April 23 2024: A. of Tuba Moving Heaven and Earth to provide Children with School Education

The villages where the children reside are marked with crimson rectangles. A-Tuwani where their school is located, is marked with a green rectangle.  A larger map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings around Massafer Yatta, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

To our friends all,

For seven months now, the children of Tuba and Maghayir al-‘Abeed in Massafer Yatta have very rarely gone to school. Their school is located in in a-Tuwani some 1.5-2 km away, but in the middle there are hostile and violent Israeli settlements.

In 2004, when harassment of these children increased, and under the pressure of peace organizations, a ruling was formulated by the Knesset Committee on Education, that the children would go to school and back, accompanied by the army. In this manner, for nearly 20 years, until war broke out, children walked to their schools accompanied by the military.

At the outbreak of the present war, the army’s accompaniment ceased without any warning, nor any information about its renewal. At the same time, studied ceased for a while all across the West Bank [and most of Israel]. Several weeks later, studies in a-Tuwani were resumed in a partial pattern, 2-3 days a week. (Israel stopped handing over the money it owes routinely to the Palestinian Authority, so teachers’ salaries were reduced up to one-third). The children of a-Tuwani and Susya who go to school at a-Tuwani came back to study part-time, but the children of Tuba and Maghayir al-‘Abeed could not.

Around December dear A., an organizer from Tuba, began to transport the children in his car (the only highway-legal vehicle in his village) assisted by activists’ vehicles, taking a longer, harder roundabout route. But he had to stop because the Palestinian Ministry of Education at Yatta forbade him, fearing that the army would rid itself permanently of its accompaniment assignment. Via the spokesperson for the Israeli military’s Central Command, I found out that as of now, the army will not resume this duty. I forwarded this information to A., who forwarded it to the Ministry office at Yatta. The head of that office continued to insist, on the ban, because this would be grounds for the army not to return. In the meantime, I try to convince the children of these two villages to study in two alternate schools deeper into Massafer Yatta and away from settlements: the high school at Fakhit and the elementary school at Safai, a walking distance away. Middle-schoolers and high-schoolers would also walk to Safai, and from there a vehicle provided by the PA would take them to Fakhit.

But the high school children do not want to change schools, whereas the elementary school children are not allowed by their parents to walk to Safai, for fear that the settlers would find them on the way there too. The head of the Palestinian Education Ministry at Yatta still refused to let A. transport the children to a-Tuwani, even only the middle-schoolers and high-schoolers , five of them all in all.

Children in Tuba, April 16

H., our close friend from Hebron, knows the regional head of the education department personally, and arranges a meeting in order to convince him to be flexible, because the army will not return to its accompaniment duties in the foreseeable future. After this meeting, H. reports to me that the refusal is still in full force. I advise H. to try again, insisting that according to international law, every child has the right to go to school. H. gets back to the department head, and he finally agrees.

A. receives the happy news from me that very evening. The children are excited. The next day, A. cannot drive them – he is the only driver with a highway-legal car in the village, and a critical patient must get to the hospital. A. shares with me the fact that he would not be able to take the children consistently. One time someone is ill, another time he must drive residents to lodge a complaint (all this time, settlers harass the villagers of Tuba and Maghayir al-‘Abeed), and in general – since the children study only 2-3 days a week…

I feel that I’m becoming a nag, having pressured poor A. over the school issue again and again, and finally, during our umpteenth nightly call, I let go. I understand the pressure under which young A. has to function, and say to him: “My dear man, I realize your situation. You bear a disproportionate amount of responsibility. I am only sorry for the children. They want so much to get back to school and see those classmates who have already come back. But let us let go and pray that the next school year will bring a new reality, Inshallah.” The next day, A. called me: “I am taking the children to school. True, children must go to school. I’ll do my best.”

On the morning of Sunday, April 21st, three girls and two boys festively prepare their school outfit and rise on , to reach the school which they have missed for 4 months. A call from A. stops them before leaving: the Israeli army killed 10 Palestinians in Tulkarem. A general strike has been declared throughout the West Bank.

In the evening, the children prepare their clothes again, and get up excited the next morning to go to school. On Monday morning a call from A. holds them back again: the Jews’ Passover holiday has caused the army to close off all passage to and from Yatta, and the teachers cannot get to school.

In the evening, with the determination of children refusing to give in, they prepare their clothes again. Perhaps tomorrow? In the morning they are excited again. At noon on Tuesday the 23rd, I met them at a-Tuwani. They finished a day of school. A. Waited for them at the center of the village in order to bring them home. In fact it was another day of total closure [due to Passover], but A. who spoke with the teachers in the morning said the teachers recommended they begin to walk and he would pick them up on their way to school, and so he did. A. the wizard.

And I – when I saw the children and their happy smiles and enjoyed their warm hugs, I was flooded with their deep gratitude flowing to me, to A., to the world; although they have so little, it seems to them that the whole world is theirs, and seeing this I need no further words…

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group

Dec. 11-15: Local Organizer Gets Tuba Kids to School around Settler Blockade, and Other Updates

Tuba is in east-central Massafer Yatta. A-Tuwani and its school are to its northwest, near the main road; and Khalet a-Dabe’ to its southwest, near the bottom of this map inset. A larger map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

Dear friends,

I did not write this week. Ya’ir wrote about Khalat A-Dab a’, and that is already enough for a whole month… But naturally that is not how this works. Things keep happening on the ground the whole time. Past continues into present that continues into what in all probability appears to be tomorrow.  

• On Monday, December 11, 2023, A. went forth from Emneizal (in the far southwest of Massafer Yatta) to plow his own land with his donkey and plow. Uniformed, armed settlers forced him out of his field, and with blows and threats forced him to walk by his donkey to the checkpoint nearest the village (about 2.5 kilometers). There they robbed him of his plow ,and after some hours left him.
• That day, in the same village, S.’s tractor was taken.
• Two days later, settlers punctured the two water tanks belonging to I. of Wadi Jeh’eish (1km north of Emneizal).
• That very same day, settlers from around Avigail finally finished off the remains of M.’s car in Umm Barid, which they had already vandalized about a month ago, when they destroyed his home and field three times over. Today’s destruction was done while we were visiting the family at its temporary residence in the neighboring village of Sha’ab Al Butum.
• On Tuesday we visited Tuba, sitting in the beautiful cave of U. and his family. Even long before the current war, Tuba farmers suffered harassment from their neighbors of Havat Ma’on. Now during the war, this harassment has crossed all red lines. “Yesterday, as I began to plow my field next to my home”, U. says, “colonists came and told me I couldn’t plow my field now because there’s a war going on.” With his touching innocence, he tells us: “I didn’t understand what one thing had to do with the other, but there was no one to talk to. They were armed and threatening, and they entered my house as if it were theirs. They also humiliate us. They said to my nephew: ‘You will plow and sow, and our sheep will graze in your field.’ That’s what they said, and that’s what they do. They bring their flocks to our fields and we have nothing left for our own flocks.” He speaks with the deep pain of one who is desperate, but has no intention of giving up his life there. This is such a destructive combination, I think, and I have no solace to offer. I can only contain the pain, frustration and desperation, and promise to distribute this far and wide, and continue coming to visit.

We then visited another family in this small village. A large family, most of whose children and grandchildren go to school. There we heard a more hopeful update for a change:

Tuba children attend school at a-Tuwani, a larger village about a 15-minute walk away. Ever since Havat Ma’on settled between Tuba and a-Tuwani in 1997, the children could no longer take the shorter route because of settler violence, and must take a roundabout route, two hours there and two hours back. In 2004, after great efforts by human rights and peace organizations active on the ground, government echelons decided that the children would be accompanied by an army jeep with soldiers. For 19 years, Tuba children – some of them already parents of the present children – had taken the shorter route accompanied by the Israeli army.

As soon as war broke out, this has stopped, but so have studies at the school. Ten days ago school finally resumed, but the soldiers have yet to return. The children from A-Tuwani go to school, but the children from Tuba and neighboring Mughayir al-Abeed cannot get there. All routes are dangerous. They are all threatened by the vandals, who now dress themselves up in uniform as if they were soldiers. The educational gap keeps growing. For two months now the children have studied online, while exposed to the frequent violent settler attacks on their villages. Now, when they can finally resume their frontal studies at school – a basic right to which any child is entitled – the children of Tuba and Maghayir al-Abid are denied it.

As soon as we parked the car, I already saw 14-year-old S. running to me with her priceless smile. She was followed by the rest of the family’s children, all happy as can be. “We were in school today!”, S. answers the question I didn’t even have time to ask. The light in her eyes drove away at once all the suffering, the humiliation, beatings and frustrations, reducing the desperation and empowering even the parents and grandparents who gathered there.

“How did you get there?” I asked, after we hugged excitedly. “A. took us in a car” the chorus answered. A. from Tuba finished this school seven years ago, graduated University and came back to the village to become a peace activist. He wouldn’t accept Tuba children not studying. So, he saw to it that they got to school. He crowded them into his car which has four seats, and drove them from Tuba to the main road. Three kilometers of a potholed track which are difficult even under normal circumstances. Whoever never saw this track winding from the village to the road, could hardly grasp such difficulty.

From the asphalt road it is still another nine kilometers to a-Tuwani. A. organized the pickup from there onwards, in two other human rights activists’ cars, to bring them to school. It’s an expensive solution (fuel and other car costs) and its coordination is complicated and never a sure thing. It all depends on what happens on the ground on a given day, to say nothing of too many children in a car meant for four (plus the driver) on the harsh route from Tuba to the main road. A. has been trying to make contact with the DCO (official coordination office between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority) in order to bring back the army’s accompaniment. In the meantime, no results. So many obstacles on the way to education…

Even these obstacles are softened by the children’s joy. I was privileged to witness it.

Erella, on behalf of the Village Group [translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron]

Nov. 21: Violently Displaced Tuba Family now in Tent, Struggling for Food

On Tuesday, November 21^st VG activists visited Tuba, in the eastern part of Massafer Yatta. A map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.

To our dear friends,

On Tuesday, November 21^st, we made our way to Tuba, to the robbed cave of widow S., her 27-year-old daughter D, and her 16-year-old son I. We have already written about this place and this specific family several times in the past few weeks. With their residence further away from the center of Tuba village, the settlers harass the family determinedly and constantly, to make them leave. For fear of these nightly “encounters” with the settlers and/or soldiers, or the settlers’ army or the military settlers (all of the above are possible), the family decided to spend their days in Tuba, and come evening – walk their flock to the nearby Safai village and spend the night there. They have no orderly place there. The sheep sleep in a cave that is unfit for human habitation, and they sleep outdoors.

They had done this for about two weeks – until the cold, wind and rain arrived. The elderly mother was persuaded to move to her eldest son in Yatta, the district town. D. Her daughter got sick, but she and brother I. continued their routine – walking with the flock to Tuba in the morning and back to Safai in the evening. In the daytime, in their cave that has been robbed many times by the vandal settlers, they cook their basic food which we bring them, over the small camping gas stove we bought for them. The flock’s feed (most of whose grazing ground has been robbed by the settlers) is supplemented with concentrated feed kept in a special cave near their residential one. Once in a while when we visited, I wondered how come the settlers had not yet reached it. In the beginning of this week, they finally did. Fifteen sacks were ripped by knife at night. The grain was scattered all over. The daughter and son collected whatever they could in order to feed the hungry flock.    

In our present visit we brought them a better tent instead of the one we had brought a week ago, that didn’t stand the rain and wind. This time it’s water-resistant, easy to put up and take down. From now on they will carry their home, their food and cooker on their backs. They cannot leave anything in Tuba.

We put together and disassembled the tent just to demonstrate, and hurried on with our other visits. “Won’t you sit with us for a bit?” D. asked as we were already sitting in the car. My heart ached. More than she needed what we had brought, she needed some human attention by someone from the outside who could understand her predicament. I came out of the car. “Dear D., how long can you go on like this?” I asked her. (It’s a question that she herself had asked weeks ago). D. smiled modestly and knowingly, nodding her head to signify that this was the present situation. I reminded her of the professional course she had begun just before the war, and of her brother’s school studies which he should probably continue, at least through the smartphone application as long as the school itself is still closed. D. looked me in the eye, and kept her silence. When she asked me a few weeks ago whether they should leave, she still looked strong-spirited. Now, there was desperation in her eyes.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group [translated by Tal Haran; webmaster notes by Assaf]

November 13: It Is becoming Really Dangerous

On Nov. 13 Erella and Ehud started their visit right in the heart of Massafer Yatta, where people live precariously in the midst of Israeli-declared “Firing Zone” designated to drive them out. And indeed in 2022 after 22 years of legalistic wrangling, Israel’s “High Court Of Justice” sided with Occupation authorities, and decided Palestinian residents have no right to live there, despite locals having roots there before Israel gained military control in 1967. So residents face imminent eviction. It is hard to get there even in ordinary times, let alone since the Gaza war started.

Greetings, friends –

The autumn that softly caresses the valley, and the curves of the hills sloping down into valleys all the way south to the Arad Plain (inside Israel), know not that they are in fact “Firing Zone 918”. The sky sails above us in marvelous cloud formations and we, driving to our friends in Massafer Yatta, surrender to a moment of illusion, as if there were no war.

H. from Mughayir al-Abed has prosaic problems. All of a sudden three sheep died for some unknown reason. Under the current situation no vet can arrive from Yatta or Hebron. We contacted an Israeli vet whom we know and he gave the best advice he could.

H.’s daughter R., an 11^th-grader, wants to quit school. Even on normal days, “normal” Occupation time, days when the settlers harass them only occasionally and not on a daily basis, she and her 14-year-old sister walk to school at A-Tuwani for an hour-and-a-half each way. But now, since the outbreak of war, there is no in-person schooling. Classes are held over the phone, and last week the phone got tired and stopped working. R. decided she has had enough. She has been missing out on material, and it is difficult anyway because she and her sister only have one phone between them. I spoke with her for a long time and we reached an understanding – we shall bring phones for her and her sister, and studies will continue.

As we were sitting in H.’s cave, our phone rang ominously. Our friend M. from Umm Barid was asking us to come quickly. Settlers from the outpost near Avigail vandalized his home and farmland for the third time in a short while [we were there last week, after one of the attacks]. The photos M. sent on Whatsapp were appalling. We were sorry to get out of the Massafer Yatta “Firing Zone” into which we managed to enter today without the army stopping us; to leave before we could get to other families we had planned to visit – but we answered M.’s call.

Ascending a moderate slope on a narrow dirt road, our Subaru carried us towards Sha’ab Al Butum, en route to Umm Barid. [see map below for the approximate route between the two villages, in blue]

Suddenly we saw a military vehicle blocking our way. We drove up close. From about ten meters we noticed that four of the six soldiers in the vehicle were pointing their guns at us. One of them gestured, unclearly – what did they want? For us to stop? To drive closer? To turn about?

We drove closer slowly and carefully. Then the rifles were pointing even more accurately, and the gesturing hand became even more agitated. We stopped. Almost at once I swiftly imagined several scenarios – I saw myself telling the soldiers that after all we are in Area C, outside the “Firing Zone”, and Israeli citizens may travel such areas as freely as they wish. But I saw these settler-soldiers’ eyes, blazing hate and dripping arrogance, noted their rifles continuing to point right at us – and said to Ehud: “Turn around and drive back as fast as you can.”

We did not reach M. and his family who had summoned us. We went home. My soul filled with helpless rage.

We too can be shot like ducks, just as they do to Palestinians.

Erella, on behalf of the Villages Group (translated by Tal Haran and Assaf Oron)

Summer Camp in Umm al-Kheir

Officers of the civil administration of the occupation army came recently to Umm al-Kheir cluster near the fence of Carmel settlement. The officers said to the locals that they intend to to demolish in the short run, most of the structures in the place that were built in replacement for the structures demolished last October (check: https://villagesgroup.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/house-demolitions-in-umm-al-kheir/). In the meanwhile in the same cluster, Na’ama Hadhalin, a  teacher and local activist, organized, with the help of her husband Eid and high school students,a summer camp for the children who experience, since they were born, the anxiety and uncertainty of those whose houses are been demolished again and again. The summer camp was sponsored by the British Shalom-Salaam Trust (http://www.bsst.org.uk/). Eyal Shani of the Villages Group held Tai Chi workshop for the children in the summer camp. Below is a report by Na’ama – the summer camp organizer and some photos she attached from the summer camp’s activities.

Ehud, on behalf of the Villages Group

Letter from Na’ama Hadhalin, in charge of the Umm al-Kheir summer children’s camp

Hello,

To begin, on behalf of myself and the villagers of Umm al-Kheir, I would like to thank all of you who helped this summer camp in which our children spent an enjoyable and delicious time this season.

We began our activity on the third day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, July 19, 2015. On the first day, the camp’s outfit were distributed and the children were divided into three groups led by the three volunteers of the camp, according to their age groups – from 4- to 15-years old, aimed at their respective activities. We began by preparing holiday greeting cards. Activities were geared for fun, learning and the arts. We also enjoyed some drama, puppet theater, singing, drawing, puzzles and more, alongside talks about morality values, tolerance, honesty and cleanliness.

On July 27, a trip was held in which the villagers of Umm al-Kheir participated. It was a special occasion in which we- including the adults among us – breathed some enjoyable free air and holiday spirit. On July 28 the camp’s ending ceremony was held with the parents from Umm al-Kheir attending as well as a group of young people from Sweden. School bags were handed out as well as writing materials for the children who had taken part in the camp.

Finally, I would like to express heartfelt thanks on behalf of myself – Na’ama, the camp volunteers and all of Umm al-Kheir’s inhabitants and children. Thank you for having enabled us to give our children a chance to spend some very enjoyable time during an especially long summer vacation. Our children eagerly waited for this vacation in order to be able to participate in the summer camp that you supported and helped bring about.

Thank you for your humaneness and love, and your solidarity with us.

Yours sincerely, Na’ama Hadhalin

Appeal on behalf of Salem’s Music Centre

Dear friends and supporters,

The opening of the new school year in September also marked the reopening of Salem’s Music Centre for children. During the last year or so, in which it has been closed, the Centre reorganized, attained an official recognition from the Palestinian Authority and moved from the local council building to a house it rented in the village. The Centre’s devoted visionary and initiator Jubier Shtayeh and the gifted teacher Amid Jamus – remain the core staff. Acknowledging these improvements and the attainment of a better organizational footing, the Villages Group reaffirms its commitment to this important institution (see attached photos from our recent visit in the centre).

Music education is increasingly prevalent in the urban sector of the Palestinian society. Unfortunately, this much needed form of education is still absent, to a large extent, in Palestinian rural communities. Salem’s Music Center is a rare and unique exception to this rule. It was conceived and is nurtured not through the efforts of well-established and well-known NGOs or patrons, but thanks to devoted grassroots field work of Palestinians and Israelis, as well as donations from individuals worldwide.

We are appealing to you to join us in this endeavor of peace and empowerment and to enable a new generation of children in the village of Salem to obtain the gift of music education.

Please watch the following short video from 2009 to learn more about our motivation for initiating and sustaining the music centre in Salem. The need to keep Salem’s Music Centre going is as relevant and pressing today as it was five years ago:

http://vimeo.com/4970392

Here is the Centre’s annual budget (click to enlarge):

You can now donate to the project by using your credit card on PayPal.

Simply press the button to make a donation:

 

 

 

Erella and Ehud on behalf of the Villages Group

villagesgroup1@gmail.com

A Visit in Massfarat Yatta (9.1.2014)

Last Thursday we were driving in the Jeep in the main area of the cave dwellers in south Mt. Hebron. The locals call it Massfarat Yatta (or Massafer Yatta, i.e Yatta’s frontier). The occupiers call it Military Zone 918. The different names tell it all: It’s the difference between life and death, between peace and war.

The weather was excellent and the scenery was beautiful – a desert area a few weeks after a great rainfall. Another great sight was the Comet-Me wind turbines arising from some of the Massfara’s hamlets. From a hill in the middle of the Massfara you can see how complicated this area is: the few small hamlets in it are divided to clusters and are very vulnerable to both the army and settlers’ invasions. Indeed, settlers from the outpost of Mizphe Yair invaded Beer al-Ed, one of those hamlets, on that very same day.

Our mission in the Massfara was to bring a considerable donation collected by our friends in Rhode Island for the sake of supporting the studies of two women students, Ruwan and Arwa, from the hamlet of al-Fakhit. 

While Ruwan was still in university in Hebron on the day we came, Arwa was already in the middle term vacation. Studying nursing in the University of Bethlehem, Arwa is the only representative of Yatta’s area in this university. 

We are dealing with supporting students in south Mt. Hebron for seven years now. During those years we came to understand how complicated it is to be involved in this matter. The many obstacles and difficulties we encounter are bringing us to the verge of despair. What keep us hanging on is the seriousness and the devotion of students like Arwa, and the great and ongoing support we receive from our friends abroad. 

 The next stop in our weekly visit this time was the hamlet of al-Mufaqara, where we had the opportunity to meet another student supported by us – Sausan. Sausan is a young woman who (as some of you may remember) was arrested and spent 10 days in a cell in a police jail in Jerusalem after her house was demolished, about two years ago. Now, with our encouragement, she initiates enrichment sessions with kids from al-Mufaqara, exposing them to topics they won’t encounter in school. Indeed, Sausan, with her exceptional personality, is setting an example for what a student can do for his/her community during the period of studies.  

 The last stop in our visit this time was in the village of al-Tuwani. At Umm Jum’a’s house, Erella was sitting with Nasser from Susiya and Jum’a from al-Tuwani to discuss the practicalities of the workshop the veterinarian Gabi scheduled for the following week. Outside, Jum’a’s son was revealing to us the secret of it all with his ‘do it yourself’ object (see the photos attached). Between Massafer Yatta and Military Zone 918, between life and death, we choose to continue coming in contact with life pole of this area. 

Between Massafer Yatta and Military Zone 918, between life and death, we choose to continue coming in contact with life pole of this area.

 

Ehud on behalf of the Villages Group

Summer Camps in South-Hebron/Massafer-Yatta, Against the Background of Military Oppression

A few days after the three youngsters from Umm al-Kheir returned from their detention (of which I told you about in my former letter, dated June 10), there started in Umm al-Kheir a summer camp for all the children of the place (3 to 13 years old). The summer camp consisted of two groups (a group of the small children and a group of the older children). The guides were four women from Umm al-Kheir itself: Na’ama, Sara, Ikhlas and Taghrid. We went to visit on Thursday, as we always do. It was the fifth day of the summer camp. Looking at the sights and hearing the voices – our hearts expanded . A small summer camp in the middle of the desert, in two tents that serve as a local community center (established with such effort and constantly under the threat of demolition). Yet the children are happy and the guides’ faces are beaming.

We stood there for a good two hours – Ophir, Limor and me – watching. Fun games seasoned occasionally by music activity (a delightful implementation of what the guides learned in a music workshop held in a nearby village in April and facilitated by Fabianne), relaxing breathing exercises, a tasty falafel in the break and plenty of joy.

At the end of the camp there was a trip. “Without a trip, the summer camp is not really worth it,” say the children, for whom going out of the constricting boundaries of the village was a formative event.

At the end of the ninth day of the camp the children return to their homes and meet there the security guard of Karmel (the nearby settlement), escorted by the army, the police and Civil Administration officials. For what went on there, see here.

We were glad we could at least enable the kids a summer camp (with the generous support of our friends from England).

A few days later started the summer camp in Susiya.

On our weekly visit we arrived on a cheerful camp day, guided by Yihya and Fatme, who were assisted by three local girls. One of the activities was a play the children prepared.
A local Palestinian family sits down to have its meal, when a young man bursts into their home and asks for refuge from soldiers who are chasing him and trying to catch him. The family quickly hides the young man but a collaborating neighbor informs on him and the soldiers enter the house, grab the young man, bit him, tie him and take him away with them.

A piece of reality. The children bring it into the play with all its complexity. The topic was chosen by them, without any guidance from the grownups. In a completely natural, though maybe not really conscious way, the children process their traumas, and the summer camp is a space that enables that.

The very next day, Civil Administration officers, accompanied by soldiers, arrived and delivered stop-work orders (precursors of demolition orders) to almost every family in Susiya (Limor wrote about it in her last report).

Since then events succeeded one another (as always, and a bit more). My writing pace falls behind the pace of the events we would like to share with you. I started writing this report at the end of June, when the summer camps ended. And here we are, past the middle of August, and every passing day increases the important “debt” – to tell their stories.

Sometimes the two camps – the going-to-the-field one and the writing-about-the-field one – clash within me. Usually the first one wins …

Many thanks to each and every one who contributed, in funds or spirit, so these summer camps could have taken place, and successfully so.

We are thankful and our friends are thankful, through us. And the children? The photos will tell their happiness …

Yours, with much love,

Erella (in the name of the members of the Villages Group)

Word and Picture Diary: South Hebron Hills Weekly Visit, April 5 2012

As we do every week, last Thursday April 5 2012 we went to visit several Palestinian localities in the South Hebron Hills, with whom we have been in contact for some years now. Two members of our little group – Hamed and Erella – just got back that day from a Britain tour as representatives of the Villages Group. So this week’s small visitor team consisted of Ehud and Danny.

We began with a short visit to the preschool (nursery school) in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir. This preschool, opened nearly a year ago, is located in an old building with several rooms renovated with the aid of UNRWA, close to the Saraya of Umm al-Kheir (a term that during the Ottoman Empire days designated a government structure). Two local teachers run the preschool with about twenty children, and receive their salary through the Villages Group. The preschool has undergone a significant change lately – one teacher is now in charge of the younger children (two-three year olds) in the room used as the ‘bustan’ (pre-preschool), while her colleague is in charge of the older children (four-six years old), in the other room that serves as ‘rauda’, preschool.

From the hill where the Umm al Kheir preschool is located, the young children can see the present and future prospects arranged for them by the Israeli Occupation regime. Heavy equipment is busy developing and expanding the new neighborhood at the nearby Jewish settlement Karmel (Carmel) – a development doubtlessly paid for by the Israeli and American taxpayer. Together with an additional neighborhood planned to emerge soon, the settlement will eventually surround the dwellings in this part of Umm al Kheir from three directions (north, west and south).

This stranglehold is an integral part of the Occupation’s policy. The “Civil Administration”, that regime’s arm supposedly entrusted with providing services to Palestinians, has issued demolition orders on nearly all structures belonging to the Bedouin families living in this part of Umm Al Kheir – including outhouses, sheds etc. Many of these orders have already been carried out. We have written extensively here, both about Umm Al Kheir’s demolitions and about the vicious, discriminatory and fraudulent nature of the “Civil Administration” itself. Well-known literary translator and humanist Ilana Hammerman wrote a feature article about Umm Al Kheir and Karmel, with interviews of both Bedouin and settlers. The article was published a few months ago in Ha’aretz.

From the relatively new preschool at Umm al Kheir, we drove down the road and dirt track winding into the Judean desert for a short visit to the oldest operating preschool in the area. This preschool opened its doors about six years ago, at the Bedouin locality of Hashem al Daraj.

About 30 children crowd into the rickety one-room structure of this preschool together with their teacher, Huda, a native of Umm al Kheir who lives at Hasham al Daraj. Huda has been devotedly running the preschool since its founding, determined to overcome its harsh physical conditions. We first became acquainted with this preschool over two years ago . Since that first visit we took it upon ourselves to raise funds that would ensure Huda of a regular, decent salary, compared to the irregularly-paid pittance she had earned until then. We also connected Huda and her preschool with volunteers from the MachsomWatch organization. They have been coming to the preschool ever since. Jointly with Huda and the artist Eid from Umm al Kheir, The MachsomWatch volunteers hold an arts and creativity workshop for the preschool children every two weeks. Danny’s gesture in the picture show our reluctance to leave Huda’s place where we were so warmly greeted by the children – as we needed to fit visits to other localities into our tight schedule.

In the picture above, the children of Huda’s preschool look out towards the new and much larger building that UNRWA has been erecting for them nearby. Although it is already in an advanced stage of construction, completion is delayed. It is unlikely that the children and their teacher would move in before the end of the summer vacation, when the next school year opens. Much of the credit for the recent progress in constructing pre-school facilities at the region’s Bedouin localities goes to Hamed.

After visiting Huda’s preschool at Hasham Al Daraj, we left the Bedouin part of the South Hebron Hills (the eastern-most part of the region), and headed towards the small cave-dweller hamlet of Tuba. Jewish settlements Maon and Havat Maon had disconnected Tuba years ago from the road to nearby Yatta town. Nowadays access to Tuba is only possible via a much longer roundabout dirt track that leaves the Bedouin area and winds its way over the rocky hills. As we climbed this track in Danny’s jeep, the magnificent sight of the cave-dwelling hamlet area, locally called ‘massafer Yatta’/ ‘massfarat Yatta’ (Yatta’s hinterland) came into view.

After several drought years, the current winter has been relatively wet and the short spring that is about to end has yielded especially beautiful wild-flower expanses and a healthy growth of crops in the small fields scattered along the central track of the cave region. See previous posts describing the general conditions in this region and its hardships.

Tuba is a typical cave-dwellers’ hamlet – in its small population that hardly exceeds a few dozen, the affiliation of its families to larger clans whose life-center is Yatta, the main town of the South Hebron Hills, and in the ongoing, perpetual threat of the Israeli Occupation rule and its agents – soldiers and settlers – over the inhabitants’ lifestyle. Talk of the day in Tuba was the wandering tank that startled the residents out of their night sleep as it lost its way among the wadis of the region, designated by the Occupation authorities as military maneuver zone.

Life in the cave-dwellers area has many typical characteristics. Here we describe two of them: First, the custom of parents and brothers to build toys for the little children by recycling various objects. On our current visit, our camera caught the toy that Ali Awad of Tuba built for his young son, Ism’ail.

Residents of the cave dwelling region, Tuba among them, had lived without electricity or any refrigeration until recently. The local goat-milk cheese is known for its high salinity, a means of preservation for a lengthy period of time without refrigeration. On our visit, we saw blocks of this traditional salty cheese placed to dry near the solar plates installed in Tuba two years ago by the Israeli-Palestinian team of COMET-ME.

COMET-ME is our sister organization. In 2008, renewable-energy experts among Villages Group activists started installing stand-alone solar and wind electricity generators in South Hebron hills communities. A year later, the initiative began to operate independently as COMET-ME, and quickly attained worldwide recognition and support.

Among other benefits, the renewable power units installed by COMET-ME enable residents to increase production and improve the preservation of their dairy products. Unfortunately, the “Civil Administration” has recently threatened to demolish many renewable power installations placed by COMET-ME. About the international struggle now taking place against this travesty, see the organization’s website.

At the end of our Tuba visit, we returned from the caves dwellers area to the Bedouin part and to Umm al Kheir. Unlike the local rural population that has evolved its cave-dwelling lifestyle for centuries, the Bedouins of the region are originally tent-dwellers and do not live in caves. In view of the consistent house demolition policy applied in the part of Umm al Kheir nearest to the Jewish settlement Karmel, a large number of the local residents are forced to continue living in tents. Among others, we visited the tent of the family elder, Hajj Shueib (photographed alongside his youngest daughter Rana and Ehud).

Later we also visited widow Miyaser, whose straw and stones house has been recently demolished by official thugs of our time. Some of you, especially those who support the Villages Group in Durham, Britain, have already had the opportunity to help Miyaser and her seven children by purchasing her embroidery work (in the photograph, Khulud, Miyaser’s daughter, displays her mother’s new embroidery).

Additional pictures from our visit can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnails below.

A Plea to the World from the Principal of a Palestinian School about to be Demolished

In November we reported with joy about the new school structure at Susiya (Susya). (see also an earlier report here).

Only a few weeks later, the Occupation regime’s fraudulently named “Civil Administration” handed down demolition orders to the school.

In a rare direct expression of an Occupied Palestinian voice in the Israeli printed press, the school’s prinicipal Muhammad A-Nawwajeh published an editorial in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper about the demolition order on his school. Unlike most of Haaretz op-eds, this article was apparently not translated to the newspaper’s English site. We provide the translation below.

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What Will You Tell My Students?

Muhammad Jaber Hamed A-Nawwajeh

Our elementary school at Susiya is small. It has two classrooms, in which a total of 35 pupils – girls and boys – study. The staff includes four teachers and the principal, who is also the English teacher. The school opened in late 2010. Before we established our school, local children had to walk 4 km each way, every day, to reach the nearest school. To avoid this, many had stayed with relatives during the school week, without seeing their parents, causing severe psychological problems. No doubt, it is far better for young children to live with their families and attend a school near home.

Our school has no electricity, no running water and no schoolyard. Still, students arrive each day with excitement. When they grow up, they want to be doctors, police officers, teachers. Even though the school is in an area under Israeli control, it is not the government of Israel that built it. We, the residents of Susiya, have built it ourselves, with the help of the Spanish organization ACF and the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees.

Our elementary school, whose area is 100 square meters, is the only structure of this size around Palestinian Susiya. All students live in caves. Before the school structure was erected, we had used five tents. We live in a hilly high-altitude region with cold winters. First water leaked into the tents, then a strong storm blew them away.

Our new school might be demolished at any moment now, without any justifiable cause. The “Civil Administration” has issued a demolition order against it. Among the pretexts for the demolition order, the “Administration” cites the presence of “portable bathrooms” and a cistern that we had dug with our own hands, so that the children will have water to drink.

If the Israeli government demolishes the school, it will deny education to our children. More than half the students will stay at home and not go to school anymore. All the world’s children are entitled to education. It is a basic right enshrined in the United Nation’s Human Rights Charter. I am trying to comprehend: what would Israel accomplish by demolishing our school? What is the position of Israel’s Education Minister? What do Israeli teachers think? How will they explain to their own students the destruction of our little school at Susiya?

Mr. A-Nawwajeh is the principal of Susiya’s elementary school.

(Translated from Hebrew by Assaf Oron)

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At the Villages Group, helping Massafar Yatta (South Hebron Hills) residents in their efforts to realize the right to education for their children has been one of our central missions over the years. Until 2010 when the Susiya school opened, we helped arrange student transportation from Susiya to Tuwani. In 2010 we brought a report about a tent school in a neighboring village, where teachers tried to educate under conditions much like the ones described above by Mr. Nawwajeh. Here are a few pictures from that visit, illustrating the learning conditions which we then described as “the worst in the Middle East”.

Please do not let the Occupation force these disgraceful conditions upon the children of Susiya. Please don’t let them rob these children of their dreams, and rob teachers, volunteers, and donors of the fruit of their hard labor.

The formal authority presiding over the deceptively-named “Civil Administration”, that pretends to be “the legal authority” in the area – is Israel’s Defense Ministry. Here are a few contact details:

Israel’s defense minister, sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il, fax +972 3 6976711 (they are said to hate faxes), or the ministry’s US outlet (info@goimod.com, fax 212-551-0264).

Israel’s Education Minister whom Mr. Nawwajeh mentions in his article, is quite likely deny any responsibility. Personally, I (Assaf) think that the fraudulent “Civil Administration”, and all other arms of Israel’s government, should just keep out of West Bank Palestinian civil affairs, on which they have no genuine jurisdiction – only a fraudulent one.

But Mr. Nawwajeh has a point. Israel’s Education Ministry, after all, constructs and heavily subsidizes schools in the Jewish settlements all around Susiya, and pays for teacher salaries. The minister himself, a politician named Gideon Sa’ar, is a rather vocal proponent of the ideology that all of Israel-Palestine belongs to the Jews. Well, with ownership comes responsibility. Since the government behaves in the West Bank’s “Area C” (where Susiya is located) as if it is Israel’s to keep, it should provide the same level of education infrastructure to that area’s Palestinians, as it lavishes upon the Jewish settlers.

In short, here’s a link to the Education Ministry’s main contact. The Minister’s email addresses are sar@education.gov.il, dover@education.gov.il and info@education.gov.il. Phones – 072-2-5602330/856/584, 972-3-6935523/4/5. Faxes: 972-2-5602246, 972-3-6951769. And finally, here’s an online comment form.

Feel free to let Mr. Sa’ar know what you think about this blatant discrimination, and about the criminal neglect of, and the atrocious assault upon, right to education of children in what he calls “The Land of Israel”.

And please help spread Mr. A-Nawwajeh’s words far and wide.

Thank you.