January 13, 2003

Qabatia has been under curfew for the last few days. What this has meant for school is that not only are Qabatia students absent, but so are the Jenin kids - there is no way that the Jenin school bus can make it to Zababdeh except via Qabatia. Once again, huge absences are plaguing us. Marthame was going to run errands in Jenin today, and was planning on taking our college friend for a little sightseeing, but simply assumed it would be impossible. Around 9:00, a couple of kids trickled in from Jenin - they had skirted Qabatia, coming by taxi over the hills and temporarily relocating with family in Zababdeh.

Marthame and our friend went down to the garage anyway - Jenin was not under curfew. The taxi headed north out of town, turning up the road running through the Israeli training range. At the top of the hill, at the area known as Sweitat, all traffic was doing its best to get into Jenin. What had once been a paved road when we first arrived had long-ago been bulldozed. The roads through the fields around it were bulldozed, too. Now it's open season - any path is a legitimate road.

We finally arrived in the middle of Jenin, which was busy - a shadow of its former bustle, but active nonetheless. The reasons for going were fairly mundane - phone bills, internet service, etc. - but these things can't be done anywhere else. We took the chance to get some knaffe, Nablus' specialty (Jenin's version is tasty too). There's something heartening about the fact that people are still selling knaffe, even when it's tough to get customers. Marthame ran into two of our students there - they were simply walking around town, not able to go to school.

Our “road” between Jenin and Burqin, skirting the Israeli West Bank roadblocks.

Leaving Jenin we had to take a different route. Not long after we had passed from Sweitat, a tank had arrived, cutting that road off. Not to be defeated, the taxi drivers were intent on getting through. We took the main road out of Jenin - for a moment, Marthame thought that we'd be going through Qabatia. Instead, we turned off to the inhospitable Jubriat road, more like mud dunes among the olive trees than a road system, arriving in the middle of Burqin's narrow streets - all to the West of Jenin. The main road out of Burqin towards Qabatia meets up with the small village of Shuhada, where two Israeli tanks were parked. We turned to the southwest towards Nablus, then onto tractor trails running parallel to the Qabatia road - fields and greenhouses separated us from the military.

Once among Qabatia's cramped alleyways - the curfew had been lifted shortly before - we then took another detour. Israeli tanks were blocking the road out of Qabatia, so it was off to the village of Misilye even further to the West before cutting back towards Zababdeh. A fifteen minute trip extended to an hour and a half, with four detours - a new personal best! This place can really grind you down to the raw emotions. Right now, it's a lot of hatred and anger.

Visiting with Fr. Firas usually is a good remedy, but hearing his tales of crossing from Jalame into Haifa did little to make us feel good. After he was threatened at gunpoint at a distance of twenty meters and made to strip his robes, he was then told he would not be allowed to enter, despite his legal Vatican travel documents. Eventually, soldiers' whims were overruled by captain's intervention. When he returned, he was told he couldn't enter the West Bank! But once again, he was allowed through.

It feels like time for another vacation...