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Our relationship exposes my partner, Osama, to the seam areas of the West Bank, where Israeli settlers encroach on Palestinian towns. Before we got together, most of Osama\u2019s encounters with Israelis were with soldiers at checkpoints and detention centers. He usually stayed in the bubble of the Ramallah area, which Israeli settlers and even soldiers rarely enter during the day. But I like going on family hikes in the West Bank, and the nicest places are also popular with Israeli settlers.<\/p>\n
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On the last day of the second coronavirus lockdown in Israel, I persuaded Osama to go for a hike in the Auja wadi or stream, in the Jordan Valley, near the Palestinian village of Auja. Most of the other deep natural pools in the West Bank are near settlements, and settlers have taken them over<\/a>, meaning they arrived at the pools with guns or under the guard of Israeli soldiers, thus deterring Palestinians from bathing there.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cAre you sure it\u2019s safe?\u201d Osama asked, after I started the car and pulled out of our street, with six year-old Forat and three year-old Adam in the backseat.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in my car<\/a>, an Israeli car, so they won\u2019t stop us,\u201d I said, because police officers tend to stop Palestinian cars on the roads used by both settlers and Palestinians. \u201cAnd today is Saturday \u2013 most settlers don\u2019t drive on the Sabbath.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we went to Wadi Qelt, also on a Saturday, we saw two groups of armed settlers,\u201d Osama reminded me.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be OK,\u201d I said. \u201cIsrael is still under lockdown, and the restrictions are supposed to apply to settlers in the West Bank, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cBut if Israelis are not allowed to leave their homes, what does that mean for you?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat I\u2019m not supposed to travel further than a kilometer from my registered address in Holon,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if they stop us?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll do the talking, and I\u2019ll be your obedient and silent wife,\u201d I said. And then I realized \u2013 we would be more persuasive if the obedient wife didn\u2019t sit in the driver\u2019s seat. \u201cActually, on second thought \u2013 we should take your car,\u201d I said. I made a U-turn. \u201cSorry sweethearts, we have to go home and take Baba\u2019s car,\u201d I told Forat and Adam.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhy, Ima?\u201d Forat asked.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Osama and I looked at each other. I started to laugh. \u201cDo you want to explain it to her?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We drove toward Jerusalem, along the Separation Wall. As we approached the vicinity of the Qalandia checkpoint \u2013 where traffic from three urban centers is funneled into a single, crowded traffic lane \u2013 we slowed. Osama fought with drivers who tried to cut him off and even drive in the direction of oncoming traffic. We continued driving along the wall, making a wide detour around the city of Jerusalem, which was on the other side of the wall, to reach the road to the Jordan Valley. We slowed at a mobile checkpoint and saw two police officers questioning a young Palestinian driver on the side of the road. Osama\u2019s body tensed.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did you have to insist we hike in this area?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We continued on the Jordan Valley road. The Palestinian villages were either not marked at all or marked with red signs warning Israelis not to enter them. At the point where villages met the main road, there were yellow gates that allowed the Israeli military to close off access. Hebrew-language road signs prominently marked the names of settlements and nature sites. The signs for cities such as Beit Shean \u2013 \u201cBisan\u201d in Arabic \u2013 were in Arabic, too, but listed the Hebrew names in transliteration, written in Arabic letters.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We reached the parking lot that leads to the Auja spring. I heard Hebrew. A group of hikers got out of their car, including two women in skimpy sleeveless tops not often worn<\/a> in Palestinian villages. The Palestinian hikers and the vendor selling hot corn in cups fell into silence until the group left the parking lot for the trail.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cAt least they\u2019re not carrying guns,\u201d I said to Osama, and I tickled his armpit to make him laugh. He pushed away my fingers and did not laugh.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not openly carrying guns,\u201d he corrected me.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n I ran with the children up the trail. Osama walked behind us, disappointed by the piles of garbage that other hikers had thrown along the banks of the stream.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cPalestine is beautiful,\u201d he muttered under his breath.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n The water was cold and clear, despite the food wrappers floating in it. I encouraged Osama to relax on the banks and took the children to look for the spring at the stream\u2019s source. I showed Forat the trail markings of the Israeli Society for the Preservation of Nature: a red line inside a white border, painted on the rocks. Like most of the Jordan Valley, Auja Stream is in Area C, under full Israeli administration. The Israeli settlement of Yitav is nearby, as is the Bedouin high school<\/a> that is under threat of demolition, as part of an Israeli policy to prevent Palestinian construction<\/a> in the Jordan Valley and ultimately \u2013 to annex it.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We passed a 50-something Palestinian hiker who had stopped to rest on a rock. He heard me speaking to the children in Hebrew. \u201cHow are you?\u201d he asked me in Hebrew, and I said, \u201cOK\u201d, also in Hebrew.\u00a0<\/p>\n But when he addressed Adam in Hebrew I responded in Arabic: \u201cThe boy speaks Arabic, too,\u201d I said, \u201cHe\u2019s half Palestinian.\u201d I\u2019m not sure what he understood from that or what I was trying to tell him. It\u2019s rare for the children and me to be in an area with both Palestinians and Israelis. It\u2019s rare, because there aren\u2019t many places where the groups have contact with each other. Those places are usually disputed areas, where your identity determines which side you take.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We reached the source of the stream that fed into a large, clean, and beautiful pool. We saw two groups of hikers, a Palestinian group of three men and an Israeli group of three men and one woman. All of them turned to look at us, trying to classify the children and me. I wore a t-shirt, crop pants and no head covering. The children ran to the water\u2019s edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIma!\u201d Forat called in Hebrew. \u201cTake me to the waterfall!\u201d The two groups averted their gaze from us, as if they had gotten an answer to their question. But then Osama arrived, and Forat ran up to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBaba!\u201d she yelled in Arabic. \u201cThere are fish here!\u201d All seven hikers turned their heads and stared at us again.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go for a swim and confuse them,\u201d I said to Osama. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful and clean here.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cYes, but there\u2019s no shade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cActually, there\u2019s shade over there,\u201d I said. \u201cBut guess who took it over \u2026\u201d I pointed to the group of Israelis. They had tied a hammock to the branches of the only tree around. They sat in a circle in the small pool at the source of the stream, like in a natural Jacuzzi, and sipped from beer bottles. Someone \u2013 not them \u2013 had painted blue and white Israeli flags on the rocks next to them, and someone else had partially covered the flags in black spray paint.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n I searched Osama\u2019s face and was relieved when he smiled.<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u201cYes, your people indeed know how to create facts on the ground,\u201d he said, and splashed water on me.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This post was also published on haaretz.com on November 12, 2020:<\/i><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/searching-for-a-safe-place-in-the-west-bank-for-a-family-hike-1.9303475?fbclid=IwAR2eCguC0ZRt0nRUU6raIp8IQqHxgLcfsO-6_ma57ytsro-RrMfC44bX3kw<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most deep natural pools in the West Bank are near settlements, and settlers have taken them over, by arriving there with guns or Israeli soldiers. Our relationship exposes my partner, Osama, to the seam areas of the West Bank, where Israeli settlers encroach on Palestinian towns. Before we got together, most of Osama\u2019s encounters with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_crdt_document":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitting-in","category-military-force"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/qalandia-october-2020--1024x768.jpg\")
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