Unsettling Settlement (1)

We headed toward Hebron with a planned stop to visit a settlement in Kfar Ezion that had begun as a kibbutz. Our first stop was at the spot known as The Lone Tree--and there was indeed a tree standing and it had a story. The story for this day was the cooperation between the settlers (Myron--in Israel since 1971) and the small group of Palestinians, represented by Yanki, the Mayor of the little village struggling to keep what property they had in the most primitive of conditions. The Palestinian families lived on this land for the last 200+ years. After 1948 they were refugees. Now they have returned and they struggle to re-establish their community. Their school, the only solid building, was threatened with demolition by the Israeli Civil Authority, and down the hill in the farmland we saw a home that was demolished. Ironically, there was some heavy equipment across from the school, but there was no permit to use it. The unfinished minaret sits at the highest spot in the little village. They have no water and no electricity. Myron says he will help the Mayor and his village work on a master plan that he feels will make progress with the Civil Authority--but I am not so sure. Though the Mayor of the village and the settler's representative seemed to get along, we learned that the settlers objected to being disturbed by the call to prayer.

We left the primitive little village and drove across the highway to the settlement where neat little homes, playgrounds for children, and green vegetation stands in stark contrast to the little village that might as well be across the world as across the highway.