53 Days After Deadly October 7 AttackIsrael announced the deaths of a civilian previously thought to be a hostage and three soldiers whose bodies were taken to Gaza 2023Four Israelis were identified as victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Tuesday – a civilian who had been previously thought to be a hostage and three soldiers whose bodies were taken to Gaza From Lehavim to Masada via South Hebron Hills tent dwellers God-fearing settlers and a Russian minimarket Someone very special is waiting for me this morning outside the train station of Lehavim, north of Be’er Sheva. It is Tine Fetz, the German artist who got into the legal trouble with me on the September Journey, and then illustrated those events that we were not able to photograph Tine is back in the country and ready to get in trouble again She picked quite a day to join me: this is to be the final one along the Green Line and having spent yesterday on the Israeli side I now prepare to cross the fence and explore the South Hebron Hills Those in activist circles know the weight of this geographical designation I have never been on a tour here with Breaking the Silence despite its reputation as being their most disturbing tour It is so much easier to walk through this country unaware of its cruelty that this is naturally what most people choose to do Getting out of Lehavim is tough We are trying to catch a lift towards the fence in the midst of the northern Negev’s hot We decide to advance on foot to the next intersection Tine tells me of the first incident in which she was made to feel uncomfortable as a German A stranger who spoke to her in Jerusalem the other day simply turned his back on her and walked away when she mentioned her origin we pass a sign that reads: “Forest of the German States.” It surprises us so much that we fail to note the absence of an actual forest anywhere near it It was sent by my friend and fellow theater critic Sivan “Is that you walking outside Lehavim?” he asks It turns out that Sivan just passed us in a car but it was too full to pick us up: full of activists headed for some kind of trouble in the region of Susya Tine and I are doing our best to clarify that we are no activists a long black skirt that makes her look like a right “hilltop girl.” Following our lift to the checkpoint The car that picks us up has a ribbon hanging from its rearview mirror holding a copy of the popular “prayer for the traveler.” The ribbon is orange the color of the struggle against Sharon’s 2005 disengagement plan which has symbolized support for the settlements ever since Neither the driver nor his friend is bearded or even sports a kippa but to the best of my knowledge there was nothing orange around Ezra’s house or in his parents’ car The bus stops tell us that Kahane (reactionary and racist former MK Rabbi Meir Kahane) was right Posters remind that God promised us this “ENTIRE COUNTRY!” such as this one outside the settlement of Susya have gone from trilingual to bilingual by popular demand Susya (or Suseya though Google disagrees) was the destination of Sivan’s party We give him a call and he tells us that he’s in some archeological site and will soon come and pick us up Meanwhile Tine creates her first drawing of the day of the human rights organization “B’Tselem.” They turn onto a narrow road that bypasses the settlement and continues north and soon we learn to our amazement that the quiet hills were misleading The big city of Yatta is in fact walking distance away which makes up some 17 percent of the West Bank which makes up over 72 percent of the territory and where Palestinian construction is prohibited by Israel but Palestinian peasants who left their villages in the 19th century to dwell within the land itself when the settlements first appeared in this region Settlers have been known to brutalize their property and the army sealed several caves with concrete Every effort was made to “sterilize” the land south of Yatta Families living in Susya have been particularly unlucky since the site of their village has been identified as that of an ancient Jewish city and a spectacualr synagogue was excavated within the ruin that served as its mosque All families were evicted and the site became a tourist attraction where people have dwelled in the caves since – well resettled the Bedouins in a town built especially for that purpose All the the cave dwellers received was a kick in the butt and their three-decade-old encampment is situated directly across from the archaeological site “We just took two of our hosts down to the site bought them tickets and chaperoned them in,” he says “but we didn’t take the mother along Just don’t let him catch sight of her before you have the tickets in your hands.” I’ve only known Yoav for five minutes and am a bit dumbfounded “Why won’t you come with us?” I ask “The attendant’s already seen me She hasn’t been there in 30 years.” I’m fairly sure Yoav is exaggerating but adventure calls and the sweet woman who takes the back seat is warm and talkative and she waits patiently in the car while I go pay for tickets Just as the excavated walls begin to rise around us hardcore) appears and asks us what our business is around here I respond as would any normal Israeli tourist who accompanies a matron in a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress and a white Hijab to an ancient Jewish city in the South Hebron Hills “The ticket counter was closed,” I say than says: “Just pay me when you get out.” it quickly becomes apparent that she has not been here in a very long time She points out the houses of uncles and cousins steps into the caves and becomes more and more radiant each time she reemerges She stops by the synagogue and tells how Prime Minister Begin arranged for Jews and Muslims to pray there together What sounds like a peaceful idyll was in fact the beginning of the end for her and her family “Where was your house?” I ask her “We’re getting there,” she says Then we come very near it and suddenly 30 years of her age disappear and she begins to run through the wild barley I have never seen a woman her age run like this She stops and spreads her arms in complete bliss The cave which opens at her feet is empty like the others “This is such a happy day for me,” she repeats over and over a holiday.” Then she is ready to go back I have to stay true to my word and make a stop at the ticket counter complete with a map in which Yatta does not appear (a cute David cautiously questions me while counting the change He is not surprised to hear that I am Tel-Avivian but does seem baffled by my friendly and cheerful demeanor After walking alongside Umm Jihad in her moments of sweet nostalgia I would have been friendly towards Pol Pot “What do you do back in Tel Aviv?” David asks and the director is up in the heavens.” we are treated to a delicious meal of chicken maklouba the lunch crowd of a Tel Avivian cafe that got lost in the hills filmmaker Dani (who teamed up with Yoav to make a short documentary about Susya which will be screened at Tel Aviv’s cinematheque this Thursday) but we did not come all this way to see them The sabbath is at hand and soon the settlers will be indoors The first thing I notice here is an exchange rack where people bring their old clothes and books for others to pick at for free The second thing I notice is a man watering a lovely flowerbed Tine and I ask him if he will fill up our bottles with his hose since the day is hot and we are on a journey “We’re all on a journey,” says the talented gardener I’m thinking back to David’s theater comment “How come everyone is so philosophical around here?” I ask You know that philosophy means ‘love of wisdom.’ What is the Torah if not love of wisdom?” “The Torah is not love of wisdom,” he decrees and the word of God stands even if it defies wisdom If God should say: left is right and right is left and not only does he pour us water and invite us to rest on a pink sofa in his yard he even goes into the house and brings us a taste of what his wife cooked for the sabbath: ktzitzot (fried meat patties) and rice We’re still stuffed from all the meat and rice at the tent but Sarah’s food is great and nothing is left on the plates There’s a certain magic to being hosted by Abraham and Sarah just as the angels were in the book of Genesis We moved from a literal tent to an allegorical one and I am thinking of a word of good news to give her Would she be happy that her neighbor had just had an uplifting experience among the ruins the concepts of uprooting and return run in our blood Eventually Sarah emerges and the two tell us the family’s story “secular and leftist.” They first moved to a kibbutz in the region and the couple fell in love with the people living there “At first I also thought – urgh “I thought that all they do is steal money from the State that they should return to ‘Israel.’ Then I came to think: Here is one place where no one wants to steal from you and I said to myself: I want to be like these people.” “Does the status of the land bother you at all?” I ask “This place is just like Tel Aviv or Ramle The same things that happen here happened there we must stay focused on the fact God promised this country to us or else we will be eternally confused.” Sara now brings out an album and we look at some of Abraham’s older artwork including an enormous installation once erected at the Herzliya museum in which the statue of a man seems to escape those of winged beasts but Abraham corrects her: “These aren’t monsters It’s time to exchange warm goodbyes and leave. As we cross the fence at Yatir, I bid it farewell for this journey. I will continue to read about it in Haggai Matar’s priceless series and into a true wilderness where we must find a place to pass the night and buy groceries at a Russian mini-market (I love those) who tells us his tale of a painful divorce and years in prison like old Susya (I highly doubt the suicide story and where the faithful used to see before them only the word of God as they percieved it Our strange mountains provide no view to the distance What choice have we but to give up on them and hope that the lowest point on earth somehow will For more of The Round Trip busking and writing for Israeli and international media among them critically acclaimed novels “I’ll meet you Halfway” and “The Tel-Avivian Comedy.” He is the author of seven online travelogues in English He serves as expert on the Holy Land for National Geographic Expeditions Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7 Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives Can we count on your support +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening Site developed by     Copyright © Yedioth Internet 2024Get email notification for articles from Kim Legziel FollowMay 25 Highway 31 was the nightmare of the eastern Negev virtually the only one providing access to the city of Arad and the locales surrounding the Dead Sea had no lighting or separation barrier between its two lanes Flanked by rough dirt trails leading to unrecognized Bedouin villages the highway had claimed dozens of lives since its construction in 1963 Traveling on it "was like Russian roulette," says former Arad Mayor Nissim Ben Hamo 19 years old from Lehavim who was kidnapped from his base have received notification that he was murdered in Hamas captivity his parents found a video clip on social media showing Ron in civilian clothing Scherman gave interviews to Spanish media outlets and asked football star Lionel Messi to raise awareness of his kidnapped son He also spoke to Argentina's president Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Demonstrations against the Prawer-Begin Plan continue on a second ‘Day of Rage’ with hundreds demonstrating in the Negev Omar Naammeh stood alone about 50 feet back from the concentration of approximately 700 protestors on a dusty elevation overlooking Lehavim Junction “The people here began to recognize they will lose their homeland,” said Naammeh explaining what he believes has motived a growing number of Bedouin citizens of Israel to demonstrate against the Prawer-Begin Plan The proposed policy would see tens of thousands of Bedouin living in Negev villages unrecognized by the State of Israel forcibly relocated into planned communities Click here for +972′s full coverage of the Prawer Plan Demonstrators at the August 1 rally, one of a few that took place across Israel and the West Bank, and the second “Day of Rage” demonstration in the last few weeks who stood off with demonstrators after some knocked over and pulled aside barricades pushing forward toward the line of police that blocked protestors from nearing the highway One organizer Hind Salman, from Laqia, said activists made the decision not to push forward and attempt to block the road, as had been done at a demonstration two weeks ago in Sakhnin and on August 1 in the northern village of Arara said he was at the July 15 demonstration in Beer Sheeva but expected more people to attend demonstrations on August 1 “The last two weeks more people have been talking about Prawer,” including Knesset members Wearing a Palestinian flag as a Superman cape said some of the younger protestors attend just to take a photo and say they were there said many of the young people at the demonstration likely did not understand the implications of the Prawer Plan ‘What is the Prawer Plan?’ They don’t know,” she said Bedouin young people are beginning to understand how the plan could affect them said the younger generation of Bedouin traditionally has not participated in protests the prospects of displacement have made them more politically involved He said his community has held regular protests on Fridays “This [demonstrations] will continue until the Prawer Plan will disappear,” Naammeh said Can we count on your support ? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us. The Hollywood star then cut ties with the charity, citing “a fundamental difference of opinion”. Oxfam opposes all trade from Israeli settlements, saying they are illegal and deny Palestinian rights. “SodaStream’s announcement … shows that the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is increasingly capable of holding corporate criminals to account for their participation in Israeli apartheid and colonialism,” said Rafeef Ziadah, a spokesperson. “[The] BDS campaign pressure has forced retailers across Europe and North America to drop SodaStream, and the company’s share price has tumbled in recent months as our movement has caused increasing reputational damage to the SodaStream brand.” The following footnote was appended to this article on 31 October 2014: to clarify, Rahat is an existing town whose population was recorded as over 53,000 in 2010. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Chief executive vows to challenge ‘immoral’ government decision amid BDS tensions I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Nabil Bisharat began working at the fizzy-drinks machine manufacturer SodaStream six years ago. It was, the 42-year-old recalled, a rare place of peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. Mr Bisharat, a father-of-seven, worked his way up from assembly worker to shift manager to line manager and, three years ago, to manager of the head-valves department. Together with 73 other Palestinian workers at the Israeli firm, he has now been denied government permission to keep working in Israel, sending them from a position of financial stability to uncertainty in the depressed economy of the West Bank. “It’s a shock,” Mr Bisharat told The Independent over coffee at a cafe in al-Bireh, close to his home in the village of Jaba. “Until the last moment I didn’t believe they would fire us.” He had 53 people working under him at SodaStream, about half of them Israeli Jews. Now he may have to go back to working as a baker. “It’s like a big family, with a lot of friendships, said Mr Bisharat. “I’m not a politician, I’m a simple man but that’s the reality. Both Arabs and Jews reached the point of not rejecting the other and wanting to live in the same land in peace. They share our celebrations, our sorrows, everything. When someone feels sorry we share it; it’s sharing feelings, not only work.” His colleagues organised goodbye breakfasts and lunches for the departing Palestinians and a colleague treated a group of them to a day out at the marina in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. On Monday, before the Palestinians got on the bus back to the West Bank for the last time, hundreds of workers formed a huge peace sign outside the plant. Asked why the permits were denied, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office replied that “the policy of the government is to give priority to the employment of Israeli workers”. But with plans already approved by Israel’s security cabinet to give work permits to an additional 30,000 Palestinians from the West Bank in addition to the 58,000 who already have them and an estimated 30,000 who work illegally, it is puzzling to many that the 74 could not be accommodated. The SodaStream chief executive, Daniel Birnbaum, says the rationale for denying permits are “excuses”. “It’s ridiculous,” he said. “There is no way 74 people will change anything in the dynamics of the Israeli economy.” The SodaStream workers are, he said, victims of Israel’s attempt to discredit the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for boycotts against Israel over its occupation of the West Bank. In late 2014 SodaStream closed its plant at the West Bank settlement industrial zone of Mishor Adumim and moved to its current facility at Lehavim in southern Israel following a BDS campaign that included targeting Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson who advertised SodaStream products. More than 500 Palestinian workers – mostly people ineligible for permits to enter Israel – lost their jobs, while 74 workers were given temporary permits and moved with the company to Lehavim. The Israeli government makes its case against boycotts by stressing that those who pay the price for plant closures are the Palestinian workers who lose their jobs. “Apparently my 74 employees are being sacrificed to make a claim that BDS is hurting the Palestinians,” Mr Birnbaum said. “But I don’t believe in human sacrifice. I will not allow this immoral act to go unchallenged. You don’t throw people into the street to make a political point.” He still hopes that the government will reverse its decision but says that in any case, he will “figure something out” to provide work for the 74 Palestinians within the West Bank. Mr Bisharat said his SodaStream salary was enough to support his family, build a house and buy two pieces of land. His 16-year-old son is studying carpentry and he had hoped to build a factory for him. “I thought my entire career would be with SodaStream. It was my plan to stay for another 10 years. I could have got more promotions.” Of the 74 individuals laid off last week most are managers, shift managers and line managers, Mr Bisharat said. “It’s difficult for them to start as simple workers again. It’s very difficult.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies