Eyal and Eileil Shani
Today is the 36th day of the war and we remember, once again, things that happened in the past week in the South Hebron hills. We’re trying to present what we’ve been through in a clear way, so that we can get across to you our experience of direct contact with the people there. This is a collection of many small stories which together make up one big story.
"The big story in the Bible begins
And to this day it goes on and spins
With a people that went into the diaspora
And returned two thousand years later
To their home between the river and the sea"
The back yard
Even in “normal” times, before this difficult war started, the South Hebron hills area was highly charged, with a tense struggle over boundaries and access, between shepherds from both sides, who try to extend their pasturage. Even then, there was constant tension and wariness, but there was also a sense of the endless hush, which the desert offers generously to all and with which it encloses us. Regardless of religion, nationality, or race.
A few days ago, we found ourselves sitting at the entrance of the cave-dwelling of a widow to whom we’d brought some supplies. We sat, with a glass of tea in our hand, with the desert in front of us, and there were a few moments of quiet. For a moment we almost forgot there was a war on. But then we remembered.
Even in the past, before the war, anyone who came with us on our field visits and wasn’t aware of what lay behind this landscape, thought this was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the world. But now, in the middle of the war, it is hard not to come face to face with the difficulties, the suffering and the violence. The situation has really become difficult to the point of being unbearable.
"The big story, a story so great
From generation to generation did relate
Till it got confused, itself refuted
And was up to its neck convoluted
With a cruel hunter who used to be hunted"
The back yard
So let’s share a few stories from the past few days, which for us have been a difficult experience.
Fatma (not her real name) and her aged mother, live in a distant cave in the Hebron Hills. They are very poor, on the social margins of the village. Lately, they have been attacked every night by extremist settlers who come from a nearby Jewish farm. When they arrive, they come into the cave, turn everything upside down, spill, break, destroy the little that is there – clothes, housewares, flour, oil, vegetables, and sugar. After every visit like this, the only thing one can do is take everything, throw it out, and clean out the cave, which has already known several such “visits”. On one of the visits, they also took a few sheep, which are these women’s only source of livelihood.
We arrived after one such “visit”, and brought some flour, some oil, a few vegetables, a flashlight, and a small gas burner (after the one they had was broken by the intruders). That night, the same thing happened, settlers came in, they took, they broke, they destroyed everything. The story repeated itself a few nights later, after a friend had brought fresh provisions.
The aged mother has had enough and has now left. She went to live with one of her sons in the big village. Fatma and her 16-year-old brother have stayed, every evening taking the sheep to an abandoned cave near a neighboring village, and they themselves sleeping out under the sky and the stars. Every morning they go back to the cave which is their home. They try to give it back the appearance of being inhabited. Maybe so that the marauders will understand that they are not leaving. And maybe because they really have no other place. This is their home.
In the past few days, Fatma and her brother saw a drone which followed them on their way to the cave where they spend the night, looking after the sheep. That night the settlers came to the cave in the neighboring village, to see what they keep there. And indeed, what do they keep there? Maybe they’re hiding a story? A story very similar to ours, of a strong attachment to the land, of life close to nature, to faith? So, what’s the problem with their story? Maybe their story undermines our story? Questions it?
A similar thing happened in a village close to one of the settlements. There was never any friction between the villagers and the settlers. The old folks say that there was even a time, before the Oslo accords, when the relations were good. The villagers worked in the settlers’ enterprises, they bought in the settlers’ shop and their infants were even vaccinated in their baby care clinics. But those times have gone. Each side is closed off in its own village and has built an imagined story about the other. One night, recently, some masked settlers, in uniform, came into the village, and gathered all the men of the village into one tent. They called on one of the leading men of the village and forced him, while filming him, under gunpoint, to tell all the world that they’re opposed to Hamas and to the massacre they committed and they’re for Israel. The man said to them, “Even without the gun you’re pointing at my head right now I want to tell you, that we have always been opposed to all acts of violence against everyone, everywhere in the world, and that we condemn outright what happened in Gaza. But we did not do it and we’re certainly not happy about it. So why do you treat us like this?”
One of the masked men grabbed a boy of 15 and asked the same man, while pointing a gun at the boy’s head, “Do you know there’s a boy his age being held hostage in Gaza now? How would you feel if I shot him now?” The same man answered him, that he knows how difficult the situation is in Gaza, with women and children being held hostage and he is deeply sorry. And then he asked the settler, “And if you kill this Palestinian boy, will this bring back the poor Israeli boy being held hostage? Will it reduce the suffering of all of us?” These words seem to have done something. The settler let the boy go, but then came the next demand from the men, “By tomorrow, at 12:00, we want to see Israeli flags flying over all your tents, as a sign of solidarity with Israel. If that doesn’t happen, we’ll slaughter you.” When we reported to the army what was going on in the village, in the hope that someone would take the villagers safety in hand, and won’t let the settlers run riot, the army came to the village for a few successive nights. But they searched the houses, several times each night.
Together with Israelis who have known this peace-seeking village for many years, we have tried to visit there almost every day. But then we got this information, which left us speechless. A new commander had arrived in the area (also a settler). he came to the village and said to the men, “We know you’re not looking for trouble, so we’re letting you stay here. At the same time, we are in an emergency situation right now, and we forbid you to let anyone into the village who does not live here, not an Arab, not a Jew, not an International. If you do so, we’ll arrest them and there will be troubles for you.”
So, we got the message, that even though the villagers need the food supplies, medicine, and diapers, which we bring, as well as our moral support, they’re asking, sadly, that we don’t visit until the situation improves. There are drones patrolling over the village all the time, and the night searches continue. Fear, disconnection, and a policy of “divide and rule” are everywhere.
On our visits to the villages, we hear more and more of these stories. We are filled with pain, sorrow, and disappointment. Still, we live in hope that we can continue our way of bearing peace to the South Hebron hills. We do not want to lose our faith in the basic goodness of human beings and that we shall be able to continue meeting, to look each other in the eye and to listen with our hearts to the stories we are told.
So here are two stories which shed a ray of light through the darkness:
In a distant village, which we visited, we were told that the schoolteachers come the local villages from the town of Yata. Right now, given the situation, the teachers can’t come and teach, so two students from the village, a young man and a young lady, took the initiative and together they have set up a makeshift school for the elementary school children. In this way, they are trying to bring some sanity into the children’s lives as well as some basic learning.
In another village, when we unpacked the provisions that we had brought, at the entrance to the simple dwelling cave, the woman asked, “Did you only bring food today?” At first, we didn’t understand what she meant. Given the dire situation in the villages, food is what is really needed. But then she added, after a pause, “Once you brought some flowers to plant in my little garden. Maybe, next time, you can bring me a flower?” We looked at the woman’s few makeshift plastic flowerpots, in which a few small flowers were still blooming. “Of course”, we answered, “next time, we will bring you a flower”.
So, in these challenging times, every week, we go out to the field. We bring the people food and medicines. For the moment, we’ve stopped collecting donations of clothing, household utensils and children’s toys, as on each trip the pick-up is loaded with what is needed most, which is food.
We also understood that in these tense times, not everyone wants to come with us into the field. So, it’s important to know, financial contributions are important and deeply appreciated as they enable us to buy food and medicines, for thousands of shekels every week, and for the villagers these are the most important things. When the war is over, we will also need human resources, to show that we can live here together in peace.
Furthermore, there are people who come out to the villages as a “protecting presence’ for the Palestinians. Such a presence means coming out to the villages, especially at night, and it often keeps the settlers out of the Palestinian villages. If you are interested in joining this venture, please get back to me privately.
"The big story is lost and gone
The story known to all and one
From left and right, straight as a stick and bent like a bow
Understands yesterday and knows tomorrow
From the sea to the river"
The back yard
Our story continues. We need support. And we will be happy if you pass this on to others, those who still hold in their heart a hope and desire to create a good life together.
It is also right to remember that among the “settlers” there are also people who, for many years, have been working to prevent violence. We mention, in particular, the “Shorashim”-Roots-Judur organization, inspired by the vision of the late Rabbi Forman, which is today working ceaselessly to prevent violent actions and to maintain neighborly relations between Jews and Palestinians.
Hoping for quieter and better days than these
In love and pain, Eyal and Eileil
Thank you for Prof. Yonathan Anson for this translation