Home › Site Archive by Date ›

September 2009

My Experience of A Palestinian Wedding

From the moment the first rays of sunshine peeked over the horizon, people were running back and forth, doing lots of stuff that seemed very important. I felt ashamedly unprepared as I saw the number of kids running around in 5 piece suits and brightly coloured dresses. This wasn’t something I’d anticipated and I didn’t feel quite right turning up in the same clothes I’d been wearing for the past week! Luckily, someone lent me a dress and offered to do my hair, and soon enough I was good to go. There is a tradition that the guests should wear all-new clothes, something relished by everyone.

My Experience (as a man) of a Palestinian wedding

On Friday night we had been invited to be guests at the wedding of two sisters who live in the house next to our hosts and naturally we accepted. Having never been to a Palestinian wedding, despite almost having my own during my last trip, I had no idea what to expect or what the occasion would entail.

Al Jiftlik- Al Moussafah

Al moussafah is one of the communities that form the Jordan Valley village of Al jiftlik. It has a population of roughly 1500 people and the families we visited live on a hillside overlooking the entire Jordan Valley, a small community within a community. Behind them are only the rugged mountains, completely uninhabitable, but the view from their homes is that of the sprawling lush green of the valley all the way across to mountains on the far side of the valley.

The Zoba Community

Today we were taken to visit the Zoba community in the Jordan Valley, a family who have suffered immeasurably since the start of the occupation. The community is located on the top of a small hill, at the West entrance of the Jordan Valley, 3 kilometres west of the Al Jiftlik community and a mere 400 metres from Al Hamra checkpoint. It is also very close to the old Jordan River Bridge which connected the occupied West Bank with the kingdom of Jordan. This bridge was closed by the Israelis in the early 1990’s, further isolating the people of the West Bank.

The work of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group

Today we met with a few activists from the Jordan Valley Solidarity project based in Tubas. The group works in conjunction with international solidarity groups such as the Brighton Tubas Friendship and solidarity group as well as with multinational development agencies. It works with displaced and threatened communities within the Jordan valley that are being harassed by the Israeli Occupation Force. They outlined to us the work they have been doing since we last met with them.

Al Mazra’a Al Qibliya

Since 2007 the Brighton Tubas group has been in contact with a village called Al Mazra’a Al Qibliya, near Bir Zeit in the West Bank. After ending up there for a demonstration during one of the delegations the group felt that the village needed continued support despite being outside of our twinning area. The people of Al Mazra’a have been experiencing continuous settler violence and during the last few years the surrounding Israeli settlement Talmon B has confiscated over 2,000 dunums of the village’s land.

Powered by Drupal Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict