CPTnet
January 6, 2005
SOUTH HEBRON HILLS REFLECTION: Into the New Year at Jinba
by Peggy Gish
On Friday morning, December 31 2004, my husband, Art, and I left At -Tuwani
in the South Hebron Hills, where CPT and Operation Dove have a continual
presence. We started our two-hour walk on the rocky dirt road over the hills
to Jinba. We passed other tiny villages, shepherds with their grazing
flocks, and men plowing with donkeys on the steep hillside.
I was coming back to the village where other CPTers and I had two-and-a-half
years earlier spent four days helping with the barley harvest. The owners
of the fields had needed our accompaniment because of threats from nearby
Israeli settlers.
Art and I slept in Musa's and Huwaida's cave and clumsily tried to help milk
sheep and goats. We watched the women bake bread on the hot coals in their
ovens and dry goat cheese in the hot sun.
I saw only a few changes in their ancient lifestyle since two-and-half years
ago. The people still live in tents and caves because all the stone houses
had been demolished by the Israeli military. About thirty residents had
left, joining the steady migration to the city of Yatta.
Since the visit was on Friday, most of the men of the village had gone into
Yatta for Friday prayers. Miriam and Huwaida hosted Art and me.
They told us about the recent harassment by Israeli settlers. Ibrahim, a
neighbor, said that three settlers from the Itamar settlement came last
Thursday. Pointing a rifle at three young Jinba shepherds, they stole three
sheep. Villagers said Israeli settlers with their tractors and an Israeli
military tank had damaged crops, making the large ruts we had seen in wheat
and barley fields.
The residents of Jinba seemed unaware that the day, according to the western
calendar, was New Year's Eve. Instead they were focused on maintaining their
basic lifestyle, in spite of the rush to modernity of the rest of the world
and the occupation of their lands.
>From here, I return to Iraq, wondering what the new year holds for Iraqis,
as well as for the people of Jinba. Will the Israeli Supreme Court uphold
the Palestinians' right to continue to tend their flocks and fields? Or will
they be driven out of their ancient homeland so that the Israeli government
can take them over for settlements and military zones? Will the elections
make any difference for them and the rest of the occupied Palestinian
territories and for Iraq? Will those in power continue to dominate them
and other indigenous peoples and moved them where they want them. Or will
there be new in breakings of the Spirit, allowing Palestinians and Iraqis to
continue their lives in peace?
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