sampicksolives

Balata Camp

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 21:11:41 GMT

Set off with half of the group to meet with a contact in Nablus who had arranged for us join a group she was taking to Balata Camp - the biggest refugee camp in Nablus. The plan was then to have a turkish bath at one of the oldest Hammams in Palestine and to have a tour around the old city.

We hit the first checkpoint at about 9:30. The queue was quite long and we thought we might be there for a while. Embarrasingly the taxi driver wanted to drive through on the basis that foreigners were in his car. There was no disuading him, despite the fact that our policy is to not jump the queue at checkpoints, after all this racist system of letting non palestinians through quickly is theirs and not one we should go along with. Still this is a really difficult point to argue with someone who normally has to wait and has an opportunity not to. So we got through after 10mins, by which time i finally had enough of a signal to phone to Nablus.

It seemed things had changed at the camp. During the early hours of the moring a 15 year old boy had been killed by the army. He had run into the street after the mosque announced that his brother, one of the resistance fighters most wanted by the israelis and a hero in the camp, had been shot and killed whilst laying a booby trap for the army to prevent them entering the camp. The fighter had been shot, but not killed. The boy though, the only son not wanted or imprisoned by the Israelis was killed and we were about to arrive just as the deomonstration and funeral was starting.

We managed to get there before the demonstration began, but the atmosphere around us was extremely tense. We were taken into a house of one of the Balata families who often worked with internationals and who had agreed to give us a tour and history of the camp. It was decided that the tour was neither appropriate or aafe. Martyers funerals are emotional events, and this death had caused a lot of anger. Still we spent a few hours with the guides inside and talked about life in the camp, politics in Palestine, the problems facing refugees and the day to day realities of living under fairly constant seige.

A woman who jouined us had a fairly typical story. She had 11 sons, of which only 1 remained unhurt and at home. The rest had been killed, imprisoned or disabled by the fighting. One of her sons had received a sentance of 500 years in prison. She told her if she could be granted one wish it would be for her son to be let free. She had been able to visit him until three months ago until her visitors permit was revoked for 'security reasons.'

One of the guides had been living in Balata for 6 years and wants to be a journalist. He has already had articles printed in the electronic intifada and was riting his own blog. He also had visas to vist England and the US but has been unable so far to get an exit visa to leave Palestine. This is common for any Palestinian that has been imprisoned. A real problem given that so many young Palstinian men spend time in Iraeli prisons. Right now there are over 9000 prisoners in Israeli jails, many of whom are basically children. He told us that prison was hard, but also one of the most inspiring times of his life. He had the opportunity to meet some of the best Palstinian thinkers, read lots of books and learn about the history of Palestine and its resistance. he said it really made him think about his life and what role he should be playing in the liberation of Palestine. He decided he wanted to write, to tell peoples stories and now he is studying at university to be a journalist. I hope he makes it as Palstine needs these voices to be heard right now.

Back in Haris preparing for the harvest

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:45:41 GMT

Now back at the IWPS house waiting for the harvest to start. Even though most of the people are different it still feels like coming home and have really enjoyed my days here. Today we have the team meeting for the olive harvest which I think got everyone excited, although maybe a bit scared! Settler attacks and soldiers preventing picking seem to be happening alot more and there just aren't enough people here to fill the demand at the moment. Still we are 15 people so can cover three villages this week, which is good. I am going with my group out of Salfit to pick in the Nablus region where the problems have been the greatest so far.

Yesterday one of the IWPS women was picking in a Nablus village when a whole bunch of settlers came flying down the hill throuwing rocks at them. Apparently there was a settler gathering happening there, the whole aim of which seemed to be to harass the harvesters. Sadley there is little people can do when people are throwing rocks at you - especially when only two accompaniers are there. The police and army were called (there was a high court order earlier this year which confirmed the right of Palestinians to access their land and held the army responsible for failing to ensure this) but suprise suprise they refused to come.

I think the first village we are going to, Iraq Burin, we have to cross a military road, which soetimes they pass without problems, other times they are told they have to go via the checkpoint - a 20km trip, making it difficult to do even without ladders, sheets, donkeys and ulimatley olives. For the sake of crossing a one lane road that shouldn't even be there. So seems to be a negotiation issue more than anythng else.

Another group are going to Az Zawyia, where farmers are picking on the inside of the settler fence - here the problem is that settlers claim they have bought the land; in some places the olives have already been picked, in others the palstinians have now been asked to prove they own the land (rather than the other way round).

The whole thing is really complicated, even though there is this high court ruling the systems of permits, prermissions, gates and fences make it difficult to plan when land can be picked. Now the Israelis refuse to talk to the PA here is no joint communication, which last year provided information to farmers and advised on permits. Often permits are only being given to the name on the land deeds - often the patriarch of the family, which means they expect one 80 year old man to pick all his olives alone. Sometimes land is owned by people overseas who sharecrop with other families - they struggle to get permits becauser they can't prove entitlement to the land. Given the economic crisis this year and the fact it is a triple harvest, with trees heavy with olives, it is vital these faarmers reach their land and are able to sell their oil. For some it is the last thing between them and starvation.

The final village is Marda, where we have picked for the last two years, and which is a special place for those of us who have been before (although I won't be able to go this year). The wall has now been built and the village is now basically in a cage between the wall on one side and the fenced settler road on the other. Access roads are now gated and controlled by the army. Out of the two gates one is closed and the other is normally open, although the army can and do close it at will. They have permits to pick the other side of the wall, between it and the settlement, but it is unclear if the army is going to allow access and open the gate nearest to their land. For sure no vehicles will have access so it will all be donkey and foot. The army have also occupied a house opposite the village, the rest of the group will be picking on the lands around there.

So maybe things will pass without problem, maybe not. Right now we don't know because it hasn't stopped raining for 2 days so no one has been able to pick. Tomorrow I will pick in Haris (where the IWPS house is) in the morning, we then all go off to our new villages. Fingers crossed the rain stops and we can get out to pick. If everything runs smoothly we will pick for the day, chat, drink tea and enjoy the peace and quiet. Fingers crossed for this as well.

Summing it all up?

Sat, 23 Oct 2004 20:49:22 GMT

I'm coming to the end of my two-week stay here. I'm trying to round the experience up, but it's so difficult to do. Actually...as I sit in the courtyard writing this I hear shouts and bangs. My first reaction is to tense up - it could be gunfire, an army or settler incursion into the village. I'm ready to pull on my shoes, grab my camera and run into the street.

That's one way of summing it up. There is a constant, everyday awareness of violence in PAlestine. It's violence that can come at any time, any place, from the army or from the settlers. Sound bombs at 3am; sudden curfews; gun-toting settlers in the olive groves; wanton destruction of trees and buildings. I'm trying hard to imagine what it must be like to live here, what's the effct on an entire society when its members live permanently with fear and humiliation?

But we'vewritten quite a bit about the facts of Palestinian life in this journal. There's been another side to our stay here too.

Perhaps the most bizarre remark I've yet heard here was the one made by a Tappuach settler in the groves of YAsuf. He told us that the Palestinians would "cut out our intestines and dance on them in the street". Had the situation not been so tense I would have burst out laughing. WE reached the conclusion that the only threat the Palestinians posed to our intestines would be from constant overfeeding on rice, chicken, hummus, cheese, bread...and then n we really can't eat any more they bring out the pastries and fizzy pop!

The Palestinians have been unfailingly warm, kind and generous to us. There's never been a daqy when most or all of our group hasn't been invited to share food with the families we harvest with, or to stay in their houses.

Sometimes their hospitality reaches absurd heights. Like when a few of our group - Noirin, Maggie and Amy went for a post-harvest lunch with their family (despite the fact that it's Ramadan and the Palestinians fast all day, they always preapre delicious lunches for us!) Having eaten and stayed a couple of hours, Noirin said to the family that they would leave so that the family could sleep before preparing the Ramadan supprt. To her amazement, the entire family got up and cleared the room immediately! Noirin, MAggie and Amy stayed in bewilderment for a while before going out to see what was going on, only to be met by the family's protestations and gentle pushing back into the room. It turned out that the family had misunderstood Noirin to say that they should leave now so that Noirin, MAggie and Amy could sleep in their living room! But they didn't seem to think that this was at all an imposition!

The only times I have ever felt unsafe here have been at army checkpoints or roadblocks, or around ISraeli settlements. I'm sure Palestinians aren't all angels, but I can honestly say that even under severe provocation they have remained astonishingly calm abnd reasonable.

I'm sad to leave, and also afraid that when I return, I will see yet more settlements, Palestinian villages cut off from their groves by the hideous "separation wall" and a mounting desperation amongst the people in the West Bank. I feel that time is reallyl running short for a people whose love of life and sense of community is so strong, and so generously shared