A visit to Sawiya
Sawiya: We met with the secretary of the Council. He was busy answering telephone questions from people in the village at the same time that he answered our questions. He explained to us that he had been a worker in Israel, but now he isn’t well enough to do physical labor so he is here in the office.
Water: The village receives 15,000 cubes of water from Mekorot each month, so there is no problem.
Electricity: The village is receiving 1 megawatt of electricity per month. This is very limiting and they want to raise it to 2 megawatts. He asked that perhaps Machsom Watch could help.
Education: The schools will be working from September. High schools are separated for boys and girls. The boys’ high school, which serves several villages, is located along the main highway 60. The IDF sometimes enters the school and disrupts classes, and sometimes soldiers bother boys when they are on their way home after school.
Settlements: Eli and Rechalim are set up on land which was taken from Sawiya. But there are no problems with them right now.
Health: There is a clinic in the village. A doctor comes 2 days a week. There is a nurse on duty every day but only for first-aid. For real health problems, they must go to Ramallah or Nablus.
Work: There are 3,000 people in Sawiya. Many men work in Israel. The head of the village Council works in Israel.
Luban Asharkiyah: As we had in the past we went straight to our friend, Amnah, in her mini-market.