Loo paper and a towel come in handy as well, while for toilet privacy you might find it preferable to go al fresco!! Water for showers is in limited supply (the settlers have swimming pools...). These are just a few practical tips. The whole walking experience is unforgettable and the people are dignified, helpful, friendly, generous and honest. Do visit them, you'll receive a welcome of a lifetime!
Sunday, 13 March 2011
things to take on your walk
You won't need a flak jacket as you're perfectly safe as a privileged Westerner. But you'd be wise to take effective ear plugs just in case anyone in your party snores (men and women sleep separately in family homes). Walking long distances on little sleep can be a bit rough as we know to our cost.
life under occupation
The circumstances and rules change from day to day. You'll see concrete blocks and other barriers by the roadside at intersections with roads leading to Palestinian villages. These barriers can be put in place within a matter of hours so that a few soldiers can effectively seal off access for as long as they wish. Imagine what that's like, in your own country, to be denied freedom of movement to go to work, to take your produce to market, to go to school or to go to hospital. And it happens all the time. Then there are the checkpoints where your papers are scrutinised and if you're lucky, you go through relatively quickly. The brewery at Taybeh for instance told us they used to get their bottles from Portugal but they had such hassles from the Israelis that they now have to buy from them. Hops and grain for making the beer are also imported and secure delivery for meeting orders cannot be guaranteed. This does not make for a healthy economy.
The whole situation is in fact very edgy and paranoid. A young foreign journalist told us an instructive story. He'd bought a sim card shortly after arriving in Palestine, paying cash and not registering name or details. Nor did he give the new number out to anyone. A few days later he gets a call from someone high up in military security questioning him as to what he was doing there. So how did they get the number? You figure it out.
I've already described life in East Jerusalem. You might have heard on the news that a settler family has been murdered. This was near where we stayed the first night and we've now learned that about 20 of the men of this village have been rounded up (reports of people being maltreated) and the whole area closed off. Reminds one of German and Vichy reprisals in WWII. That occupation lasted only four years, this has gone on for forty four! Armed settlers can attack or bully Palestinians at will, with soldiers there to protect them.
We saw many memorials on walls and public places and in private homes to martyrs and we're not talking of suicide bombers but people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. On our path in even some rugged and isolated areas we found spent military cartridges and a tear gas grenade.
Abraham Path
Staying at the friendly El Beit Guesthouse, run by the Arab Women's Union and the wonderful Milada, were the board members of the Abraham Path. William Ury, the founder of this initiative, is a top American negotiator and if you've got 15 minutes or so to read this link you'll see not only that he's a remarkable and clear-sighted individual but also what the Abraham Path is all about. The board (about 12/15 people) were walking extensive parts of the path checking its viability for tourists in future. The entire project is designed to assist and enable the Palestinians, including some in the poorest rural areas, to develop a tourist economy. The board were also documenting their trip so that the website in future is really informative and helpful. Their website is http://www.abrahampath.org/about.php and you can follow their current trip right now. And this is the link to William Ury's talk.
friends at Beit Safafa
We had a couple of free days at the end of our walk. Spent one walking around Bethlehem and arranged to visit our friend Hashim's family in Beit Safafa the next. BS is a Palestinian village in East Jerusalem, but inside the wall so checkpoints have to be negotiated. They came to fetch us but there were a few heart-stopping moments when the soldiers realised we had no visa stamps. Our passports were handed back but R's identification papers not. A few minutes later they let us through.
What a welcome! All the family were there to greet us - three generations - and more arrived during the afternoon. We were treated to a wonderful feast and their warmth was indescribable. Some of the younger members had never met their uncle, including one in her 20s, as he's not able to visit them nor return home at all. H's sisters saw him 4 years ago when they all met in Jordan. Such are the trials Palestinian exiles are forced to endure.
The family house and garden is now bordered on one side by a settler-only road and on another by Gilo settlement, a veritable blot on the landscape. Palestinians such as these are under constant pressure to sell up. We toured the old village and saw houses blocked up and derelict (Israel will not allow Palestinians to build or rebuild). We were also shown other houses taken over by settlers. It was a moving and extraordinary day, one we shall never forget.
from Kufr Malek to Taybeh
Kufr Malek's 1,116m above sea level and it was bloody cold when we got there!! The wind was howling, it rained all night so next morning our guides had to make the decision to cancel this last stretch of the walk which would have been 5.5km. Mud and slippery stones could have made it dangerous. Reluctantly we piled into a mini bus to Taybeh. It's the only completely Christian village in Palestine, boasts an excellent family-run brewery and is supposedly the place where Jesus sought refuge before going to Jerusalem to be crucified. The beer was superb!
Then the visit to St George's church with a talk by an amazingly informative and energetic priest, Father Raed who's involved in all sorts of peace initiatives and practical and economic ventures. He'd a great sense of humour and once we'd got past the religious stuff was fascinating on the politics. Taybeh has an amazing ruined Byzantine/Crusader church which again John's photos will show you. Animal sacrifice used to be the norm (and still is on occasion except now the offerings are given to the poor, not to the gods). You'll see the chain and hook at the entrance and wooden chopping block. This visit stood us in good stead at Tel Aviv airport when we had the usual "where have you been" and "why". You can't say "seeing Palestine and how its people live under occupation" so we were able to convince our young examiners that we were followers of the gospels with all that we'd learned that day.
Duma to Kufr Malek
Our second long stretch was the toughest for us - 14 km over some really rugged terrain. Again, John's photos will give you a much better idea than I can. We stopped en route at a small village to collect provisions for a picnic. The women were making bread for us outside so Rani and I were able to talk to them. I've got photos of the process which I'll post later when I've figured out how to do it, but the oven looks like a an oil drum cut in half and upended. A fire is lit inside it and the base which is covered with stones serves as griddle. Needless to say, this bread was simply delicious. Two of the women were in their late teens and had either one child or expecting one and the twenty three year old was expecting her third. The women often asked me if I had children and were perplexed/saddened when I said no. How do you explain Western choices??
Our picnic as you'll see, was high up in the Wadi Samia, overlooking a Bedouin camp. Then the final and quite daunting stretch to Kufr Malek skirting a ravine and finding your way amongst such huge rocks and boulders. We saw the village on the mountain top far in the distance and gasped. But it's amazing just how you can get there and what a feeling of achievement when you do. At one stage I had to hold on to the guide and not look down!
walking from Awarta to Duma
This stretch was 18 km and some of the most stunning scenery. We walked up the mountainside and saw Canaanite wells (or rather man-made reservoirs) which the Romans also used when they came to this land. You can see all the way across to the River Jordan (and glimpse the Israeli settlements strung out on the hilltops). John, one of our group of 6 has taken fabulous pictures (much better than mine) and you'll find them on this link. There were wildflowers in profusion - red anemones, pale lilac cyclamen, tiny blue irises and many many more I couldn't even hazard a guess at identifying. Also all among the stones, clumps of common thistle (natsh which Raja Shehadeh in his wonderful Orwell Prize-winning book Palestinian Walks says was probably used for the crown of thorns). There were also tortoises and millipedes along the way. http://tinyurl.com/Masar20110306
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