Hatem Sabbah, the mayor of Tu’qu, invited us to a meeting to explain issues which exist in his village. We were aware of some of the issues and agreed to meet him in front of the schools where the IDF jeep sits. There appears to be no reason for the jeep to be there and is it felt that its presence, in some part, is to provoke students of the boys school to throw stones, which they do. Some 1000 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 pass here every day on their way to three different schools, all within a stone’s throw (no pun intended – well, maybe a little pun intended!) of each other. Israeli cars from Tekoa settlement, as well as Palestinian cars, drive at breakneck speed through the gaggle of children – a scary sight. There are no sidewalks, no school zones with reduced speeds, no sleeping policemen (as speed bumps are called here). The mayor explained that he has approached the Israeli Civil Administration, who has the jurisdiction for 70 metres on either side of the road, to make it safer for the kids, but to no avail. The rest of the village is Area B – joint Israeli/Palestinian Authority (PNA) controlled – but the road is Area C – full Israeli control.
It’s a very complicated business, one I’ve been trying to understand for 5 months now, what is Area A, B or C. Bethlehem is Area A which is controlled by the PNA but the Israeli army can and does come in to Bethlehem any time it wants. It simply declares an area to be a ‘closed military zone’ a term which means no one has any right to be there. In theory, the IDF should be able to present a piece of paper indicating an area is a closed military zone but, in practice, we can’t read the Hebrew so the paper could be a prescription for eye glasses or a child’s homework page and we would be none the wiser. However, we do ask to see the paper.
A morning visit to Jubbet adh Dhib was delightful after we got past the desperation experienced by the village when their water was cut off by the Israelis due to an archeological dig at Herodion. Hamza, the leader of the 176 village people, told me, “we can live for 200 years without a road into the village and no electricity, but we cannot live without water!” We called the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to see if they could help. We were told that it was a temporary measure and the water will be restored but the villagers are afraid that these are empty words and they will be forced to give up their land.
Once we had done what we could about the water issue, we were shown how their morning bread was baked in a taboun which is an oven in the ground. There is a receptacle of some sort which they fill with sheep dung the night before and which is just hot coals by morning. Hamza’s wife tossed the dough like a pizza guy tosses his dough and laid it on the coals, covered it with a lid over which she threw more hot ashes. Ten minutes later, she uncovered it, removed the bread and handed it to us. Delicious, with a glass of goat’s milk fresh from the herd. I had trouble downing the goat’s milk which was more like natural yoghurt but my colleague, Sabine, came to my rescue by finishing her glass and switching glasses with me. We do a lot of glass and plate switching here with the sugared tea, coffee and other delicacies, especially when we don’t know what we’re eating. Some of us, like Sabine, are used to these epicurean delights.
Before we left we visited the animals and a couple of shepherd ladies in the fields. Sometimes I wonder what the animals survive on because the fields are mostly dirt and rock with the odd sprig of green. I also wonder why there is so much conflict over this tiny little area of the world. I do know the answer to that (historical significance and all that) but when you walk to this little village in the shadow of Herodion, it does give you pause to say, “and they are fighting over this?”
This little guy in the picture is 10 days old. His coat reminded me of my grandmother’s fur coat – the kind of fur with the tight curls, the name of which escapes me at the moment. But I am really not much of a farmer if I can't down a glass of goat's milk!
Last evening, Phil and I attended a Board of Director’s meeting at the Bethlehem Roots Society for a brainstorming session on future projects the Society could undertake. They were interested in hearing any ideas we had. They run successful projects such as an after school program for underprivileged Christian children, an exchange program called Peace in Music, language lessons, etc. They are interested in a program for young university graduates to assist them in finding work and as well, further exchange programs. The President of BRS, Saliba Zelfo, is a sincere, hard-working translator who we felt deserved our support and we felt privileged to be invited.
This morning I was scheduled to go on a placement visit to Jayyous and to visit my friend, Milena, from my previous team, who lives in Bet Yehoshua in Israel. But the weather is horrendous here! Horizontal, torrential rain, thunder and lightening on and off all day long. Getting to Milena’s would involve a complicated plan ending with Muawya driving me to a village with a ‘settler-only’ road on which Milena can drive and pick me up – not a plan for bad weather! I will have to skip the visit to Milena’s this time and try for Jayyous tomorrow.
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