'Izbet alTabib, Nabi Ilyas, Imatin

Natanya translating. 

Nadim travelled back and for the from Nebi Elias so as to carry out the timetable necessary for the activities in the village.

We had three paralle activities with women in the three villages. Nebi Eilias, Amtien, Farata. The entrance to Jyus is blocked with enormous rocks. Isbit Tabib is being harassed by the army. The network of Aksta?  has come to film.

9.15 Imatin. Nurit reports. We came to the building (a kindergarten and a women’s club) where the lessons take place earlier than had been decided before. The lesson began with coffee and halva cake which one of the women had made in the atmosphere of a social club. This time I showed them all the letters of the alphabet according to their sounds. With the help of a table in which each Hebrew letter was adapted to a letter with the same sound in Arabic.

The women themselves identified the letters.  At the same time I wrote words on the board and they succeeded in identifying them. There was joy at the identification and an atmosphere of a game. At the same time we also read from a page about learning Hebew and we spoke about the use of words which they knew. At their request we also gave the names of the face and body. At the end of the activity the women and also Nurit were smiling and looked happy,.  There is no doubt that they all enjoyed the lesson.  They asked to add yoga and other physical activities to the lessons in Hebrew.

9.30 Farata.  Nirit and Devorka with Nadeim came to the village which is near Havat Gilad. It was very cold outside, the winds whistle and freeze us.  At the looking post on the hill in the direction of Havat Gilad we did not see a living soul. The burned out car of the house owner at the house near to the top of the hill is no longer there. But the graffite and the blue magen davied ( and also those we saw in previous weeks)  are on the fence of the opposite house.

At about 10.00 we went to the municipality to the hall where is seems we will continue our activities in the future. 6 women came to meet us and discuss the possibility and times of the activities. We told them about Machsomwatch and heard what they were interested in doing.  Handiwork especially with beads and also to learn Hebrew. They asked if we could teach their children English  in the hours after school. To our surprise they themselves said that it would be better to learn in the afternoons and not in the morning but the final decision will be taken next week. We also left this meeting with high spirits. It is hard to describe (and to understand) the friendly and welcoming attitude of these women.

10.00 Nebi Elias. Nadim had already managed to take Sarela and Dafna to the women’s club. The same women and a visitor arrived this time as well to continue with the knitting project and to prepare the show of “the dance of socks” which is being carefully carried out and which will be filmed in two weeks and put on utube. At the end Dafna and Sarale  together with Visel Varda????decided  to arrange visits of the whole group to three of the houses of the women  who have much handiwork and samples which are too difficult to bring to the cub. The level and warmth of the easy laughter really brings one much joy.

11.30 Jayyus. The entrance is blocked with enormous rocks.

Isbet Tabib, The entrance of the village is partly open, cars and jeeps can get through but not trucks. We met Bayan at the gate of his house wrapped in his kafia. He invited us to sit and have tea and told something of the visit of the film crew of the Aksta network and of the jmaas  and in the meantime told us that yesterday (Tuesday)  in the evening the entrance to the village had again been closed  and an army jeep stood at the gate so as to block the road. There is no way of avoiding the thought that the army is inventing different and surprising harassment  so as to worry and frighten the villagers as a way of forcing them to stop their opposition to the laying of the new road. The film crew came as expected and also a representative of Bestelem joined the meeting.  The crew began to gather faces about the village and to make preparations for the filming. We left.

13.15  The Eilyahu crossing  The inspector of the private security company stopped us and checked our IDs. She also said that it was not correct for Israelis to enter the West Bank. We asked and what about the settlers. She sent us to be checked by the person responsible and after a delay of 10 minutes and a short conversation with her at which we also complained about the educational thought of the first inspector, Leah Lipschitz, she allowed us to go on our way,. Not before asking if we were connected to any organization. We said Machsomwatch and went on our way. It is very possible that the hardening of the inspection is part of the strategy of the army to make things very difficult for human rights groups to enter various areas of the West Bank as has happened lately to Taayush.