There are some pleasant surprises in store for us today. We have already set off on foot by the main path to Umm al-Ara’is, a good half-hour’s walk through the desert; shepherds wave hello from the slopes above us. It is 8:30 and still not too hot. I’m happy to be walking through this landscape once again—I was away for a month because of minor surgery—but within a few minutes Sa’id arrives in his clunky, white, infinitely expandable van: we count seventeen children and not a few adults. They tell […]Saturday, October 11 2014 Ta’ayush Activists Were Attacked Near The Outpost “Mizpe Yair” Another attack by settlers on Ta’ayush activists near the outspost “Mizpe Yair”. The attack occurred in front of the soldiers who did nothing to prevent the violence, and none of the attackers was detained or arrested. Another video:
Saturday, September 20 2014 Umm al-Ara’is by David Shulman
New outpost of Givat Sorek. Photo by Amir Bitan. September 20, 2014 7:00. Ezra leaves me off near the ‘Awad tents on the steep slope north of the wadi. It’s another one of those times when he says: “Just keep walking, and you’ll find the shepherds.” He also tells me that last week there was a violent attack on them by settlers from Mitzpeh Yair; the shepherds and two international volunteers were beaten and a camera smashed. For now, I’m on my own. It’s autumn: sharp wind, a timid sun, […]Saturday, August 16 2014 The Good News by David Shulman
1. Umm al-’Amad. Many of you will remember the long struggle to reclaim this fertile valley, the Maraga Lands, for their rightful Palestinian owners, after 12 years or more in which they had no access to them. The wadi at Umm al-’Amad is situated just beneath the large, cruel settlement of Othniel, whose settlers are sitting on the lands of Umm al-’Amad and neighboring villages; these settlers have done whatever they could to drive the owners away, often attacking them physically and subjecting them to the usual regime of […]Saturday, August 2 2014 Tequ’a and Umm al-Ara’is by David Shulman
Dizzy from the dissonance. In the felafel shop off the main street in Tequ’a, the TV is perched high on the wall in the corner. News from Gaza in Arabic. A mother lies on a hospital cot, her face pocked with a hundred tiny, and some not-so-tiny, red wounds, probably from shrapnel. She cannot speak, keeps fading off into sleep (let us hope it’s not death). Beside her, a two-year-old child is crying, hopeless, holding her hand, looking at her face. The young owner of the shop scoops balls […]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, […]
Saturday, February 1 2014 Watch Settlers control of Army & Civilians in Umm al Arais Watch a settler near the illegal outpost of Mitzpeh Yair trying to scare away a shepherd from Qawawis and his sheep, claiming the land belongs to “the People of Israel”. An Israeli army officer of the civil administration is asking the shepherd if he has “agreements” with another settler from the illegal outpost.
Saturday, January 18 2014 Umm al-Ara’is, Khushiyya and Twaneh by David Shulman
It’s not a good time to walk through the fields. The first, tentative green shoots are pushing up from soft soil irrigated by last month’s fierce snowfall. At Umm al-Khair, the huge field we cleared of rocks and thorns last summer is now a miracle of Irish green, wildly at odds with the browns and purples of the desert. The light is wintry, crisp, more than sufficient to highlight the gap between good and evil. Still, we find ourselves moving rapidly through fields, stepping as lightly as we can […]
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