December 13, 2000

When dislocating the Jahallin Bedouin to make way for an Israeli settlement, the government gave them shipping containers to live in

It is time to head back to Zababdeh. What seems like the safest and most predictable way, though, is to go all the way around the West Bank and come in from Nazareth.

A member of Rabbis for Human Rights works with the Jahallin Bedouin

We spent a lazy morning before waiting for our friend from Rabbis for Human Rights in front of the American Consulate (well, technically, 100 meters away - we found that it is forbidden to wait in front these days. Paranoia reigns) to go out to visit the Jahallin Bedouin. The ancestors of these 100 or so families were living in the Negev desert when Israel was established in 1948. By 1951 they were refugees, living in the West Bank just outside of Jerusalem. When construction began on the mammoth Ma'ale Adummim settlement, the Bedouin way was in danger. The first 65 families were removed four years ago and given shipping containers to live in by the Israeli government - poetic to say the least.

A rainbow over a Jahallin Bedouin lean-to

The next 30 families, seeing what happened to their predecessors, held out for a better deal. They were promised permanent housing, which was delivered. However, the authorities held onto the keys for two years. During one particularly brutal winter rain storm, some couldn't take it any longer and, in desperation, broke the windows to get some relief from the cold. They got the keys soon after, but the promised dwellings are now in need of desperate repair.

The people's half-built houses and lean-to shanties are loudly mocked by the brand new settlements on the opposite hill, their construction cranes a memorial to their dispossession. Now, in addition to everything else, they must make the adjustment to a sedentary, almost-urban, labor-based lifestyle.

We arrived in Nazareth and spent the night with our Presbyterian friends.