Anata

Today I traveled to a village named Anata, which is located just south of Ramallah. We were supposed to be working with a group of international volunteers who are working with the Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolitions, but when we arrived at the house we were going to rebuild found out they had gone to the Negev desert for the day. So we didn't do much other than clear out some of the misc. material that was laying on the floor of the house. We did get to meet the family that used to live in the house.

After working at the house for a couple hours and eating lunch, we listened to a brief presentation from a member of a bedouin tribe living in the area, who explained that many of their wells had been destroyed by the Israelis and approximately 5,000 have been forced to leave for Jordan. We also heard from a resident of Anata, who explained that the land area of the village used to be 33,000 doldrums but is now only about 1,000 duldrums due to the construction of settlements and the wall. There are approximately 75 thousand people living in this land area, and it is surrounded on three sides by the wall. The Israelis have destroyed six of their natural springs and confiscated the seventh to use for a water park. Lots more details about this, but again, I don't have much time.

We then travelled to Al Quds (Jerusalem) University and tagged the wall by the soccer field. I wrote "END OCCUPATION NOW!" it was fun.

Also, I found out there are somewhat detailed maps of the Bethlehem/Jerusalem/Ramallah area (ones with the names of all the villages I'm mentioning at least, at www.ochaopt.org).

Alright, till next time

Walaja and Bethlehem

Yesterday I was in a village named Walaja at a UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Near East - see the link on the side) school. A group of international and palestinian volunteers and I were painting the outside walls of the school and those of the school's basketball court. It was fun. There is something about working at a school that is somehow satisfying. I will say however, working at the school meant I had to ditch my work in Housan, and while I do feel a little bit bad about that, I figure they were going to pull people away from the other villages to paint the school regardless... and I'm not here long enough to form any real relationships with anyone.

Anyway, our group had a lot of fun. One of the Palestinian volunteers, named Fawaz, is generally cracking jokes every two minutes, so being around him is an experience. We were annoying the poor bus drivers to death by pulling the stop chord every two minutes to make the beeping noise, but everyone seemed to get a kick out of it, so I guess it was worth it.

Last night we went to a presentation on the Right of Return. It was in Arabic, and the English translation was rather quiet, so I didn't catch most of it. Apparently the discussion was chaired by a former minister in the Palestinian Authority, and he mainly focused on the idea that there was not a general consensus on how to address this issue, but everyone agrees that Palestinians should have the right to return to their land.

Afterwards, we had a birthday party for Fawaz and another volunteer named Beth. It was a lot of fun. We all got to bed rather late and were exhausted.

Today, we've been traveling around Bethlehem doing the tourist thing. It got to be a little too hot for me, so I decided it would be better to take a break and go inside for a bit (Besides, I've run out of disposable cameras, so I can't take anymore pictures for y'all). Otherwise, we went to the Church of the Nativity and saw Solomon's pools and to a monestary that I believe is on the west side of the city.

Tomorrow I am likely going back to the school in Walaja with Beth, cause she wants to finish a painting she was working on, on one of the walls of the basketball court. After that we're going to join the rest of the camp in working with the Israel Coaltion Against Home Demolitions (ICHAD - see link on the sidebar) to rebuild a home that was destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer.

I guess I have a lot of feelings about everything that is going on here. In a lot of ways there is little I can do for the people, and though expected, that is still rather discouraging. Secondly, I am the only person who is living in the United States who is at the camp. Obviously, we're disproportionately responsible for what's happening here, so sometimes it sort of sucks because if there is going to be any change, our government is going to have to play a large part in it. I think you see where I'm going. It would have been nice if Mike had made it past passport control, but I guess its best that things worked out the way they did.

Otherwise... I guess I could write some more about Nahalin. We visited three families there, actually there are only two families with many different households. The first family we visited had lost three hundred olive trees due to attacks and land confiscation from a nearby settlement named Betar Illit. It's funny actually, because Betar Illit is so huge that Nahalin is totally dwarfed by it. The father of this family wasn't too impressed with us, he asked us what we were doing in the village and told us we were wasting our time. He explained that there are four settlements, possibly six, around the village already, and it was surrounded by an electric fence that had a gate at the village's only road. We asked about the wall, and the family seemed to think that the village would be on the west (Israeli) side of the wall, but there would be special provisions for travel to Bethlehem. The family also told us that the wall will snake beneath a hill where the village's two schools are located (one for boys and one for girls) and might disrupt students' travel to and from school. We also learned that there had been a play at one of the schools about the occupation, and when the Israelis heard of this, they confiscated all of the children's costumes and props.

Otherwise, I think I explained about the economic situation briefly in a previous post, but I will add this, since its impossible to sell crops at a reasonable price and extremely difficult to transport crops to market, many people in Nahalin have been forced to seek permission to work in Israeli to alleviate economic hardship. However, since the beginning of the second intifada, getting permits to work in Israel is nearly impossible. Agriculture is further adversely impacted by settlers throwing sewage on Nahalin's fields, and polluting natural springs in the area. The family also reported that several years ago there used to be two or three natural springs in the area that provided the village with water, but these have been either drained or polluted by the Israeli settlers. Thus, the village has no option other than to buy water from the Israelis. (Briefly, a fun fact is that Israeli controls approximately two-thirds of the water in the West Bank).

Furthermore, the second family we talked with, shared that ninety percent of the population of Nahalin lives below the poverty line. The father of the family explained that he could not pay his water bill.

If all of this is not enough, we were also told by the second family that the Israelis cut electricity to the village on a somewhat regular basis.

Anyway, now you have a little taste of what is going on here. I'll have to fill you in on the rest later, 'cause I need to leave again.

Housan

Today we were working in Housan again. We've been working there for the past two days. We're trying to help the village renovate a cistern (hm... maybe this isn't the right word) for a natural spring that provides the village with water. This is the last natural spring that the village posses, all of the other springs (I think there were three or four) have been confiscated by the Israelis. The course of the wall will ensure this final spring is confiscated as well, as the spring will end up on the west (Israeli) side of the wall. There is obviously little we can do about this, but we hope to leave a message for the Israelis on the wall of the cistern when it's finished. Also, there is some hope that through renovation, the village will be able to prove that the land belongs to them as there will be evidence that there has been recent work in the area. This is a small posibility due to a technicality in Israeli law, but in all likelyhood, the land will be confiscated anyway.

What does that mean, you ask? It means that the village has no source of water and will be forced to by water from the Israelis to meet its domestic and agricultrual needs. The economy in this village is not in good shape (I will explain the economic situation in agrian villages in later), as in all the villages we're working in, so paying for the water is gonna be tough.

There are many other stories from Housan. For example, one of the schools in the village was recently attacked by the Israeli military after they tried to impose a curfew on the village and the students refused to comply. Apparently the children, some as young as eight-years-old still have vivid memories of this. I've heard stories of eight year olds being lined up, forced to put their hands on a tank, and then hit on the hands with a wooden shaft.

Alright, so now I want to say abit about the economic situation Palestinian farmers find themselves in. (I know I'm jumping around a bit, but there is just so much to say and I don't have much time, so sorry if its a bit disorganized and incoherent at this point. I will organize my thoughts when I get home.) I just want to say before I write anything that I'm talking mainly about Nahalin, because that is where I've talked with the most local Palestinians, but its pretty much the same everywhere from what I've gathered.

Ok, so first there are major problems with transporting crops to market, often palestinians have to take indirect routes because main roads are blocked by gates and checkpoints. I heard a story two days ago from a farmer in Nahalin that he left at 2am in order to bring his crops to Bethlehem. He had to go on a circutous route by foot (through Housan and Jerusalem) because the gate on the road from the village was closed (it doesn't open until 7am). I think he must have caught a taxi after he walked through Housan... so anyway, you get a sense of how difficult transportation is. At the end of the day, farmers cannot make a profit on their crops because they have to cover transport costs. Also, the Israelis flood the market with cheap, high quality produce, and since the palestinian economy is in a very bad state, Palestinians end up buying the cheaper Israeli products rather than those grown by local farmers. Thus, as a result of these and many other factors, Palestinian crops often rot in the fields or in storage containers. It's very tragic.

Alright, I think that's all I'm gonna write for now. I've got a lot more, like I said, but I'm at an internet cafe again (we were supposed to have i-net access at the Y in Beit Sahour, but its still down.) So anyway, there was a car bomb today at a checkpoint not too far from the route I took from the airport on the way in. I hope it doesn't cause problems getting out.

Otherwise, I've gotta go. I'll write again when I can.

The Airport and Nahalin

I've been in Bethlehem (Beit Sahour) for about four days, and things are going well. I haven't run into much trouble with the Israelis thus far. I didn't have any trouble at the airport at all, they didn't even ask me why I was visiting and let me go through. Unbelievable. The other guy from Chicago, got interrogated and deported a few hours before I arrived, and we lost two others from Cyprus due to deportation. At the airport I met with a driver who drove me near Ramallah, where I picked up a taxi to Beit Sahour. He pointed out all of the villages that had piles of dirt or concrete blocks in front of their only entrance and exit road and all of the settlements in the area. It made me angry. We also saw a Palestinian woman by the side of the road by a spring selling fruit. When we got there, the Israelis had just arrived and told her she had to leave. Anyway, otherwise the only trouble I've had with Israelis is that I did get stopped for two minutes at a checkpoint on the way to Beit Sahour later that day, but this is relatively minor considering that it can take several hours to get through them. I am a little surprised they haven't given me more trouble.

On Friday all the Palestinian and international volunteers went to a demonstration against the wall and occupation in the main area of Bethlehem. It was awesome to march with Palestinians through an occupied city against the injustices perpetrated by the Israel's policies. Afterwards we had a presentation from a representative from PENGON, an organization working to inform people about the effects of the wall in effort to prevent its construction. They have excellent material and resouces at: www.stopthewall.com You should definately check it out, its creepy.

Anway, for the past two days, my group and I (the other volunteers were divided into six groups) been working in a village a few miles away from Bethlehem named Nahaleen. The economic and social situation in Nahaleen is catestrophic. It is surrounded by four (maybe six now because I heard the Israelis are building two more) settlements, which through expansion have taken approximately 70 percent of the village's agricultrual land. There is some speculation that it the village will be on the Israeli side of the wall once it is finished, which will make things even more difficult. The village is also surrounded by an electric fence and has only one gated exit and entrance. The people in the village say gate is supposed to be open between 7am and 7pm, but often doesn't open until noon. The village has a lot of other issues, such as harrassment from settlers and soliders. Many of the people my group talked with do not seem to have much hope for the future.

Today we were working in a village named Houssan, building a retaining wall of sorts for their hot springs. It was really hot, and I am exhausted from working in the sun all day. I might go swimming later though. We'll see.

All of the Palestinians I've met are very friendly and hospitable. Most speak some degree of English.

There is a lot more to say, but I'm at an internet cafe and I think my time is about up. I'll try to post again later.