South Hebron Hills

South Hebron Hills
 

This is how Umm Al Kheir’s villagers live in bad close quarters with the Carmel settlers
 

We went directly to Hashem Al Daraj, to Huda’s kindergarten, to help finish her preparations for the children’s outing on their beach day.

We drive another 20- minutes east from Umm Al Kheir to the Judean desert slopes. Luckily some sort of paved road has been fixed. Now it easier to arrive at this end of the world. It is arid and seething hot. No one’s people live there, scattered, and all that connects them to civilization are structures built by European aid organizations. Not only electricity and water collection installations, but also outhouses and kindergarten and a schoolhouse. The kindergarten and all it contains is a result of Huda’s initiative, with the help of our members and international organizations, and the mediation of our friend ‘Eid.

There is a water trough with faucets in the yard so women and children from the area have come to take water. Rachel Afek is on the phone so we could easily pass on name lists and information. This year, too, these children will see the sea.

We took this opportunity to enter Umm Al Kheir and say hello to ‘Eid whom we met, with his familiar smile, saying “May things stay this way, even this is alright.” We did not take our time there because of the Ramadan. I only photographed once again how close they dwell to the Carmel settlement. How their dwellings look compared to the settlers’ houses.

One should know where to be born…

We hurried on today, because of the holiday and Mohammad’s work, and also my own engagements as grandma at my grandkids’ end of year school celebration. So we did not enter Hebron.

Umm Al Kheir

Carmel settlement