‘See How We Live’- a day during the winter catastrophe of ‘08, Jordan Valley

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I arrived at the Health Work Commitees clinic in Tubas. I immediately saw that my friend Nujude was not happy. She told me that Israeli soldiers had come to her town-Kabatiya last night and killed a 22 year old man. I had visited there just a week before. Apparently he was from a village close by and he was from Islamic Jihad. I asked had he done something wrong? She replied no, but he is from Islamic jihad. It made me wonder how Israeli soldiers could know about this man, find him in another town at 2am and shoot him. I’m beginning to suspect spies working with Israelis are everywhere.We got on the road to Tayasir checkpoint. The 3 doctors and 3 nurses are quiet and stare out the window at the beautiful rocky hills, the occasional group of tents and sheep herders. I asked ‘so you did not sleep much last night?’ referring to the soldiers. ‘No it was so cold. Were you cold?’ ‘It was OK’ I said. It seems it was not the dead man on people’s minds but the tragedy of the cold weather. We reached Tayasir checkpoint, where we waited for about 15 minutes before being hurried through by bored-looking soldiers. As soon as we reached the plain that is the Jordan valley, the devastation was clear. As far as you can see there are fields and fields of dead vegetables. It is difficult to tell which are Israeli and which Palestinian. The combination of lack of rain and cloud cover means the vegetables freeze at night and are covered by frost and then the sun scorches them in the day. As far as you can see: brown crispy leaves, droopy stems and piles of dead matter. Only the trees have survived. We arrived at the clinic, quickly set up then hurried back outside where it was warmer. Nujude asked me if I wanted to see how people live here in Ein Bader a small Palestinian village surrounded by settlements. ‘Of course’ I said. We walked maybe 20 metres to a fenced off area. This land is Israeli she said pointing to an orchard of pomelo trees. ‘Israeli?’ I said ‘but it’s in Ein Bader.’ She said that yes, the Israelis have taken the land. ‘But Palestinians work on the land?’ ‘Yes, this family who lives here’- she pointed at some tents. ‘They were from Tubas, but they come here to work for the Israelis. Come and see how they live.’ We walk a bit further and we come across about 10 white boxes, resting on car tyres, bees swarming around them. ‘Bees’ she said. ‘Israeli?’ I ask, ‘No they belong to this family.’ They are right next to the orchard, ‘this is very confusing. What belongs to who?’ She leads me into their Bedouin-style tent. I am amazed at how resourcefully they have made it- supported by metal bars, bits of wood, plastic sacks and carpets draped over the ad-hoc frame. ‘They live in the tents because they are poor?’ I asked. She replied ‘maybe they are not so poor but they cannot build here, because the Israelis will never let them. Many people live like this.’ Children come to stare at us. I notice one boy about 5 years old has huge dirty weepy scabs on his face. ‘From the bees?’ I ask pointing. ‘Yes. Maybe,’ was Nujude’s unconcerned reply. Nujude says something to another boy and he runs into the trees, returning laden with fruit. ‘For you’ she says. ‘Don’t they want any money?’ I ask. Too many poor people have given me things and it makes me feel terrible. ‘No. This is from the Israelis,’ she said with a twinkle in her eye. We head back to the clinic, a couple of women are waiting for us. I recognise one of the women from last week. Instead of being heavily pregnant though, she is carrying what I assume is a baby wrapped in many blankets. ‘Welcome. I say warmly. I remember you from last week. How was the birth?’ ‘Good’ she said shyly. Nujude talks her through some post-natal concerns. She told me that she had the baby the night that we saw her, but because George Bush visited Ramallah, the checkpoint to Nablus hospital was closed. She had to get a taxi to Jericho hospital. It was so cold and they had no heaters there, so when the baby came it was blue! It turns out this was not even her main concern. Half of her family work on the Israeli settlements, and now the crops are all dead there is no work for them. The other half of the family work their land, and all of their plants are dead too. ‘Will the Palestinian Authority help them?’ I asked Nujude. ‘Maybe yes. Maybe no. It is not just this woman who is in this position. Everyone is affected. Even I heard that one man, when he saw his crops, had a heart attack.’ I was mortified. The well dressed, well-fed Doctor added, peeling an orange, ‘yes, even I am affected. Now the price of vegetables will go up and up.’ She asked what I thought of the people who live in the tents, but then said ‘I have never seen inside a tent. I think they live like, how do you say, before history, the first people.’ I said ‘yes but the difference is they were not surrounded by Israeli settlements. The first people all lived the same. Not that some people had a good life and many luxuries while some had none.’ She laughed. ‘Yes maybe.’ I thought, maybe she does not think about how most of her own people live, while she has a good salary, good house, western ways. The woman took her baby into another room. I asked if I could go and see what happened. They shrugged. I followed them through the door which, I noticed, had a sign with the Palestinian Authority symbol on it. There, another nurse weighed the baby, did a blood test, etc. This is typical, I thought, two different health-care providers in the same building with absolutely no communication between the 2, all with separate paper-work, weighing machines, etc. A few patients later, we go back outside into the sun. Nujude points at what I assume are weeds growing in clumps around the place, ‘you know what this is?’ ‘No’ I say. ‘This is khobeisi.’ I am amazed. I have had this dish a few times before, fried with onion and lemon, it’s delicious. ‘It’s good for anaemia,’ I say, ‘how can it grow everywhere and still most women are anaemic?’ ‘I know she said. I tell the women every day they should eat this, but because it just grows on the side of the road maybe they don’t believe me.’ We pick a lot to take home. On the way home, the driver has an intense conversation with the doctor. I ask what has been said. The doctor says ‘He is from the PFLP. He is aggressive.’ The driver asks me what is best PFLP, Hamas or Fatah. I reply that it is not for me to say. The doctor says that the people who voted for Hamas were not cultured and did not think about it very hard, so maybe they are not ready for democracy.’ The driver laughed and then said ‘she is saying this because she is Fatah!’ He then made a comment about another nurse, saying she is an extremist because she is Hamas. The Doctor said ‘don’t worry. This is a joke.’ I said ‘I think it is not so important who is Fatah, Hamas, PFLP. When the Palestinians are divided like this they cannot tackle the big problem-Israel. It is important everyone is together.’ People nodded, then stared out of the window at a group of Israeli soldiers doing military exercises in the background of the rocky landscape. This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Tubas Region - Workers, Tubas Region - Health, Jordan Valley, 2008.