The following snapshot of a Bedouin family in occupied Palestine was filed by Scott Smith, a South African Ecumenical Accompanier based in Jayyous. The views expressed herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the SACC or the WCC. See below for more information on the EAPPI programme.

Members of the Jayyous EA team visited the Bedouins in Arab ar-rahmadin ash-shamali, near the Zufin settlement, Qalqiliya district, on 12 and 14 March.

The first person we met was a man named Abdallah who had just received a further demolition order on 12 March. The short translation of that demolition order is that the Bedouins have until 28 April 2008 to give a reason to the court why their homes should not be demolished. The order is to demolish 10 homes which effectively means the demolition of the rest of their houses.

On the 12^th of March, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) came with a bulldozer and demolished two houses -- one for animals, the other a diwan for the men. They planned to have a wedding there in three months. Because of the demolition, they estimate that they lost NIS 1500 worth of animal feed (about R3500 or US$430). Abdallah said that he doesn't think that the Israelis want to build on the land. "They just want us out, but we have nowhere to go," he said. Besides this it is unclear what the family thinks of their impending displacement. It is the opinion of this report that they will be integrated into the cities in due time.

The family

Abdallah told us that they are three families with a total of 28 people living in the village. They are of the Jakhaadabe family, of the Ramadin hamula (clan). His grandfather left Bir Saba with his family in 1948, and until 1957 they grazed their sheep in the area around Hebron. When they had to leave from there, they settled in Arab ar-rahmadin ash-shamali and have lived there ever since. The village has four children in school in an-Naby Elias. He told us that they walk there every day and that it takes about 45 minutes. It is about five kilometers each way. One of his sons studies to be a teacher in Al Quds Open University in Nablus.

Finance and infrastructure

Abdullah's wife makes goat's cheese twice a day to be sold in Qalqiliya for NIS 10 (R23) a kilogram. Otherwise they live off selling their young goats while keeping the older ones. Further down the hill is Abdullah's sister with two daughters and two sons living with her. To support themselves, they make plastic lamps and other such trinkets that they sell in Qalqiliya. They, of course, also keep sheep and chickens.

The village gets its water delivered by tractor, and they have electricity from a diesel-run generator. The IDF has an army base on the other side of the road from the village, but the village has not been harassed by the settlers or the soldiers, at least not on a regular basis.

There is available grazing land to the west of the settlement but it is not possible for them to walk north or east due to the settlement, settler road as well as the military base to the north.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is coordinated by the World Council of Churches.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works co-operatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by General Secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist Church in Kenya.

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