Hebron and Hell
Monday, September 17th, 2007I had heard that internationals were needed in the city of Hebron, so I decided to head out there. The journey took me through the town of Bethlehem. Somewhere you may well have heard of. However, it is far from the biblical idea of the place that springs to mind. The Israelis have walled off the town, sealing it off from the surrounding areas. This wall is over 8 metres tall and made of reinforced concrete. It is punctuated by colossal guard towers that would not look out of place in a prison or a concentration camp. (more…)
Watching this school being built has been a fascinating process. The Palestinians decided to use more-or-less traditional building methods: using adobe (mud & straw- the local wattle and daub) bricks for the walls. It’s cheap in materials but hugely labour intensive. Earth and mud are mixed together by treading in the viscous stuff for an hour or so. Straw is then added and mixed in. This mixture is put into a brick mould, which is then removed (like a sandcastle from a bucket) and left for days to dry in the sun. Once the bricks are dry, they are stacked and cemented together with more mud. The process leaves everyone absolutely filthy, the mud sticks to clothes, skin and hair whilst we sweat profusely in the heat.
How can I describe the experience of driving through the incredible countryside of the Jordan valley, only to have to stop the car to let a herd of gazelles pass? This was on the way to the village of Humsa, near Al Hadidya, that had had virtually every building destroyed by the Israelis, leaving them with nothing but a few canvas sheets to protect them from the sun.