Twenty-six young German men and women volunteering for a year in the region, together with 3 staff members, spent a day with Lydia Aisenberg at Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek (photo above) and touring the area of Umm al-Fahm, Mei Ami, Shaked settlements, Katzir and Barta’a.

The German young people are working in institutions caring for mentally and physically impaired youth and adults in Israel and in Christian Palestinian institutions in the West Bank.  Six months in to a one-year program, the group were accompanied by Cologne based director of programs for the German Association of the Holy Lane, Stefanie Langel (back row, far right) who participated in a Givat Haviva program two years ago for the then in the country volunteers and wanted the same format for the present group, one of whom volunteering for the Palestinian peace center known as Tent of the Nations near Bethlehem whilst others living and working in Kfar Tikva (the Village of Hope) in Tivon a short drive from Mishmar HaEmek.

Stefanie and the group were also accompanied by Michael van Ley from Germany who has been based in Jerusalem for a number of years and Fr. Ludger Bornemann (bottom row, third from right) of the ‘Pilgerhaus Tabgha’ by the Sea of Galilee.

“The German Association in the Holy Land is part of the Civil Peace Service (CPS), advising and coordinating professionals working in various institutions and NGOs in Palestine and Israel.  As such, I have the assignment of qualifying the accompaniment of the Association’s volunteers as to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” explained Michael (sitting on the left hand side in the photo above).

Whilst touring the Shaked settlement block and visiting the Shaked-Tura village checkpoint, one of the soldiers readily agreed to speak with the group.  The young man, whose parents made aliya (emigrated) from Brazil in the 1970’s told the group that he and his family lived at Mei Ami – a Jewish community sitting on the Green Line they had passed on the way to the northern section of the West Bank where the settlements are situated, a journey of just a few minutes.

“It is very hard to be so close to home and not be able to go and sleep in my bed or eat a meal with my parents,” the young soldier said.  His time was divided patrolling the Shaked-Tura area and also in the region of Tulkarem deeper in the West Bank.  “We are here to protect the State of Israel from terrorism,” he stated before getting back into a rather large and ominous looking armored car being driven by a young Israeli female soldier whose long locks of hair poked through the thick helmet on her head.

 

The German young folks listen to IDF soldier at the Shaked checkpoint

 

A few minutes later the young people had the opportunity to also speak with a local Palestinian Hussein Bassam Jameil Mahajneh, a 25 year-old from a small village near the Shaked settlement.  Hussein spoke about the difficulties the checkpoint presented for the local Palestinians.  Employed in Ramallah, Hussein lives in that city and returns home to visit his family every few weeks.

“We are living under very difficult conditions in my village,” he said, pointing to a group of four or five houses along the roadside and across the way from a large army base, tanks parked in the forecourt.  “We have electricity only between the hours of five in the afternoon until ten in the evening, the rest of the time everything works on a generator.  Why don’t we have electricity all the time?” he asks and then answers his own question.

“Because they say we do not have a plan for infrastructure because we are not ‘on the map’ as far as land ownership is concerned.” 

The Mahajneh’s are a large clan in the nearby Israeli Arab Muslim city of Umm al-Fahm but Hussein explains that his small part of the family left Umm al-Fahm in 1948 and settled in the area where four Jewish settlements were founded in the early 1980s and the army base built in recent years.

 

 

Boarding the rather colorful bus from the Dier Hanna Transport Company and right: taking photos from a Barta’a rooftop

 

From the Shaked checkpoint the group continued on their way with Lydia to the village of Barta’a and other points of interest in the Wadi Ara region before returning to their lodgings at the Tabgha hostel near the Sea of Galilee.

A few days later Jerusalem based Michael van Ley emailed to say that the seminar had been an invaluable experience and emphasized the importance of the encounters en route with the soldier and Palestinians crossing through the checkpoint facilitated by the accompanying Givat Haviva guide, Lydia.