Burin - meeting Umm Musa
On the most wintery and yet the most springlike day, we went out to meet our friend, D (Umm Musa), for a profile of her for the MW newsletter (2022-04) which focuses on Women under Occupation.
Some young men stopped in the middle of the village and with suspicious glances asked us if we were "Jew". We explained that we are Jews from (Arabic) "Huquq al-Ansan". There was an unpleasant moment but they left us with a smile after Um-Mousa intervened in the conversation - she was on a call with us at the time. Afterward, we were scolded since we said that we were Jews; that is forbidden. We have to say "Huquq al-Ansan" and just that. People here see Jews and think that they are settlers. "Huquq al-Ansan" is like the expression "Open Sesame", words that promise that nothing bad will happen to us...she said to us.
She received us warmly with a breakfast including the unusual "achuv" plant, a protected species which is forbidden to be picked. It grows in the winter in the hills. Delicious! Two weeks ago, five Palestinians were detained in the hills of the Jordan Valley for picking "achuv". We looked for them for 2 days. Finally they were found in the Ofer detention center. Who knows what their fate will be?
She took us to to meet with a social group of women from the village, in order to change their understanding of Israelis. She said that she herself had changed her mind about Israelis after she came to an "ocean day" a few years ago. Um Mousa will organize the first group which will come to the "ocean day" this year together with our group.
Ramadan is in a week and we have to prepare the list of the groups by then, with the hope that neither Corona, nor the Green Pass nor the bureaucratic magnetic card will stop us!