not on any map

already a week has gone by without my finding time to write any posts about the many experiences, people, and emotions i have encountered.  i feel that i need an entirely separate set of days to capture all that i am observing and taking part in... i find it hard to decline from an activity or event in order to make time to decompress and breath in and out, rather than simply taking it all in.  even tonight i found it hard to decline an invitation to watch the final game of euro 2008 with a group of palestinians at the jerusalem hotel.  alas, i managed to decline after much internal struggle and have returned to the hebron hostel once again before heading to bethlehem in the morning.

each day of the past week has had its ups and downs.  after my experience of the bethlehem checkpoint on a typical monday morning, i traveled north to the galilee via tel aviv and haifa on the western coast.  the events of that day are becoming a bit of a blur, though i recall visiting roman ruins, including an impressive stone aqueduct, along the shore of the mediterranean.

     

  

     

the highlight of the day came with a visit to ein hod.  the strange thing about this place is that there are actually two ein hods -- the original village that is currently an artists' colony and a second village that is perched further up the mountainside and is an example of an unrecognized village in israel. previous to our visit, i had no idea that such villages existed.  the inhabitants of the upper village are palestinians who fled from their homes during the war of 1948 to the forests of the mountainside above their village.  

following the war these families intended to return to their homes, which still stood below; however, this was not allowed under the "absent - present" law: even if someone is a citizen of israel, if they leave their property for a given amount of days, it is considered abandoned and the individual can loose their land.  this allowed the original village to become inhabited by jewish israelis.  the former residents became arab israelis, though they were without homes, causing them to be considered "internally displaced."  they began building a new community for themselves in the area where they had been in hiding during the war.  

despite having been granted citizenship, they did not receive any services from the state -- no water, no electricity, no waste disposal, no roads, no school, no medical facilities.  they are not allowed to build without permits from the israeli government, which i might add are not possible to secure if your town does not exist, so the majority of their buildings are illegal and face demolition at any time.  in 1993 there was a protest against a lack of services and to demand recognition by the government; i believe that this was the largest arab israeli demonstration to ever occur.  these protests brought about some minor changes, such as two villages being allowed to pump in water, though they had to purchase and lay the piping systems themselves.  finally, in 1994, the government recognized five villages, including ein hod, though 100+ others still await water, electricity, and recognition.

since this time, ein hod has managed to secure water in 2004, has built a school (that has a sign in front written in hebrew and arabic that explains the school), and is slowly introducing electricity (they rely on a generator, though they now have two houses connected to electricity and a third currently slated for connection).  the pictures below fail to capture how well constructed the new buildings are and the amazing beauty of the land on which they are situated.  the green building houses a restaurant, where the villagers prepared the most amazing lunch for us.  in order to truly partake in the culture, i even ventured to try the lamb, which was fairly good but not enough to convert me from being a vegetarian.

after lunch we visited the original village that is now the artist colony to take in the architecture.

"my struggle for the past 30 years was to exist.  to take water as a right, not as a favor from anybody." -- ein hod arab israeli resident who is the owner of the restaurant