived and stole a sheep, loading it onto their vehicle as soldiers stood by and watched. Other settlers attacked a herd and shot several of the sheep and beat the shepherds. Yaakov Talya, the notorious settler-rancher near Bi’r al-’Id, tried to take possession of the well we cleaned of endless mud and stones just a few weeks ago. All this is standard, tedious, odious, and probably permanent.

But we’ve had some recent successes, and at 7:30 this morning, before the sun has warmed to its true strength, we watch with satisfaction as a tractor-driven water tanker fills up from an ancient well on the hilltop at Al-Tawamin. We expected soldiers to turn up to stop this, but it didn’t happen—at first. We had time to clamber down the hill to inspect the caves, once homes to whole families, which were deserted overnight under conditions of settler-driven terror in 2001. Large metal cooking pots, riddled with bullet holes, litter the floor of the caves; settlers come here for target practice and other relaxing social events. Can we clean the caves and entice the families back? Maybe. The Zionist dream, updated version 2010.

Mid-morning. A herd of sheep washes over the hilltop and heads for the well. These are settlers’ sheep, and they will have to be stopped. It seems incredible, I am always amazed, but the struggle, our struggle, takes place on the most micro of micro-levels, the level of the individual goat or sheep or well or footpath or thorny bush or olive tree. If we allow them to graze here, to water the sheep at this well, these lands, too, will be lost, absorbed into settler territory. So, though the sheep are thirsty, we send them back up the hill together with the shepherd—a somewhat befuddled employee of Dalia in Chavat Yair. He keeps asking us, in a peculiar blend of half-baked languages (Hebrew, English, traces of Slavic) who we are. Shortly a more authoritative figure arrives: Avidan, in Shabbat white, with beard and skullcap, of course, and an irresistible urge to show us the error of our ways.

“Why,” he asks rhetorically, self-possessed, cynical, arrogant, voluble, “don’t you look at the real truth?” In the space of half an hour or so of bitter haranguing, he invokes the “real truth” many dozens of times; it’s his favorite phrase. Some truths are more real than others, for example the ones he believes in.

“These people [the Palestinians] don’t own a single millimeter of this land. They have absolutely no right to it. God gave it to us. If they want a state of their own where they can live and develop their own culture, they can have it where they belong, on the other side of the Jordan River. Look at this well. Our grandmothers and grandfathers dug this well. Your grandmother and grandfather. You’re handing over your grandmother’s well to the enemies of the Jews.”

This is a rather unsettling thought, though, to be honest, my grandmother, a very gentle and gracious woman from Nikolayev in the Ukraine, never, to the best of my knowledge, ever dug a well; nor would she have approved of what Avidan and his settler friends are doing. But the point of the metaphor rapidly becomes clear; it is a vision of the end of days.

“If we give them this well,” says Avidan, “everything else will go, too—Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, everything. We’ll be back where we were under the Nazis. They will take your houses in Jerusalem, then they will kill us all, and it will be your fault. Besides, look at the old synagogue they found in Susya. It proves that Jews were here before.”

“I think I’d like to resign from Judaism,” says Amiel, who has been listening without reacting, bemused, detached. We’ve all heard it many times before. Amiel is cooler than I. Though long experience has taught us there’s no point whatsoever in engaging in such debates, I can’t help saying to Avidan,

“In my eyes, you’re no better than a common thief. You’ve stolen the lands that belong to these people, and you keep trying to steal more.”

Avidan is unruffled. He has a lot more to say. He’s not, incidentally, a bad man; there’s something straight, almost innocent, about him, unlike the more violent settlers we sometimes meet. He lives in a stark and simple world governed by a seamless mythology that, whatever else it might mean or do, has been conscripted to the single overriding goal of dispossessing the Palestinians who live here. He doesn’t seem to me to regard them as fully human, and anyway he thinks God, a rather literal-minded figure unskilled in hermeneutics and dealing largely in real estate, is on his side. He has no doubts, unlike me. Most striking of all is the ultimate threat implicit in every word and thought: the world is structured (by God? perhaps not) to kill Jews, that is its operative inner logic, and if you give way at any point—say this well, for example—the apocalypse will begin at once, right here, from the tiny, dry, prickly, inelegant piece of ground we are standing on. A piece of ground which we, too, by the way, are committed to defending from the likes of Avidan.

I have a moment of sheer surrealism. What are we doing here at the well, under the fiery sun and the watchful, uncomprehending eyes of some forty thirsty sheep? And why am I listening to this lunatic? Am I feeling sorry for him? There is a kind of sick romanticism about the man, you can see he loves to tell himself the whole crazy story of Jewish exile and return, with its sweet pathos; and he is infected, of course, with the self-righteousness that comes with the story. He loves the Jews, a twisted, tragic love. He invites us to Shabbat lunch. I feel bad that we didn’t let the sheep drink at the well.

Now the soldiers arrive, as always. There is the usual to-and-fro; the details don’t much matter. Negotiations transpire on the crest of the hill in a mirror-like space of infinite depth, with the soldiers filming all of us with their digital video cameras, no doubt for the state security archives, while we film them filming us filming them filming us….
In the end, we tell them we’re prepared to leave on condition that the settlers leave, too. That’s what happens. The pumping of water is anyway over by now. We walk over the rocks, down to Bi’r al-’Id, and there we see what looks to me like a miracle: sweet, clear water from the tanker is gushing at full blast, under the fiery sun, into the well that we cleaned. It will keep them going for a while. Our friend Nasir from Susya is sitting there on a rock; he has come to say hello. Speaking of the Jews, Nasir is wearing a black tee-shirt with a long inscription in Arabic and English. “Likay la nansa, al-Quds. Jerusalem: We will never forget you.”

On June 17, four MachsomWatch volunteers joined the Villages Group weekly tour of Massafar Yatta (South Hebron Hills). We discussed possibilities for further collaborations on specific projects. In Susya they met Hazar, a Palestinian psychologist working with the local children. In Hashem Al-Daraj they visited Huda’s preschool and admired Huda’s courage and perseverance under difficult conditions.

During the tour, the visitors had an opportunity to use their skills when they met an IDF patrol that decided to halt public works near Umm Al-Kheir, despite the fact the work had all the required permits. A polite but firm insistence by the volunteers helped convince the soldiers they should leave the workers alone.

MachsomWatch volunteer Aviva posted her photographs from the tour in this link.

The desire for a permanent house is a most conventional desire in our society. A house is usually conceived as a structure of four walls, a floor below and a roof above, and the desire for such a house is mostly fulfilled using the mortgage system.

But what seems to be such a conventional desire in many societies may prove rather unconventional in a society living under the conditions of prolonged Occupation. In fact, in the small Bedouin community of Umm al-Kheir, among the families who live close to the settlement of Carmel, such a basic desire for a four walls’ house is not only unconventional but should also be regarded as quite unrealistic.

In Umm al-Kheir one meets the lethal conjunction of the regular oppressive regime of the Occupation, which denies its subjects some basic human rights, and a kind of “Not in My Back Yard” syndrome – Israeli settlers from Carmel just want to see the wide open landscape of the Judea Desert and the Jordanian mountains, without the poor Bedouins stuck in the middle and blocking the view. So the Israeli newcomers of Carmel, who settled on Umm al-Kheir’s lands more than 30 years after the Bedouins arrived there as refugees, following the 1948 war; these settlers try their best to get rid of the poor people living next to them. The settlers operate the Occupation machinery, and the result is wave after wave of house demolitions which don’t spare even the toilets.

The ways the people of Umm al-Kheir chose to cope with and struggle against this seemingly hopeless situation are not limited to the more common ones, such as building their houses anew after every wave of destruction, or trying to take some juridical measures; they also express themselves in different artistic idioms.

The importance of artistic activity for the preservation of hope for better prospects in the future, and for the sublimation of pain, is manifested in the different creative ways people from Umm al-Kheir express their desire for a house.

a very creative and ambitious way of expressing this desire was adopted by Eid Hathalin, who summoned his friends, David from Israel and Malak from the U.S, to build together a complete miniature of Umm al-Kheir, one which would overcome, at least in this mini-scale model, the great limits and restrictions imposed by the occupation on the actual Umm al-Kheir.

A second no less ambitious and beautiful project, was chosen by Salma Hathalin. Salma is a 30 years old woman who has been living in a small tent in Umm al-Kheir all her life. As an unmarried woman in a society where the women usually count on the men to provide for them, Salma is seeking not only a house of four walls, but first and foremost some income. Now she succeeded in combining these two pursuits by creating a work of handcraft – a big colored picture, made of wool, of her imagined dream house (One might guess that she drew some inspiration from the very real houses of the Carmel settlers, standing right before her eyes).

You, who read this report, may find yourselves sympathizing with Salma yet realizing that you can do almost nothing to help her fulfill her dream for a house. However, Salma has created for you an opportunity to help her earn some income: this picture – which symbolizes the creative struggle of Umm al-Kheir for its survival – was offered for sale, and purchased by a couple from Leeds, England.

The Eastoners played with Palestinian teams from the cities of Hebron, Beit Lehem and Tul-Karem, but this time they also spent much time in south Mt. Hebron, hosted by the local people and the Villages Group. They stayed two days and two nights in Susiya, enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the Susiya Creative Center team- Fatima, Abed, Ibrahim, Widad, Nasser and David, along with the Abu-Jihad family.

In Umm al-Kheir the Eastoners experienced a most exciting game – they played on the local football field, located right next to the fence of the neighboring settlement of Carmel. The patrol soldier proved helpful on one occasion, throwing back the ball after it was kicked over the fence to the settlement area. Some settlers from Carmel were caught up in the excitement of the game and sat to watch it.

The Eastoners also found the time to visit Israel- in Tel-Aviv they met and played with the young members of Anarchists Against the Wall, and then they were taken to kibbutz Shoval, in the south of Israel, and hosted there by the Villages Group’s Erella, Dany and Ehud.

Many things are tools for relations among people. This time the football was the tool to bring people from Britain and people from South Mount Hebron in “Area C” of occupied Palestine to know each other and to benefit from this acquaintanceship both on the personal and the communal level.

Shalom Friends,

We held a small workshop at Kibbutz Shoval on Thursday-Friday, 11-12.2.

The workshop was initiated by Fatima, our colleague from Susya, for the purpose of creating a basis for local cooperation in the area of South Mt. Hebron.

We have visited South Mt.Hebron every week for years now and enjoyed the hospitality of our friends there; we were very glad of the opportunity to host some of our friends from that area in our home.

Three couples joined us for the workshop: Fatima and Khaled from Susya/Yata, Na’ama and Eid and Sara and Aziz from Umm al- Kheir. Part of the workshop was to enable our friends from South Mt. Hebron, who were visiting us for the first time, to get to know us better, the circumstances of our lives and the place we live in – Kibbutz Shoval. We also visited the local preschool, where the guests spoke with the teachers and the children.

The workshop was also devoted to discussions concerning possibilities of development for young Palestinians in the area of South Mt. Hebron, in light of the internal problems of life in a traditional society, and the external circumstances of life under Israeli occupation.

We are grateful to Buma and Danny (who also took the great photos attached) for the help they gave us during the workshop, and hope that the momentum created in this first course of action will continue and expand in the near future.

Sincerely,

Ehud and Erella

The Village Group

Dear friends,

For Christmas and the new year, which is always an opportunity, one of many,

to wish, intend, pray,

for peace.

Let us train our minds to be a void,

Free and stable enough to recognize

Aggression and hatred (both inward and outward) -

In order not to turn aggressive and hateful.

May in the coming year,

We will be more in touch with our compassion,

For loving more and healing more pains.

With much love to you all,

Hamed, Erella, Ehud, Dany, Assaf,

and all the other members of the “Villages Group”

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Friday. The day of the first candle of Hanukah Jewish feast. We are on the way to Salem village with Carin (an Australian young woman who helps us to develop the music project there). It is nice to go there on the day of the first candle. Visiting our friends and developing the next step of the children music center there, feels like lighting a candle.

It is just that on the way we’ve planned to visit another friend in Yasouf village, and buy some olive oil from him. Just before entering his village he called us on phone to tell us not to come because some settlers had “lit a Hanuka candle” their way by burning the Mosque of the village. Just two different ways to light a candle.

Not much of a joy accompanied us along the rest of the day. The only strength we’ve felt was the strength of the unconditional friendship between ourselves and with our Palestinian friends.

Here is a video about the music center, prepared by Natti Adler:

Here is Carin’s description of the visit as posted on her “Looking for Shalom” blog:

You know what? I am exhausted. It feels like I never stop. My journeys into the West Bank are long and tiring. But what can I say? I am addicted. And today was a particularly special day. I would not have missed it for the world. I went to a place where I personally feel part of the peace efforts, and where many of you are personally part of the peace efforts.

I went to Salem, a Palestinian village in the northern part of the West Bank, around 2km from the major city of Nablus. I joined two kibbutzniks, Erella and Ehud, from the Villages Group for their weekly family visits. The main reason we went to Salem was to visit Jubier Ishtayya, a local musician and teacher who is starting a music centre with your help.

Erella met Jubier a few years ago. They connected over a common dream to create peace through music. Well, peace is actually the word I chose. Erella and Jubier are more grounded than that. They do not have any grandiose ideas about peace. Instead, they believe in the transformative power of music. They believe that music is a tool for developing creative minds, rather than destructive ones. The music centre will be a place of learning, artistic expression and concerts; a centre for healing and hope.

I met Ehud, Erella and Jubier earlier this year and I was blown away. Not by the idea of the project, that was not new to me, but by the spirit, the energy and the relationship between these three people. Their idea was well thought out, realistic, and targeted at a particularly vulnerable group: boys and girls in their late teens, living in extreme conditions, with few employment opportunities, and nothing to do in the afternoons. The centre will start small, but they have big plans for the future.

And the dream was made possible because of support from many of you. So tonight, even YOU can put smiles on your faces. The music center will open in January, half the students will be girls and half boys. The head of the village has provided the space and political support for the project.

It is wonderful to feel part of a concrete project on the ground; particularly one that I so strongly believe in. This gives me hope. And I promise, before I finish this journey, I will provide you with plenty more ideas for how you can stay engaged.

20 days to go…
Images of the Salem Music Center can be found here.

]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/12/12/visit-to-salem-on-hanuka-eve/feed/ 0 http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/12/08/villages-group-representatives-tour-great-britain/ http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/12/08/villages-group-representatives-tour-great-britain/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:48:53 +0000 Assaf http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/?p=334 ]]>

Dear friends,

We, Erella Dunayevsky and Hamed Qawasme as representatives of the “Villages Group”, traveled across Britain for 15 days during the second half of November. The main aim was to visit people who visited Hebron and South Hebron hills and came to know us, as well as widening our connections’ web with new people. Another aim was to do some fund raising for specific needs which exist constantly in the area.

In London we met with people from Moshe House; Jews For Justice For Palestinians; and New Israel Fund and Mr. Harrison.

In Bristol - with the Easton Cowboys.

In Exeter with Mr. Tony Davis and friends.

In Cambridge – with Lawyers Without Borders, Amnesty International and students in Cambridge University.

In Leeds – with people from Together For Peace.

In Hexham – with the Quakers community.

In Edinburgh – with Scottish Palestinian Forum (S.P.F.) and the Quakers.

In Glasgow - with the West of Scotland Group of  S.P.F and Jews For Just Peace.

In Durham - with Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

In Forfar – with the Quakers community.

The meetings were inspiring. We met with people who deeply and maturely care for human rights and human dignity. We gained a lot of strength from them all along the intensive journey.

The meetings started with an hour presentation made by both Erella and Hamed presenting the facts and numbers of the humanitarian dignity crises in the West Bank, and zooming into some of the stories which stand behind it.

Immediately after returning we’ve realized that the journey has not ended, that there is something in the encounter point with the people which is still echoing within our hearts and invites us to develop some structure which will enable it to continue – supporting the spirit as well as the financial needs resulting from the Villages Group activities in South Hebron Hills.

We, in the Villages Group, in addition to our ongoing presence in the communities of the area, see ourselves as a bridge between the local Palestinians in this peripheral remote  area and the outer world.

Therefore we invite you to think with us (through emails) what might be the efficient and effective structure to be built between us that will enable ongoing support utilizing the momentum of the tour.

The addresses are:

Hamed Qawasme:  qawahame20@yahoo.com Erella Dunayevsky: danidun@shoval.org.il Ehud Krinis: ksehud@gmail.com

Today while visiting Umm al-kheir, one of the elders told us:  “when you come to visit you bring us a bit from the smell of freedom”.

We thank you all again for supporting us in this tour to sustain and strengthen the above.

Yours, with much love, Hamed and Erella.

]]> http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/12/08/villages-group-representatives-tour-great-britain/feed/ 0 http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/11/08/the-opening-of-second-class-in-a-chidren-program-in-umm-al-kheir/ http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2009/11/08/the-opening-of-second-class-in-a-chidren-program-in-umm-al-kheir/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:03:23 +0000 Assaf http://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/?p=295 ]]>

Dear Friends and Supporters,

The generous donations of Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, made possible the opening of a second class of the Umm al-Kheir Learning Enrichment Program. The cluster where this class has now opened is the place that our friend and colleague Ezra Nawi tried to protest against a houses demolition – an incident that led to his recent conviction in an Israeli court.

In a place where not only every house that was built in the last 40 years have been demolished, but also the digging of the toilets under the ground is prevented by the occupation forces, the conditions in class (which is actually the tiny living room of the teacher Targhrid) are harsh, but as you can learn from the photos attached, the children’s spirits are high.

Ehud Krinis

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