Pat's Palestine Blog 3

Is Easter also for Palestinians?

This year, the feast of Pesach (Passover), Palestinian Land Day and Easter for both the Eastern Orthodox and Western Christian Churches all occurred in the same week. Israel announced that the West Bank would be closed (ie people with West Bank I.D.s would have no access to Jerusalem) from Sunday March 28th (Palm Sunday) until April 6th, the Tuesday after Easter.

Palestinian Christians being prevented from attending the traditional Palm Sunday procession organised an alternative procession, starting from Bethlehem and heading for Jerusalem Echoing Jesus’ ride through into Jerusalem crowds of people waving palm branches accompanied riders on a pony and two donkeys through a checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem on Sunday, the Christian festival of Palm Sunday.

The march was supposed to have stopped at the checkpoint, but once the group reached the checkpoint gate for vehicles, approximately 100 protesters made their way through the gate. Apparently the security guards were unprepared: they were far too few to be able to stop the demonstrators who managed to walk through the second gate and on to the road to downtown Jerusalem, still being led by the donkey and the horse.

About a hundred metres down the road, the Israeli police realised what had happened and blocked the way. The demonstrators stopped, although they easily could have marched on as there were only a few police officers on the scene. In response, the checkpoint was closed for all vehicles and foot traffic attempting to enter Jerusalem. Eleven Palestinians were detained, including a prominent Palestinian politician
Checkpoint 300 - the main Bethlehem checkpoint giving access to Jerusalem from the Southern part of the West Bank- remained completely closed for the rest of the week Those with humanitarian concerns (eg access to hospitals) had to seek access via an alternate checkpoint and access for those wishing to enter Jerusalem for the Holy Week ceremonies at the church of the Holy Sepluchre was very uncertain - eventually some permits for worship were negotiated, but there is now a movement from the churches to resist the demand for such permits

Meanwhile we observed Holy Week about 45 miles north of Jerusalem in the Nablus area. On the Tuesday of Holy Week which was also Palestinian Land Day we went to Awarta, where we took part in a very different kind of procession. On Sunday March 21st, two young men were killed as they worked in the fields below the Izahar settlement. The circumstances of the killing were unclear Men lined the village streets as we arrived and entered the ‘town hall’ for a more official welcome from the mayor and his officers. We were joined by a small group of women which included women from the ambulance service which attended the incident.

At 10 45am we set out to walk to the place where the young men were killed, a distance of about 3 km. It was a solemn march with many carrying pictures of the two young men. When we arrived at the spot people were anxious to tell us their version of events and wanted us to take many pictures.

Then the olive tree planting began both to commemorate the young men and to mark Palestinian Land Day. Some of the youths became high spirited and raced up the hill with the Palestinian flag. The older men watched anxiously in case armed settlers would appear at the fence on the brow of the hill. But, the young men succeeded in planting the flag high on the hill, reclaiming their land in a symbolic way.

The walk back was more relaxed. We shared food and drink and the young men were very keen to talk to us. Many of them had gone to school with Salah and Muhammad and you could see them wrestling with the mixed emotions of anger and grief.

On Good Friday Sonti and I visited a remote village called Khirbet Tana, now in an Israeli military area The dwellings in this village have been demolished 3 times, because the aim is to make it exclusively an Israeli area, part military, part green belt. The villagers are currently living in tents in the midst of their ruined dwellings and dreading the heat of summer

We have been asked to visit because they are about to rebuild the school and there is anxiety that it will be destroyed again before it is completed. As we made our photographic record, the image of the phoenix bird rising from its own ashes came to mind and we carried these images to the Stations of the Cross in Nablus

Easter Saturday here is known as Holy Fire Saturday and there is a tradition that the Holy Fire is taken from the tomb in the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem and carried out to the cities and villages of Palestine.

We joined the celebrations in the Rafidia area of Nablus. The Holy Fire was brought first to the Church of Jacob’s Well ( where Jesus met the Samaritan Woman) and the Orthodox priest then brought it to Rafidia , where processed between 4 churches, led by the scouts with their drums and flags and flaming torches. We prayed in turn in the Melkite Church, the Anglican Church, the Latin patriarchate Church and finally the new Orthodox church, where everyone was invited to light their candle from the fire.

After this we attended a more traditional Easter Vigil Service in the Anglican church

On Easter Sunday morning I walked to the tomb of Nun, father of Joshua, which is little more than a mile away from our house and offers wonderful views of the Jordan Valley and I tried to allow something of the spirit of Easter to permeate my heart and mind, now so full of often contradictory images.

Pat's Palestine Blog 2

Daily life and Daily Tragedy in Yanoun

In some ways it was a relief to head north to visit the village of Yanoun, where I will be spending my 3 months together with my Norwegian, Swedish and South African team mates. Yanoun is in a very beautiful location, nestling among limestone hills reminiscent of the Peak District. Sheep are the main business of the village and we met the mayor of the village, as he grazed his sheep between the olive trees in the valley below the International House, where we will stay. Taking in the scene around us we picked out the animal sheds, which belong to the Israeli Settlers who live on the hill tops surrounding the village and who are the reason for our presence.

Left - Our team in front of the International House (Sonti, Silje, Pat, Tor) in Upper Yanoun

Right - The new team being shown the ropes: Walking to Lower Yanoun

We cannot see the houses of the settlers, but the village is surrounded on 3 sides by the illegal outpost buildings of the Itamar settlement, some of the settler animal sheds are only 400 metres from the houses of Upper Yanoun. In 2002, the harassment of villagers by settlers became so severe – village men being beaten in front of their children, animals mutilated, crops destroyed – that all the villagers left for Aqraba, the nearest larger village under full Palestinian control. Israeli and international-l peace groups came to the Yanoun to provide a protective presence and slowly, the villagers came back, about 80 in number. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme has had a permanent presence in the village since June 2003. In recent years the village has been relatively quiet, but the relentless incremental acquisition of the village land by the settlers continues.

We have now been back in Yanoun for almost a week and are getting used to the rhythm of village life. Life here begins between 4-5am By 7am the shepherds are out with the sheep on the lower slopes of the hills ( all that is now left to them for pasture) and the women have started bread making in the tabouns (the small outbuildings which house a sunken cooking fire) We try to take a walk between 7-8 am just to see that all is well and observe any changes on the hilltops – we may call in to one of the houses to buy fresh food for breakfast.

Left - Cheesemaking

Right - Rashid, Mayor of Yanoun

The women milk the sheep twice a day and make cheese, and yoghurt. They also keep hens for the eggs and the children have rabbits for the pot. The sheeps milk is a real treat on cereal, much better than our shop semi skimmed variety! The village has about 400 acres planted with olive trees and 100 acres planted with almonds figs vines etc. There seems to be a small amount of wheat and vegetables and herbs are often planted between the olive trees. So it could really be the good life, if the villagers were not prevented from tending their olive trees nearest the settlement outposts and only allowed one day to harvest with military protection, instead of 8-10 days. Moreover Israel no longer allows them to export their produce beyond the West Bank

The younger children start school in the village at 8am and the school bus collects the older

ones to take them to school in Aqraba about 3 miles away. Aqraba has a population of about 10,000 and has shops for all our basic needs. The road to Aqraba is the only way out of Yanoun as the direct road to Nablus and it’s surrounding villages has been closed by the Israeli military. This means that very circuitous routes have to be taken to nearby villages, but more of that next time. Meanwhile I’ll let the children of Yanoun have the last word....