Bumping along the road, I sat hands gripped onto the seat in front of me, so as not to slide into Eric or Dan sitting on either side of me. The little yellow taxi whipped around the curves, wildly maneuvering the potholes and jostling us over the speed bumps. Arriving at our destination, we piled out of the car nodding “ma’ salama” to our driver and headed inside to the counsel building where we were to conduct our interviews for the day.
As Katie mentioned in the first blog post, we are volunteering with Holy Land Trust (HLT) while here in Bethlehem. HLT works to encourage non-violence as a means for strengthening and empowering Palestinian people to develop spiritual, pragmatic and strategic approaches for resisting oppression. As volunteers, we are conducting research work in two local villages to learn about the social, and environmental impacts of the wall on these communities. Four of us are working in a village called Nahaleen. Located in a valley surrounded by four Israeli settlements, Nahaleen has been greatly affected by the occupation. Since 1967, the members of the village have suffered many problems including environmental degradation, loss of land, imprisonment, random attacks, the list goes on. Our job as volunteers is to collect historical and current information on Nahaleen and compile a report for HLT.
As we sat around a table in the counsel building listening to different villagers, we began understanding what it really means to live in this village. The first man we spoke with, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Shakarna, was born in 1943 and has grown up in Nahaleen observing the major changes that have occurred over time. As Mohammad described the many challenges he and his village have faced over time, I was impressed at how calm he was. Until 2003, Mohammad worked as a shepherd, traveling throughout the land with his herd of 350 sheep. Since 1967, he has struggled to find land to feed his livestock or safe areas where he is not harassed by settlers or Israeli soldiers. In 2003, Mohammad’s son was headed home with his herd of sheep when Israeli settlers captured and imprisoned him and took all his sheep. Mohammad went to the police (the Israeli police, since there was no Palestinian police force at the time) to explain his situation and reclaim his goats. After the settlers denied having took the sheep, the police ignored Mohammad and did nothing. Driving back in the police car, Mohammad spotted one of his goats on the side of the road. Leaping out of the car, he picked up his goat, and hustled back to the police car. When he was told he couldn’t get in the car with his goat, he proceeded to walk, and the police car drove away. After placing his goat down, it took off and led him to where the rest of his goats were being kept. Hiding out until the settlers guarding the goats left, Mohammad quietly opened the enclosure, let the sheep out and tried to quietly leave. As he was leaving, he was confronted by two Israeli settlers, closely followed by two more. After dodging stones thrown at him and a slew of threats, Mohammad picked up two stones in defense. The settlers backed away and Mohammad was able to escape.
After much hard work and time spent with the police, Mohammad was able to get some of his herd back, and his son was released from jail. But what now? Since the settlements have taken much of Nahaleen’s land, and all of the water in the village has been polluted, Mohammad’s family can no longer keep the sheep herd. He now has only 40 sheep left, which bring him no profit. “It is for passing time,” he told us. It is no longer economically viable to keep livestock for shepherd in Nahaleen. But he keeps his sheep in order to hold onto his and his village’s history.
Immersed in a constant battle against land loss, encroaching settlements, and pollution problems, Mohammad and his family continue to live in this small village. So why do they stay in Nahaleen, when there is so little land and so many hardships? We asked another farmer from the village why he remained in Nahaleen and why it was important to him. He looked at us blankly and then exclaimed loudly, “It is home!” Of course he would continue living in Nahaleen! His family, his history, his life is all there. How can he give that up?
Na’am, the former head of the town counsel elaborated on the idea of Nahaleen and its place as a home for the villagers: “We believe that if we are living here in Nahaleen, it is a part of the resistance to the occupation. We accept this.” After a moments pause he shrugged and said, “Where else to go?”
I was so moved by out time in Nahaleen, and I know many more stories await us over the next three months. The more I see, the move I realize how little I know. There is so much I need to learn, so many stories to hear, and so many different sides to the same history. This has been the most eye-opening, inspirational, and thought provoking two and a half weeks of my life. I look forward to just how amazing the next two and a half months will be!
-Sarah Oakes
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