BETHLEHEM NEWS, Volume 5, NOVEMBER 23, 2008

In this update:
Take Action: Gaza
Hike down the Wade Qelt
Background information on the Bedouin

Gaza
Background
Although occupied Gaza is less than 40 miles, as the crow flies, from where we are living, it seems like a continent away. We have not been there. Palestinians in the West Bank are not allowed to visit Gaza and the Gazans are not allowed in the West Bank.
The Gaza Strip, about 25 miles long and 3 – 7 miles wide, home to about 1.5 million people, is Israel’s Warsaw ghetto. Like the West Bank, Gaza was seized by Israel in 1967 and has been illegally occupied since then. Most of its residents are refugees from villages less than 50 kilometers away. More than 80% are dependent on UN and foreign aid for their survival; half the population is unemployed.
Even though Israel removed its illegal settlements from Gaza in 2005, they completely control the borders and the air space, including everything that goes in or comes out. Israel withholds food, water, cooking fuel, medicines, etc. and invades at will. Gaza is surrounded on three sides by electric fences; the fourth side is the Mediterranean which is controlled by the Israeli Navy.
Current Situation
Since November 8, Israel has prevented journalists from entering Gaza. This has been protested by the Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, ABC News, BBC News, CNN and others in a November 19 letter to Israel's prime minister.
From a UN statement issued November 18: “The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called today for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. “By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months. This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now,” she said.” (See www.un.org link below.)
On November 18, Israeli Naval commandos kidnapped 15 Palestinian fishermen and 3 internationals who were accompanying them. The fishermen who were fishing in internationally recognized Gazan territorial waters. The fishermen have been released but their boats have been confiscated. As of this writing, Israel is in the process of deporting the internationals who had originally come on the Free Gaza boats (www.freegaza.org).
TAKE ACTION: Contact your Congressperson and Senators, 202-224-3121 and tell them that the U.S. can no longer support Israel’s crimes against humanity against the Palestinians. Tell them you want the U.S. government to put pressure on Israel to: immediately end its blockade against and control over Gaza; return or replace the illegally seized boats; and let Gazan fisherman pursue their livelihood by staying out of their waters. Tell them you want all U.S. aid, loans, and sales to Israel stopped immediately until Israel ends its occupation of Palestine, provides all Israel citizens, irrespective of religion, with full and equal rights, and honors the right of refugees to return.
For more information:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28983&Cr=palestin&Cr1=
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/21/us_activist_detained_in_israeli_jail

Hike Down the Wadi Qelt
We heard about the Wadi Qelt from a British chap who is working on a nearby permaculture farm. He was going to take his visiting mum to see this national treasure – a gorge carved in eroding sandstone layers. The aqueous artist left stalactites and stalagmites formations along the sides in some places and dotted others with caves that were home to earlier peoples. Along the more gradual slopes above the canyon, snakes a narrow aqueduct that carries spring water for several miles down to Jericho on the floor of the Jordan Valley. The first aqueduct was built between 300 and 60 BC. It has been rebuilt many times since then, including the many bridges that carry it over the narrow side canyons
We got to the trailhead by taking a collective taxi towards Jericho and having the driver let us off in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere – dry hills in every direction. We followed the scant signs until we came to what was apparently the main entrance where some decorated camels were available for rides and a Bedouin man was selling kaffeyahs. As we talked with the man, we became very aware of how thin he was and how bad his teeth were. At some point we learned his age and were shocked to hear he was only 30. We bought a kaffeyah which our new friend then wrapped around on Patricia’s head to protect her from the sun.
Proceeding down then across the upper canyon, we found the aqueduct and then followed it for the next few hours as we made our way to Jericho. The landscape was dominated by the dry hills with trees growing where water escaped from the aqueduct. Though we did see goats, there seemed to be little for them to eat. As we walked along, we saw a few metal shacks and corrals, presumably those of Bedouin (see below for more info on the Bedouin). We met two Bedouin women who had ridden their donkeys down the slopes to the aqueduct. They burst into laugher seeing Patricia’s kaffeyah head gear, something only worn by men here. But between giggles, they motioned for us to have a drink from the aqueduct.
Along the way we saw beautiful birds with bright blue wings that we had never seen before and as we approached St George’s Monastery, we suddenly saw lots of hedgehogs running along the canyon walls. The Monastery itself was first established in the 5th century, built into the canyon walls; like the aqueduct, it has been rebuilt over time. In front of the monastery, we met more Bedouins, offering donkey rides. One of them, another thin young man, said that the Israelis had destroyed the road which used to bring tourists from Jericho up to the monastery. As a result few tourists now come.
Jericho
By the time we walked into Jericho, it was too late to get a service back to Bethlehem. The way the services work is that they fill up the van, usually 7 passengers, before they leave. After a half hour of waiting with one other person, we asked a young man (who was waiting for another service, going elsewhere, to fill up), what happens if they don’t fill the van. They don’t go was the answer. He then suggested we try to find a Bethlehem taxi and see if we could go with them on their return trip. (These would have been taxis that took people to the Allenby bridge where they would cross over into Jordan. Palestinians going outside the country usually go through Jordan, since most would have to get special permits to leave from Tel Aviv. Of course, they could be prevented from leaving by the Israelis at the border or prevented from entering Jordan by the Jordanians - we have heard stories of both.)
The returning taxi route did not work either, so we found a hotel of sorts to spend the night. The next day an elderly gentleman, Yassar, offered us a ride to the ruins of Hisham’s palace, built in the 700s. He drove us through the two large refugee camps on the outskirts of Jericho, unlike the refugee “camps” in Bethlehem which are dense, but have permanent structures, these had a mix of buildings and make-shift shacks. We saw one which had a mattress for part of the roof.
Yassar seemed to be happy to drive us around Jericho, charging much less than a private cab, so we asked if he could take us down to the Jordan River. No, he explained, the area is sealed off by the Israeli military. Well, how about the Dead Sea, that was only a few kilometers away. No, he explained, he couldn’t do that either because of the Israelis – best to take an Israeli bus from Jerusalem. And yes, with a wave of our blue U.S. passports, we who had been here just over a month, can travel where we like (except to Gaza). Not so Yassar, who has lived in Palestine his entire life and whose birthright it should be.
The return trip took us through two checkpoints. Everyone’s ID was inspected at the first. There were long lines at the second, while chatting Israeli soldiers periodically would wave on another car to let it go from one Palestinian town to another. The occupation is insane.

Background on the Bedouin (from Palestine & Palestinians, a book produced by the Alternative, Tourism Group):
“Most of the Bedouin were expelled from the Negev at the beginning of the 1950s and resettled mainly east of Hebron and … between Jerusalem and Jericho. [Since] 1967, they have been constantly displaced towards the worst land, and far from water sources. The occupation authorities confiscated their land under the pretext that it was uncultivated, although it was clear that it was Bedouin pastureland. First transferred into military zones, many of these territories were later used for Jewish settlements…. In 1977, in the middle of the ‘peace process’, … hundreds of [Bedouin] were forcibly resettled on the outskirts of al-Azariya, overlooking the municipal garbage dump. Others, in Anata, are now losing land to the Wall there and many of their shacks have recently been demolished by the Israeli authorities.
“The pastoral way of live of the Bedouins continues but on a much smaller scale because of the drastic reduction in pastureland. Flocks once numbering over 20,000 head are now less than 4,000 and the Bedouin who used until recently to provide 60% of the meat and dairy products of the Palestinian economy are now hard hit. In addition, water scarcity (water has to be bought from tankers) limits the number of animals that can be raised.” [In addition, Bedouin are not allowed to sell their meat or dairy products in Israel, Jerusalem the West Bank or Gaza], effectively outlawing the chief source of Bedouin livelihood.”

Upcoming: In this next week, we are off to Nablus and the villages of Haris and Jayyous. Haris is surrounded by settlements. The villagers in Jayyous are trying to prevent the Israelis from building the apartheid wall through their village, cutting of nearly 1400 acres of their agricultural land. There have been many demonstrations in Jayyous; on Friday, villagers took down a portion of the wall. The Israeli army put the town under curfew. A friend of ours, from Michigan was arrested while accompanying people from the village to their homes after curfew.