Deir Ibzi'a

Saturday, July 2, 2005

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Hi Friends & Family,

Visiting friends in Deir Ibzi'a has been wonderful. We arrived on Thursday and spent the day with Deeb and his wife Suzanne and their 3 children. Feraz, who is six, wants to come and live with me in California. (He totally loves me!

After going through some of the business of the embroidery project (books, accounting, etc.) in the afternoon, that evening we met with the womyn who make it. The time was beautiful and rich. I had only met two of the womyn previously and it was so great to sit and drink tea and talk with them. (Well, Cathy talked with them, while I had to use Deeb as translator.) They are very happy with the project and they want to increase the amount that they sell to us. Unfortunately, we are pretty much at the limit of our capacity to sell it. Unless, someone out there has time and business acumen to help us out... ?

Although in many ways the occupation seems less oppressive than when I was here in 2002 and 2003, I believe it has just become more insidious. It is true that the Qilandia checkpoint from Jerusalem into Ramallah was very easy to get through, (although going the other way is always more difficult,) and there are no roadblocks or checkpoints between Ramallah and Deir Ibzi'a right now. However, it also appears that Deir Ibzi'a is about to suffer the same fate as so many Palestinian villages. The Israelis are going to build a road that will cut the villiage off from half of it's fields. They will need permission to go to their fields now. They expect to receive occasional permission in the first year, but after that, they think that the fields will be completely cut off from them and that yet another settlement will be build on the lands.  Furthermore, the road itself will require taking 3,000 dunams just to build. The Israelis asked for a meeting with representatives from the village to talk about it. The village sent three men, one a civil engineer named Hisam. When Hisam started asking questions about the infrastructure of the road, the Israeli engineer told him to be quiet. That his job at the meeting was just to listen, not to talk. Hisam said, "Then this is not a meeting. Thank you and good bye."

This road is ostensibly supposed to connect the West Bank to Gaza. But no one asked the Palestinians what they wanted which is typical. One plan was to connect Gaza to Hebron which would make much more sense. (Look at a map.) But the villagers told me that the Israelis want all of Hebron. They are on their way to achieving this.

Hisam is an incredible joker. We attended a meeting of the new NGO in the village and he is a member. They were laughing at his jokes the whole time. Here is one that they translated for us:

A man had a wife and 8 children and just one room. He went to the Israeli officer in charge and asked for a permit to build a bigger house. The Israeli officer said, "I will help you but you must do as I say. Buy 20 chickens and put them in the room with your family." The man did this and of course it was terrible. He went back to the Israeli officer and said, "That was no good." The officer said, "I am not finished. Now you must buy a cow." So the man did, and of course it was even worse. The the Israeli said, "Now you must buy a donkey." The man did and told the Israeli, "This is terrible!" So the Israeli said, "OK. You can sell the chickens." The man did and the Israeli asked him how things were going. The man said it was still pretty miserable. The Israeli said, "OK, you can sell the cow." The man did and told the Israeli that things were getting better. The Israeli said, "OK now you can sell the donkey." The man did and told the Israeli that now things were great!

Love,
Wendy

wendypalestine@aol.com