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"Land without human beings"
Thursday, October 22, 2020
I went out with Malia. We arrived in the village of Hassan, who is waiting for the birth of his first son. There is excitement and some stress ahead of the birth. His in-laws arrived at the same time, so he decided to stay with them and not join us. From there we crossed the mountain ridge with the peace van and descended to the foot of the mountain to a small and forgotten village in the heart of the desert.
We reached Abdallah for the first time. This week, two sheep sheds and a living room were demolished. He is quiet and restrained and after sharing in the grief of the demolition we talked about life. He is married to two but without children. Everyone who has talked to me about it, speaks sadly and shamefully. He opens up a little when he realizes I might be able to help him. Meanwhile Malia speaks Hebrew and his wife answers in Arabic and they are both happy about the possibility of being together. From time to time I translate but it's fun to see how the women leave everything behind and just meet as human beings. We men have rituals, stages of thawing trust - something else.
Malia finds in her plant essence kit, a plant that can help him and after many concerns he decides to try it. I want to give things I brought that might help and he almost firmly refuses .... as if to say: "I live well, do not need anything - Allah from above sees and takes care of all my shortcomings."
From there we continued to Omar, his neighbor whom I have known for a long time. After everyone tells about their family, I talk to their young daughter, who turns out to speak pretty good English.
I bring a children's book in English about dancing with drawings and we read it together. She can read and fast, and I dwell with her on the meaning as well. After a piece of bread in olive oil and hyssop (zaa'tar) we say goodbye to the family and continue to the village next to the house of Yusef, where there were demolitions several months ago.
We find one of the girls mixing concrete to build a shed for the sheep in the place they destroyed. European bodies have donated services and building materials and Yusuf and his family are working together to get life back on track after the demolition.
In the cave, Malia takes out a box with beads and all the girls happily gather to make necklaces. The father calls the"builder" to take a break and make a necklace for herself as well. At first she shyly refuses but then she seems happy to be with her sisters and the beads.
Leaving there and on seeing some scraps on the way, Malia draws my attention to the fact that there is a child lying between the things. In a moment a blue-eyed boy jumps up to us and invites us to his "cafe". "A coffee shop" ? We're wondering. Where? Here, he shows a tire with thermoses and a few disposable cups inside. Who buys coffee in the middle of the desert? I ask, "Whoever passes"! He replies with a smile, then comes a pickup truck of Bedouins bringing metal, which they have collected for sale. They stop and ask him for coffee to take away .... as if the world is giving me an answer to everything that is puzzling. After an exchange it turns out he is from Yata and has a family in the neighboring village. We play with him a bit with the ball we gave him as a gift, and give balloons to his younger brothers. Malia suggests that we buy coffee from him even if we do not drink and we contribute a little to the young entrepreneur, and continue on our way.
We arrived at Ismail, whose brother had his house and a sheep shed destroyed about a month ago. He greets us in the guest arbor and tells me "this is it, in another week they will demolish it". But why I ask, who bothers? He says: "This is a country that wants land without people, without human beings."
I repeat this sentence again - how strong the words are in the way he said them: "Land without human beings ...". He says that his back hurts and a moment later we are in shiatsu treatment. His wife at first is afraid that I will "break" him but when they finish, and he has a spark in his eyes and he smiles at her and says: "Walla, better!" She says: "When will you come again, if it helps why not come again next week"?
We continue to another Bedouin friend and another one and then a boy arrives and says, "You can come take care of my grandmother Haja, her hand hurts." Malia and I finish the third dinner of the day ... and meet Haja. Her hand hurts and we treat her together. Malia prepares oil for pain. I put needles and sing in supreme sounds.
On the way home we pass by Hassan, he has a headache and his wife is very stressed. I take care of him on the porch and Malia enters the house with his wife and mother. After about an hour there is no headache and his wife arrives with a bright smile on her eyes - she feels much less stressed.
When we get home, Hassan calls to ask how we are - there was a big accident near Susya - he just wanted to make sure we got home safely.
Shabbat Shalom,
Eyal
The translation is thanks to Carolina a from interfaith-encounter
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