FOR 21-year-old Hara Pipitsouli, summer 2009 has provided her with a life-changing experience in the West Bank where she was involved in a project rebuilding Palestinian homes demolished by the Israeli Authorities.
The project, organised by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), brings together volunteer workers from around the world.
Inspired by her university professor at Brighton University who had worked with ICAHD, and having studied the Arab-Israeli dispute in high school, Pipitsouli applied to take part in a two-week scheme to build two houses in the village of Anata located in the West Bank.
“Participation costs $1000 per person, which goes towards our food, accommodation, transport and the cost of reconstructing the new houses,” she said. “We were around 60 in total, with 40-45 coming from Spain because the Spanish government co-financed their participation.”
She was part of a group based with a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem, sleeping on mattresses on the floor. From there they took trips out to towns and refugee camps in the West Bank.
“Most of the work took place in Anata, and the house where we were staying had been demolished four times,” she said.
Pipitsouli explained that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had, for security reasons, demolished buildings and restricted reconstruction in areas throughout the West Bank. ICAHD reports that over 24,000 homes in the Occupied Territories have been razed by the IDF since 1967.
“We also stayed in the Bedouin community of Susya, near Hebron, where there was no running water or sanitation. We wanted to build bathrooms and toilets but we were told that if we built these, the authorities would immediately demolish them,” she said.
Instead they constructed an underground animal pen and helped clear stones from a farm so that farmers could cultivate the land.
After Susya, Pipitsouli’s group visited Hebron, where Palestinians and Israeli settlers live a tense coexistence.
Asked about the living arrangements, she explained: “Israelis and Palestinians are segregated, and people now talk of apartheid. Israelis don’t go down Palestinian streets, and Palestinians cannot walk on Israeli roads. Any Palestinian in a car would be stopped at one of the checkpoints.”
One organisation called Camera Project has raised awareness of the situation by distributing cameras to West Bank residents. So far 100 video cameras have been donated. Pipitsouli recalled one video which captured a Palestinian mother trying to lead children to school via an Israeli street that adjoined her house. “A settler was abusing her, saying ‘Get back in your cage, whore.’
“I saw houses where Palestinians had to leave through the roofs of adjacent houses because their front door opened on an Israeli road and they were not allowed to use it.”
Pipitsouli’s tour guide and an Israeli, who worked for the NGO, Breaking the Silence, said that feuds over water are common. They reported settlers contaminating the supply that went to Palestinians’ downstairs flats.
For Pipitsouli, the situation in Hebron is a good example of the problems in the country as a whole. Although Israelis and Palestinians live directly next to each other, their living standards are worlds apart.
“The Negev desert settlers’ communities have swimming pools and lush grass whereas the adjacent Palestinian communities a few metres away have no running water. An American in the group said the Israeli settlements were like California,” she said.
The area is heavily policed by the IDF and many settlers especially in Hebron walk the streets carrying guns. Asked whether any Palestinians have guns to protect themselves, Pipitsouli said: “No, some of them don’t even have knives and forks.”
Well-armed settlers failed to make her feel safe, however. “The Israelis say the Arabs are the terrorists and take oppressive measures in the interests of security, but I felt a hundred times more threatened by the settlers than any Arabs I met,” she said. “You know that they are in control and can do whatever they want.”
One of the more alarming features in Hebron that she observed was the wire mesh ceilings that Palestinians have been forced to place over market places to protect themselves from the objects that the settlers have been throwing from their flats above. These have included garbage, rocks, metal bars and excrement.
A major barrier to progress is that Palestinians are fragmented and under represented. In contrast settlers are protected and subsidised, and can act with impunity. The International Solidarity Movement, for example, seeks to address this. Following allegations that the IDF had shot at Palestinian shepherds, the ISM now walks with them.
International NGOs have a limited presence, however, and are severely restricted by authorities. “There are a lot of small projects but there is little coordination between the various donors and NGOs,” Pipitsouli said.
Regarding solutions, Pipitsouli was clear. “The most important thing we can do is raise awareness. I think every country should offer a subsidy to do these projects, like the Spanish government. I wish that the Cypriot government would also sponsor people and make them aware.”
Would she go back? “Yes, definitely. The people are so friendly; on every street you are invited in for coffee and welcomed. Even though they have nothing they share what they have.
“What I understood from my trip was that it was very important for the Palestinians to know that people outside care and know about what they are going through.”
Picture 1 caption: Photo no.1684 – sunset from Anata village. Two young girls sitting on the ruins of a demolished house overlooking at the settlements.)
