Three days ago, Fadel used his key to open the door to his family's cave-home and entered his home again for the first time in twenty years. Three days ago, over three hundred Palestinians, Israelis, and diaspora Jews arrived to Fadel's family lands to be there for him to open his home and return. The joy in the air was palpable as groups propped up a tent on the ruined rock walls of a home from the village of Sarura, as new walls were built, as the cave was cleared of dust and dirt and made habitable. Teams were established to be on clean-up duty and sort out a system for recycling and trash. Other teams were busy preparing the roadway to be repaved to ensure that water could be transported to this remote location and enable quicker transport in an emergency if someone needed to get to a nearby hospital.
Read MoreSettlement
Between a Wall and a Hard Place /
We were walking in the corridors of no-man’s land in the Northern corner of Jerusalem municipality at the edge where the Neve Ya'akov settlement ends and the grey concrete wall that separates Jerusalem from where the West Bank begins. Our professor pointed towards a flat concrete court that was overgrown with brush and prickly plants and mentioned, “Arabs and Jews used to play football there. But that was before they built the wall…”
We were standing in the corner of Neve Ya’akov, a neighborhood that is often classified as just a suburb of Jerusalem, which lies across the green line and hugs the curve of the separation barrier. The distinguishing characteristic between the houses on the left and the houses on the right were striking. One side was clearly Jewish, Jerusalem stones turned yellow with time, white water-boilers speckling the rooftops. The apartments on the right were Arab, bright new stories built up to house more families, black water-boilers dotted their roofs.
Read MoreThyme to Build A Road: Solidarity Action in South Hebron Hills /
It was after the end of prayers and suddenly many young men from the village showed up, pick axes in tow. “The Shabaab will break the ground, you will put in the plants.” We quickly settled into a rhythm, conversations flowing and laughter ringing across the field as we watched row after row of thyme settle its roots into the dirt.
The young man next to me, Omar, swung the pickaxe into the dirt and told me about how he finished his B.A. at Hebron University in Agricultural development and wants to do a Masters in water. I smiled encouraging words as I pushed away rocks and broke up dirt to place yet another thyme plant in the ground. Tariq, another young villager, described what life is like in his village. There's a difference when you read that some villages only receive two hour of electricity to when someone looks you in the eye and tells you this
As the journalist next to me asked Muhammad about the village, I overheard him respond in broken English, “I was born here, I live here, and I will stay here.”
The fierce desire to remain rooted in a place, in the face of so much violent opposition, bureaucratic antagonism, and a prejudiced system almost seems naïve. Yet, existence is resistance. That line has been echoing in my head all weekend.
This weekend, an unprecedented event took place. Over the course of 36 hours, 71 people spent time working in Susiya, Bir el-Eid and Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank.
Here’s the catch—most of those people were Jews.
Read More"The Yishuv" /
I'm not supposed to be writing this right now.
It is Shabbat and I'm sitting in a room in my cousin's house. Not just any house, it is a Haredi house. Not just any Haredi house, it is in a settlement in the West Bank. Writing is not allowed, but it is nap time and everyone has disappeared for a few hours to hide from the afternoon heat.
Read MoreOccupation is not a Solution /
Since moving here to Jerusalem last June. I've met many different people, had many eye opening conversations, and have been both disillusioned by politics and inspired by people.
In June, I will be joining over 50 other people (mainly Diaspora Jews and other internationals) with All That's Left: Anti-Occupation Collective to go to the South Hebron Hills to help build a road in solidarity with the Palestinian communities living there. These communities live in Area C and are officially unrecognized by the Israeli government. This means that the villages do not have access to general utilities such as water or electricity. Furthermore, even though these families have lived on their lands for many generations, there is a constant threat that their homes will be demolished. There is currently a standing order to demolish the village of Susiya. This has happened many times before and is part of a policy of the Israeli government to condense Palestinians living on land that is in Area C (Israeli sovereignty) to cities such as Yatta. The Palestinians living in the South Hebron Hills have also faced a lot of settler violence from the nearby communities. For more information on the Israeli policies in Area C, see here.
I visited the South Hebron Hills and the village of Susiya in March. I was most struck by these experiences as I saw that this is an unsustainable existence. Occupation is not a solution.
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