21 Cheshvan
November 22, 2016
Palestinian Terror in the last 24 hours
Hizma, Rachel’s Tomb, Highway 60, Husan, Gush Etzion, Beit El, Halhul, Basoowiya, Silwan, A-Ram, Sinjil, Hawara, Azzun, Hamivtar, Efrat, A-Tur, Ras al-Amud, Hevron, Mehola Valley: all of these are places in which Palestinian “rock” and Molotov attacks took place yesterday.
More than this two major fires were set: one in Gush Etzion; the other in the Latrun Forest at Newe Shalom–the latter is still burning fiercely causing the entire community to be evacuated.
TODAY’S BLOG:
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Checkpoint:
My Recent Trip to Samaria (Part 5)
The route of our trip: Qalqilya-Alfei Menashe-Nebi Elias-Qaddum-Elkana-Kfar Kassem.
Note: For those of you coming to israelstreet for the first time, this is a 5-part series documenting a trip I recently took to Samaria–largely with MachsomWatch, a women’s group which monitors the checkpoints in and out of Judea and Samaria.
An alleyway in Qadum. The driver of the car, a local resident, was yelling at the kids to get out of the way. Note the PLO flags on the bicycle handlebars.
We pick up our journey now as we leave Kafr Qadum (alternately spelled Qaddum or Kaddum)–about 5 km east of Shechem– now traveling south and then southwest past Immanuel, Deir Istiya, Revava, Kiryat Netafim, Barkan, Masha, to Elkana, pop. 4000 (lower left on the map above).
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Of the above, Barkan is notable because it is the location of an industrial park that was founded in 1982. Currently, there are more than 120 businesses and factories in the park employing more than 20,000 workers. Half of the workers are Palestinians. According to Palestinian sources, Palestinians vigorously compete for Barkan jobs because workers receive three times the wage they receive from the PLO in addition to health benefits and transportation expenses.
As you might infer, because 80% of the goods manufactured in Barkan are exported, BDS has made Barkan a target of its boycott movement–much to the dismay of the Palestinians who work there.
None of this (Barkan, businesses, factories, employees, BDS) was mentioned by Daniela our MachsomWatch guide. Instead she was eager to take us to what MachsomWatch terms “the Occupation House”–a house that is between the separation fence that separates the Elkana community from Masha and the security perimeter fence of Elkana. Daniela and her cohorts call it “occupation in a nutshell.”
The Amir family who lives in the house refused to move when the separation fence was built, and so they live in a quirky zone between the two structures. We happened to be there as the family was returning home from Masha. And lest you think that the return was made onerous by Israel, the family actually has its own key to the Separation Fence. As we watched, they simply opened the Fence and let themselves through.
In fact, if you stop and think about it, why wasn’t the house simply razed by Israeli authorities? After all, isn’t that what you always hear…that Israelis are destroying Palestinian homes and ethnically cleansing Judea and Samaria?
I guess not.
Far from being a symbol of Israeli “occupation”, the Amir house stands as symbol of Israeli tolerance, a recognition of the property rights of the Amir family.
From Elkana, it was a short trip to the Israeli city of Kafr Qassem and then another 10 minutes to Tel Aviv.
Tomorrow’s blog will summarize this fascinating trip through Samaria.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.