Ezra Nawi. A Baghdadi Jew, born in Israel, fluent in Arabic. A man like and unlike all others.
Ezra Nawi, 1952 – 2021 text: David Shulman, photographs: Margaret Olin
Ta’ayush
November 6, 2020. Harat Makhul. Humsa al-Foqa. Text by David Shulman
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The rains have come in force, the hills are muddy, and there is food for the goats and sheep. Over morning tea in Makhul we get the weekly litany of hurts. Walid—still a boy—was out alone with the herd, and settlers came and beat him. It’s really dangerous to be alone on the hills. A large posse of settlers attacked Qadri and several others; there were two broken legs. A few days earlier, settlers killed Qadri’s uncle’s cow.
Continue readingOctober 21, 2020. Ein Sukut. Text and Images by David Shulman
Wednesday seems to be the day the settler has set aside for harassing Palestinian shepherds. That’s what Ahmad says, and he should know. Last Wednesday, October 14, it ended in murder.
Continue readingHollywood Endings: The Northern and Southern Jordan Valley. Text and photographs: Margaret Olin
Before the fires: Al-‘Auja, July 22, 2017
Fields were burning in the fall of 2017, but in late July the story was different.
Continue readingJune 26 2020. Al-‘Auja. Text by David Shulman, with photographs by Margaret Olin
Four months in quarantine; the virus now raging again in Israel-Palestine; and I’m back where I belong. The hardest part of the lock-down was not seeing our grandchildren face to face; second hardest, not coming to be with the shepherds.
Continue readingJanuary 14, 2020. Al-‘Auja. Text: David Shulman
December 14, 2019. Magha’ir al-‘Abid. Text and (nearly all) photographs by David Shulman
In Memoriam: Neville Symington
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It’s a tiny dot deep in the desert, hidden in a wild sweep of hills and rock and narrow goat-tracks, brown-beige-gold. It’s the end of the world. A rough road takes you there. There’s a bigger village, Isfay, on the ridge above it; they have a health clinic and a wind turbine. Magha’ir al-‘Abid, “Caves of the Slaves,” has a few dozen souls, most of whom live in caves. Each of the caves has a carved stone façade, and inside they’re well appointed, clean, warm on this sunny mid-winter day. Outside you hear wind rippling over sand and the gentle bleating of goats and sheep.
Continue readingNovember 11, 2019: ‘Ein Rashshash. Text by David Shulman.
We are three—Guy, Nina, and me. We reach Rashshash with the dawn. Tea is served. How are things? “Settlers at our throat every day.”
Photograph: David Shulman, 2019
Continue readingBlind justice – and blindness
Al-‘Auja Jordan Valley, April 20, 2018. In the back of the police car, a newly arrested Palestinian shepherd was about to be driven to the police station, blindfolded.
June 21, 2019. Al-‘Auja. Text by David Shulman
“Not long ago the settlers came and shot two of my sheep,” Ahmad says. “If you hadn’t been here today, they might have shot two more. And for sure they would have beaten us as hard as they could.”
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