‘Ein Samiya, Al Baqa’a‘, Wadi a-Siq, July 19, 2023. Text and photographs: Margaret Olin

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Two days ago occupation forces demolished the school in ‘Ein Samiya.

Ruins of `Ein Samiya, July, 2023

The school was the only building left standing in May when the villagers packed up and fled. In one of our posts, David Shulman related how, after months of terrorism by Jewish settlers, the occupation forces dealt the final blow by handing over a whole flock of sheep to settlers. I had not seen `Ein Samiya, so in July, when I came to Jerusalem, I asked activist Arik Ascherman, director of the NGO Torat Tzedek, to take me there. He readily agreed. Now feels like the right moment to post these pictures.

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Balagan in Twaneh, July 15, 2023. Text and Photographs, Margaret Olin

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I read that modern Hebrew borrowed the word balagan from Russian or Polish. In all three languages, balagan means utter chaos. But chaos came later in the town of Twaneh. This hot day began quietly in Wadi Jhesch, where we were the only disruption. A man who had been asleep in the back of his truck awoke at our approach and chatted with us in his excellent English.

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Al-‘Auja and Za‘atra, July 14, 2023. Text, David Shulman; photographs, Margaret Olin

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Sometimes trying to find Abu Isma‘il in the hills and wadis of Al-‘Auja is, well, like looking for a goat in a desert. The Rashaidi Bedouins of ‘Auja have names for every rocky hill and wadi, names that no one else knows, that appear on no map; and Abu Isma‘il usually has trouble telling me on the phone where he is with his flock. Finally, not long after dawn, we climb a few hills until we sight him, with his red keffiyeh, surrounded by sheep, sheep dogs, and one very young donkey.       

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A Brief Conversation in Gawawis, July 8, 2023: Text and Photographs, Margaret Olin

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If someone is going to warn you to stay away from your own land, is it better to hear it spoken fluently in your native language? So it appeared in Gawawis last Saturday, at least for a moment.*

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May 27, 2023.   ‘Ein Samiya. Text and Photographs, David Shulman

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‘Ein Samiya seen from above in July, 2020. Photograph: Jacob Magid

The village of ‘Ein Samiya is no more.

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May 19, 2023.  ‘Auja. Text by David Shulman

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Photograph: Margaret Olin, 2022

Dawn. Several children still asleep in their blankets, on the ground outside the house. Good desert smells. The older girls are beginning their chores: water has to be brought from the tanker; milk is being churned, or perhaps pasteurized, in what could be a repurposed washing-machine. There is a new baby, two months old, sleeping in her crib. Ghazal, maybe a year and a half old, holds a glass of tea in her hand while her eyes, obsidian black, study Yigal and me with unwavering interest. Then a smile.  Nadia asks if we’ve been well. Yigal answers with the blessing: “‘aishin min shafek,” “We come alive when we see you.”

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April 22, 2023. Week 16 of the anti-government, anti-coup demonstrations. Text by David Shulman

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Jerusalem, March 23, “democracy.”

So far, there is no doubt that we are winning. We will stop the thugs and killers of this so-called government in their tracks.

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Muarrajat. April 7, 2023, text and photos by David Shulman

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One momentous event took place during today’s grazing. I’ll tell you in a minute.

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Update: The Sumarin Family

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Good news is especially precious in a period of dense darkness and stark human evil like the one we are experiencing now in Israel. The Sumarin family in Silwan, in East Jerusalem, has won the right to live in their own home.

Photograph: David Shulman, 2020
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March 3, 2023. Hawara. Text: David Shulman; Photographs: Dood Evan

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Ephraim Moses Lilien, For the Martyrs of the Pogrom of Kishinev, 1903

April 6-8, 1903 (Julian calendar), Kishinev, Bessarabia: A mob, led partly by Orthodox Russian priests, descends upon the town, killing 49 Jews, wounding scores more, raping many Jewish women, burning down Jewish homes. The local police stand by, watching, making no attempt to stop the massacre. Some of the Jewish men fight back with the meager tools in their possession. Children see their parents murdered before their eyes. Shock waves engulf the Jewish communities of eastern Europe and beyond. In response, many Jewish young men join the anti-Czarist revolutionaries; others leave for Palestine to build a new life for the Jews. Bialik, the national Hebrew poet, writes an epic poem on the massacre.

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