Visit to villages Haris, Kif'l Haris, Qira. Wed 19.1.11, Morning

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Observers: 
Devorka O., Pua'a Tz., (a visitor) Bruria R. (reporting).
Jan-19-2011
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Morning

 Natanya translating)

13.30 – 10.00

Wednesday morning and the weather is warm and pleasant. There is no school today and one sees many children in the streets.

At Kif'l Haris we met women sitting in the sun and when we came up they invited us to sit with them. They explained that they were neighbors, most of them elderly and one young woman who has three children. One of them is a teacher on pension and she speaks some English.

They tell of the arrest of young men about 4 months ago. Amongst them one of 16, one of 17 and one of 22 and they are all still under arrest and there is a case against them. They are worried that there will be a heavy sentence. They tell us that there are still houses in the village under the threat of demolition. When we asked about the grave of Kalev Ben Yefune (a figure from the bible) they said that the settlers have celebrations there between the hours of 22.00 to 05.OO in the morning. After having coffee with them we went on our way.

As we went on our way we past a porch on which was sitting a large number of women who waved to us and called to us to come to them. It seems that representatives of the Red Cross had come to visit a sick person in the house and so the women had gathered. There were also pupils there who were preparing their homework. All were very pleasant to towards us and polite. Amongst them we met a woman who is the spokeswoman for Village Visits. Haris, Kif'l Haris, Kira. And so this was “Women’s day” and the beginning of connections which we hope to keep up.

We met a young attractive young woman who teaches English. She is a graduate of the Open University at Salfit and works in education. She complained of large classes and undisciplined children (which is well known to us) and when we parted she asked us to visit again and we said we would.

The last house was that of “veteran” friends with whom we had arranged to meet. Because of the previous two meetings we were late and then it turned out that the family was in mourning for the death of a sister-in-law of the owner of the house. It seems that out of politeness they had not told us of this when we phoned. They waited for us in spite of the delay and of course we had to have coffee. We only stayed a short time and left. We made arrangements to meet after the mourning period.

At the end of the trip we passed the checkpoint of Salfit next to Ariel. It was closed and manned by soldiers and only buses of a certain company could go through.