Settling In

a view to the village of Huwwara, West Bank or our home for these two months

We learnt that things in Huwwara – the village where Fred and I will be living during our stay in the West Bank – have been harsh recently. A mosque was burnt in the village last year by settlers and two girls were pushed by a settler’s car in the street, we were told by people living in the village.The first actual Palestinian house I found myself in was that of our landowners. The view from their balcony is unlike anything I’ve known so far and quite illustrative about the situation here. The red roofs from the edges of three separate settlements can be observed on the hills across. But what is just few meters away is a military camp. It has been there for generations to observe – it had been first Ottoman, then British, then Jordanian and now Israeli. The family’s olive grove is separated only by a road from it. Whoever gets near, on the other side of the road is considered a threat and could be shot at. This is what happened to a Bedouin shepherd whose sheep strayed that way and he went to get it years ago. He was shot dead by a patrolling soldier.

A member of the family took us for a walk in their olive grove. Two beduins were guarding their sheep grazing around. We found about the death of one of the sheep that was drinking water from the field. The problem is that the nearby settlement’s sewage is going right through the valley, into the spring the sheep drink from. The Bedouin boy asked what we can do in regard to his troubles. Soldiers from the nearby camp seem to have different rules every new day about where his sheep can graze and where not. The answer that we can take pictures and try to get his story heard didn’t seem to comfort him much.

A sign containing the names of three settlements outside of Huwwara. Someone crossed out the Arabic text for the last one,

Below is a picture of our house: