Every night in Bi’Lin I have prayed that we do not need to come out – that is, that the Israeli army does not invade the village at night in order to arrest the people they can’t arrest during the demonstrations due to international presence.
Palestine deportation
It is not too usual to see shootings in Ramallah nowadays. Specially since the compendium of the Palestinian Authority, where Arafat used to live, was destroyed, there is virtually no Israeli military presence in the city. Says A. that it is because it is no longer necessary. Now at last the Palestinian police can patrol the streets of Ramallah. They could not do that before because, since they are regarded simply as armed Palestinians by the Israeli soldiers, and therefore dangerous terrorists on top of being terrorists, they would shoot at them systematically, and with a total justification, in the eyes of Israeli judges, which are the only judges that exist in Israel and Palestine…
Yanoun to Ramallah
I get the school shuttle to Aqraba to head South. In Lower Yanoun it picks up the children that are too old to go to the school in Upper Yanoun and takes them to Aqraba with the older children from Upper Yanoun. The girl that invited us to her house and then guided us to her father, in the mountain, is among them. Only today she looks a lot older, with her uniform, her shoes and her head covered, unlike that afternoon, when she was wearing sandals and trousers and there was nothing hiding her long plaits.
Yanoun IV. On my own
When the villagers decided to leave Yanoun after the terror campaign carried out by the local settlers, they were then “convinced” to come back to live here. They agreed, only on the condition that at least two or three internationals would be here at all times. The organisation called CCPT took on the commitment of keeping at least three people here at all times.
Yanoun III. Not enough of us
J. and I stay in Yanoun. He does not fancy school so I go on my own. The relationship between me and the teachers, all men, without a man that accompanies me is completely different. The teachers say hello briefly to me and avoid me as much a possible, so I go home for some lunch during the break.
Yanoun II. School
J. and Z. stay at home while L. and I go to school at nine o’clock in the morning. L. was wrong about the nine o’clock lesson and I attend one on Arabic. This is the eldest children’s classroom; next year; the eldest will have to travel to Aqraba daily to attend secondary school. I copy in my notebook what the teacher writes on the blackboard.
Yanoun I
As M. drives us to the nearest town, he tells us about the latest incident that happened in the village where we are going. A settler injured a Palestinian farmer and he is luckily alive, recovering in hospital.
Jayyous V
I wake up before it is light and get out of the shed. The atmosphere feels pretty much the same as it can feel in any Mediterranean country just before dawn. There is a bit of light coming out of the back of the distant mountains, but the sun is still hidden behind them. There is a very special orange-green colour in the sky that becomes bluer higher up from the mountains and into the rest of the sky.
Jayyous IV. The Green Line
A. takes us on a “tour” around the area on the way to his groves today. We get on his own tractor for that, so again today we endure a rocky path, although today it is a different one. We then see a different portion of the wall that has the form of a fortified road.
Jayyous III. “The settlers took my land”
We go and pick olives today as well. We have slept in this shed that lies on the “Israeli” part of the wall. They say it is only a security wall for the settlement, but instead of putting the security next to the Israeli settlement, they have put it about six metres away from the houses of the village, and it effectively acts as a political frontier between the illegally expanded Israeli state and the still non-existent Palestinian state.
