Nahl Village

Today, a group of ISMers joined a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli activists, in the village of Nahl. Nahl means "bee" in Arabic.
The Palestinian activists came from many different places across the West Bank, including Al Masara and Hebron and Beit Ummar. Recently, villages have begun working together and helping each other to address problems like land confiscations and settler and Army harassment.

The village of Nahl is beside Al Masara, which is close to the famous city of Bethlehem. Close to it is the settlement of Efrat.

A settler, believed to be from Efrat, set up a tent on Nahl's land. Normally this would not seem like a big deal, except many Israeli settlements expand this way into Palestinian areas. First a settler or two sets up a tent or an outpost. The Palestinians on whose land it is on, if they choose to resist, face intimidation. Eventually, more settlers move in. The next step is usually a road that is built to connect the outpost to a nearer, bigger settlement. It goes without saying that the Palestinians whose land the outpost was built on, lose more land due to the road being built. Of course, they are also not allowed to use it, for "security reasons". Sometimes communities are cut off from each other this way.

A gathering of several dozen Palestinian community activists, including Hassan and Younes and Yousef, came together to discuss ways to resist this outpost. There is only one settler living there, but no one wants to hurt him. However, they are planning peaceful protests to get him to move off the land he took over without asking. Hassan and some friends they tried talking to him once already, and he pointed a loaded gun at them. He wouldn't do such a thing to Israelis or international activists, but Palestinians have far less rights.

The meeting was peaceful, but in spite of this, there was a lot of Israeli Army presence. The first time, two soldiers arrived in a white car, and walked around, taking pictures of the participants. About twenry minutes later, two army jeeps arrived and four soldiers came out, heavily armed, and also taking photos. It was a very clear attempt at intimidation, and one of the soldiers later told Hassan that the settler in the outpost called them, because he became "worried" at seeing so many Palestinians.

Among the people gathered, there were also two Israelis and a Palestinian from the group "Combatants for Peace". It is composed of former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters, who decided to lay down their weapons and renounce violence to work for a peaceful solution to the conflict, and are working together to oppose human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. People don't have to be enemies.

Together with the peaceful Palestinian activists and Israeli ex-soldiers, we must have looked like a very scary bunch. After the meeting ended, Iftar was served in the open, and we had a picnic. Afterwards we went back to Hebron.

Pictures and video to come later.