Susya

After another olive picking day around Nablus I moved to Susiya in the very south of the West Bank. After the nakba the residents used to live in a cave, but later they were also expelled from there because the Israeli government declared it a national park. Now they live in simple tents of pitted plastic covers nearby. They are not allowed to build real houses, so one of the homes, which has concrete walls, is also covered with plastic because they're afraid that the army would destroy it.

The people are mainly raising sheeps, but their movement is very limited because most of their pasture is declared closed military zone. For the same reason, water supply from the surrounding wells is also hard. They used to live without electricity untill a group of israeli individuals installed solar cells. The settlement of Susiya is located about half an kilometer away, and soldiers in between are round the clock on watch.

On the day of my arrival, while I couldn't fall asleep at night, I got the stupid idea to take a walk on the road next to the tents and was stopped imediately by a passing by israeli military jeep. They took me to the next checkpoint on the border with Israel but released me after about 20 minutes, together with 4 palestinians who were captured 2 hours before me while crossing the border on foot ilegally after returning from work in Israel. The palestinians were picked up from a friend and wanted me to take to Susiya but in the night I had no idea how to go there and didn't want to wake up the people there, so they suggested to take me to the next (palestinian) police station in Yatta, so that the police should bring me home. I agreed, but I should have known, that the palestinian police is not allowed to enter the area of the tents (under administration of israeli military). So they decided to take me to the police headquarter in Khalil (Hebron), where I spent the night. It reminded me of police experiences in other arab countries: very friendly but slow and bureaucratic. The next day I was picked up by one villager, who brought my passport. I was uncomfortable for causing troubles on my first day.

During the five days I stayed, there wasn't really much to do. Soldiers occasionally shouted "bad words" at us, obviously bored and hoping for some "action", but the villagers stayed calm.

On thursday during the first rain since long time plenty of water entered some of the tents but the farmers were just happy that the sparse soil will soon serve more than just the remaining grass roots.

Finally on saturday I was called to go to Husan, where a house was occupied by the army.