July 11, 2015 From early morning, when the air is still almost cool, until noon, when the sky is aflame, we work on the rock-and-dirt path to Bi’r al-‘Id. First you gather the medium-size rocks from the side of the road and the hill and arrange them in even rows; then you gather many bucketfuls of gravel and sand, scraped with rakes and picks from the caked surface of the soil, and pour this over the rocks; then you cover it all with earth carried in buckets from wherever you […]Saturday, July 12 2014 Umm al-Ara’is, Susya, Bi’r al-‘Id, Ma’asara by David Shulman Business as usual in the South Hebron hills. There’s a war on in Gaza, but that too is business as usual, the meaningless biannual ritual in which both sides gleefully smash one another before reverting to the status quo ante. The Israeli media are drowning us in words, a vast and raucous flood, and the government is putting out its familiar, mendacious statements; perhaps in recent days only Abu Mazen has spoken the truth. The only solution, he said, is a political one, and Netanyahu is no partner. Meanwhile, […]
Monday, August 19 2013 New article in “Haaretz” about South Hebron hills
“Haaretz” article by Amira Hass about South Hebron hillsSaturday, September 15 2012 Gawawis and Bi’r al-‘Id – by David Shulman I’ve never been expelled from my home or my lands or from anywhere else. No doubt my ancestors could have said something about it. When I came to live in Israel some 45 years ago, I never dreamed that someday I’d be spending my weekends trying to keep Palestinian farmers and shepherds from suffering that prototypically Jewish trauma—at the hands of the Jews. I can tell you. It feels like hell, even if you’re just watching it happen to someone else. There are times when I think I can’t go […]
Tuesday, July 10 2012 The Beating and Why I Come Back for More by Amitai Ben Abba My arm was twisted, bent, injured, violated, but it was not broken. 5 soldiers and 4 settlers were huddled around me. I felt blows from all directions. My hat was in the dirt. I was biting dust, clinging to my glasses with my left hand, and desperately clenching the camera with my right. The blue shirted attacker grabbed my right arm, twisted, bent it. I screamed. The camera was extracted from my hopelessly clenched fingers. They quickly smashed the camera on the ground. Taayush means living together living the revolution […]
Saturday, January 7 2012 Al-Rakiz
“I was born here, in these hills, sixty-five years ago. I’m a farmer, and these are my lands. We have all the deeds of title: first the Jordanians issued one set, stamped and sealed, in 1953, and then again in 1963, and the Israeli courts have confirmed them. No one can take my land from me. This morning I have come to plow.” Ahmad Muhammad is heavy-set, his face a palimpsest of wrinkles, his voice jagged and melodious. He lives in al-Rakiz, a tiny khirbeh just over the ridge. It wasn’t […]Saturday, January 22 2011 escorting shepherds in Um Elkhir, cleaning a cistern in Bir El Id
In the morning we went out with the shepherds. As we reached the pastures, forces of the border police and the army arrived and asked to see our papers, but nothing more. The shepherds went down into the wadi with the flocks and we returned to the village and from there to Bir El Id. We saw the progress of cleaning the cistern, on which the Civil Authority only allowed one week’s work. From there we continued to Palestinian Susya. We found that the settlers were pitching a huge tent […]Saturday, January 15 2011 escorting the plowing at Bnei Naim and repairing a cistern
In the course of the morning we were approached by a peasant from Bnei Naim who came to plow his land and said that the soldiers wouldn’t let him get to it. He was with two of his sons, a horse and a plow. For six years he had been prevented from reaching his land. Some of the trees were dry and neglected, some had been cut down, unpicked olives lay on the ground and unpicked almonds were left on the trees. We discovered that the soldiers had prevented him […]
By Year
By Place