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Published: August 7th 2006
Jemima happily paints
We spent most mornings painting the local elementary school. It took some determination to establish that Jemima could paint, as indeed can many women, I understand.Comfortable in Little chicken
Elliot: So, back in Al Quds again. We have spent the last week at the thirteenth Youth Festival in the village of Farkha, which does indeed translate as "Little Chicken." It is a mountain-top village in the Salfit region of the West Bank just South of the peninsula of Israeli settlements known as the "Ariel finger," which gloved in the wall, jabs into Palestinian territory by 25km. Apologies to our legion fans for a week without updates- we had no chance to use the internet in Farkha, which houses only just over 1,500 people. Six hundred metres above sea-level, the surrounding slopes are covered in stepped olive groves for miles. In a month they will be harvested, eventually to produce 100 tons of olive oil.
Somewhat ironically, just as we were spending our time in these tranquil environs, my local paper published a headline stating "Local Man caught up in warzone." Obviously I was alarmed to discover I was said man, and came close to fleeing the hair-raising painting, gardening and folk dancing. Fortunately for all you thrill-junkies, I remained in-situ so that I could bring you the scoop.
To be fair to the
Little Chicken
The village of Farkha would have been quite quiet but for the industrial sound system employed for the festivaql. The beautiful mosque is incomplete as funds ran out. Probably to small to see, the Palestinan and Lebanese flags flew side-by-side throughout above the camp. publication (I'm refraining from naming it in the rather irrational fear that the goons at Israeli intelligence are hellbent on discovering my true identity), having just watched a BBC World bulletin, from the perspective of Britain, there isn't really much to suggest anyone here is just going about their lives in peace, but such was the case in Farkha.
The festival was about volunteers coming from all Palestine to do some works to improve life in the village. It was not perfect, but it was very far from the deaths rocking Lebanon, Gaza and Israel.
Jemima: Elliot has left to me the finer detail of the festival, probably because he knows I need a good ole rant. But before I get my aggressive feminist cap on, I'll try and do justice to the really positive things about the week just gone.
Every morning all the volunteers - probably between 50 and 80 each day - spent nominally four hours working on various projects to improve the village and its facilities. We ourselves, after the first day working to neaten up the garden of a school, spent the rest of the week painting the other school in the
Traditional Palestinian bagpipes...?
They were played a lot more jauntily than their Northern ancestors- to dance to more than to march. I can only speculate that herein may lie the most enduring achievement of the British Mandate in Palestine! village. This in itself was rather satisfying - we could actually see for ourselves day by day the difference we were making. And it might not have been huge - slightly nicer looking walls - but it was something.
The rest of the day was mainly leisure time, although some days did include 'workshops' or speakers. They might have been quite interesting could we understand Arabic, but as it was we frequently spent the time surreptitiously buried in a book (btw really enjoying Cecilia! Thanx ma!). There were sometimes people to translate for us, but as it is a very difficult thing, translating the last sentence into english while still listening to what's being said right now, we were often left feeling like we weren't quite getting the full story as it was in Arabic.
For me anyway, the best thing to happen all week was a Dubka festival on friday, our second to last day. Dubka is the traditional Palestinian folk dance, and pretty much all Palestinian males can show it off to foreigners such to ourselves a little bit, but this was proper, trained troupes, all in glorious costume, and some with their own musicians. Although
Dubka!
Friday afternoon saw a competition in this traditional Palestinian dance, which involves fast rhythmic stamping. Kind of like Riverdance, but more masculine. There were some very exciting costumes too. Jemima and I both attempted this too. three and a half hours is a LOT of dancing, it was really fun to see. There were even a couple of mixed dancing groups, and one (the best if you ask me) was all female - more on their reception later.
The other notable great thing about the week was the presence of Elliot's old pal Ghali, who was amazingly good to us - for example, going to great trouble to find somewhere for us to stay together instead of consigning us to the VERY seperate men and women's quarters (we're married here - it makes it much easier for me to get rid of unwanted male attention if I can introduce my husband, although it does have its drawbacks, of which again more later). So for me getting to meet him was another big bonus during the week.
And there were some other lovely people there, including Noor, a Palestinian girl who lives in Jordan but was born and went to uni in the UK. She accompanied us here to Jerusalem, and me and her went shopping in the old city yesterday, which was great fun.
But anyway, I think it might be rant time.
Our kroo
Jema with some of our fellow vounteers, including Ziyad, the silver fox, at the bottom. Because nowhere else has the difference in the way the genders are treated been made more apparent to me than during this festival. To begin with, virtually everyone there was male. There were around a half dozen female Palestinian volunteers, compared to the 50 to 80 male, plus me, Noor, and for some of the time a couple of other international women. We were told on the first day that this was the first year they had allowed women volunteers to participate in the festival - the director (who I found to be one of the most sexist men there) made it very clear in his opening speech that they felt they were taking a risk in allowing women at all, and it was up to the female volunteers to prove themselves by behaving appropriately. To be fair, I have to say that this was translated, so I may have been reading into it, but I felt that the emphasis was very clearly on the women to be good around the men, and not the other way around.
So with such an overwhelming male majority, it was inevitable that the whole event was (to me) one big mess of
Us with more volunteers
Along with the Palestinans there is a Portuguese communist called Paulo on the right, two women from France and Italy, and two random Brits. People got a bit overemotional on the last day, wot. testosterone. As such, Elliot was welcomed; as his wife, a lot of the time I was ignored. Literally, people would walk past me, looking straight through me to say hi to Elliot, shake his hand and ask how he was. This was of course not true of everyone - one of the guys I liked the most was Ziyad (pictured), our supervisor at the school we were painting, who addressed us completely equally, and was quite happy to speak to me before Elliot if I walked in first. But he was an exception.
Some of the single women I think fared better than me in this respect, as they had no male to speak for them, and so the guys were forced to talk to them themselves - also of course they were of greater interest than old wives like myself!
Asides from my own personal frustration at the way I was treated, it was sometimes very wearing just being in such a macho atmosphere - lots of shouting, showing off, etc. The most annoying example of this was during the performances of the afore mentioned female dance group, who danced twice, once at the Dubka festival and
Wedding
Finally I got to go to a wedding! The men's party involves yet more Dubka it a slightly more unpredictable style. Meantimes the Imam conducts a "Zajam"- kind of a rap on the merits of the happy couple and the guests. I would like to see English vicars do the same! once the next night, at the closing ceremony of the whole camp. They were amazingly beautiful to watch, but both times their performance was ruined for me by the behaviour of their male audience, who apparently unable to bear being upstaged by women started whooping and cheering quite unnecessarily, jumping up onto their chairs and making so much noise it was difficult to hear the music, which to me was just unbelievably rude and disrespectful. To be fair I wasn'ty alone, and some of the older supervisors were doing their best to calm the guys down, but with only limited success.
OK, well, rant over. In spite of all that, it was a good week, or at least an interesting one. And it felt like a very positive thing to be doing, in terms of expressing our solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Now we're in Jerusalem, as Elliot said, and then back off to Tulkarm to say our goodbyes, then one more weekend and we're coming home... my how the time does fly!
On the matter of ISM
Elliot: As we've said previously, Jemima and I are not working with the International Solidarity Movement at present. We
Palestinan Communist
This chap from the Palestinan People\s Party addressed the camp, speaking mostly about Lebanon. parted with them despite complete approbation for their principles and actions; we simply decided that we could more effectively show our solidarity in other ways, such as the summer camp in Tulkarem and this more recent one in Farkha.
There were lots of reasons for the decision, but on a personal note I have to say it's emotionally quite different to stand in front of Israeli soldiers of a violent persuasion when you're standing next to the person you love. In previous years, as a free and single agent I have been able to dissociate myself from some of the physical risks, to be free to act without being overpowered by fear. But with Jemima standing next to me I find myself much more alarmed when the sound bombs fly and the clubs are brought to bare. I've seen international activists and Palestinians "pretty messed up" before, but Jemima would be a different matter.
Cheesey, and probably chauvinist, but also undeniable for me. I do not feel poorer for the exchange.
But I digress...
An update on Bil'in: the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the construction of a new colonial settlement on annexed land belonging
Endless olives!
...for miles and miles to the village is is illegal, and has suspended building, for now. This is a pretty stupendous victory for the people of that village, who have been struggling for so long, and a vindication for the non-violent direct action that the ISM and others help to empower. However, I think the legal basis for the ruling was not an ethical determination, but rather an admission that the Israeli construction company had been remiss with their paperwork. Therefore this suggests the crisis is far from over.
The village's weekly protests continue, and we are planning to attend one final demo next Friday before we leave the country. We will of course be careful!
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Wildobaggins from Aber
non-member comment
PHEW!
Well dudes (entirely non gendered title in my use) I am so glad to hear from you- big weight off our consciences! Have been spending this sumemr doing crappy temping jobs all summer and its boring, i've washed out the most minging ovens in the country, served sandwiches, made tea, editted websites, and now i am packeting up pet health products. ERRR. still off to Essex to see where we will be living next year! Hope stays well we will have to meet up for a drink and to toast freedom once you are back. ta ra Wildo