Alli in Palestine: Part I: Tent of Nations

Hi everyone! I have been falling behind on my entries because so much has happened and uploading pictures takes forever (but I know that they are worth it)- so I am devoting today to working on this post, which details events that happened 2 days ago, and Part II which is about yesterday.

After working at the Wildlife Society all morning, Jiries, Jiries, Maureen and I went on a road trip to the Tent of Nations!

Along the way:

This time we took the Palestinian road, instead of the settler bypass road (which connects the illegal settlements to one another and the Palestinians are not allowed to travel on, even though it is within the West Bank). Note the major difference between the the two roads- Jiries says even The Tank (his car) does not like to travel on the Palestinian one.
Israeli bypass road (protected by the wall, of course)

The Palestinian road

The Palestinian road going underneath the bypass road

A little less intimidating version of the wall curving around a mosque

View of the mountains

Yesterday we visted the Tent of Nations! Again! Except this time Daoud was there; we were greeted by his adorable son, who happily bounced along with us throughout our tour.

The whole place was in the full swing of summer camp, which is 2 weeks long with kids ages 8-15 years old attending from Bethlehem and a few surrounding towns. Daoud said at first they were expecting around 40 kids but on the first day 60 showed up, on the second day there were 71, and on the third there were almost 80. There are volunteers there from all over the world, specifically places like France, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Germany, the United States, Italy, and more.

I spoke with one girl from Sweden and one guy from France about how they became involved with the Tent of Nations, how they are connecting with the Palestinian kids, and what kind of message they are trying to convey to them. Both volunteers became aware of the Tent of Nations through an organization called Civil Service International (CSI), which provides people who are looking to do some volunteer work with recommendations. There were also 2 young adults from Germany there who have opted to do 13 months of work instead of serving in the military. All the volunteers have been stressing different themes each day, such as the childrens' strengths, how to get over their fears, how to have confidence and how to develop cooperation skills. Furthermore, most of the city kids from Bethlehem lack an appreciation for the land and other environmental issues, so the volunteers make sure to tie everything together. They do activities like drawing, painting, storytelling, and skits. Even though the volunteers do not speak Arabic, they are able to communicate with the campers through body langage and some of the older kids who can speak English.
A volunteer with Daoud's son

The volunteers stay in tents next to Daoud's family olive orchards, which are in danger of being taken over by the Israeli settlers who are aggressively expanding their settlements. Right now there are 5 settlements surrounding Daoud's land, one of which is an entirely new outpost that has gone up since the last time I was there just under a month ago:

As many of you already know, there are demolition orders on the structures (tents, compost toilet, small buildings) on Daoud's land. The Israeli military claims that Daoud has built on his land "without a building permit". In 2006 he applied for a builing permit, and it was denied because there is no "zoning plan" in the area. The Israelis have denied his family electricity and running water, so they raised money and installed solar panels on top of the house Daoud's brother Daher lives in. They also developed a small system to gather rain for water.
Solar panels:

To gather rainwater:

Daoud has appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court and the demolition orders have been frozen until August 3rd. By then the Israeli military needs to come up with a legitimate reason for demolishing the Nasser family property. So far, they haven't come up with anything other than the "no zoning plan" excuse, and when Daoud met with Israeli officials he pointed out to them that the settlements are also built on the same land. He asked why they can build but he can't and the official said to him "That is none of your business."
These are new settlement homes that have gone up within the last 3 weeks since I last visited:

Daoud said he has employed a few strategies to protect his land. The first is going the legal way, doing whatever he can in compliance with the Israeli law (i.e. applying for a building permit). The second way is to generate international awareness of his situation based on the Tent of Nation's slogan "We refuse to be enemies". Daoud said it is important to him to view his neighbors as fellow humans, and not as enemies, because if people can connect on the simple basis of humanity then that is when movements towards peace begin to happen. One time when the Tent of Nations was holding a workshop to inform people about the situation, a female settler came. After hearing Daoud talk about the water shortage, she raised her hand and said in a bewildered way, "But how could you have a drinking water shortage, when just over there we have our own swimming pools?" The workshop totally transformed her perspective, and the next day she brought her husband back to hear Daoud's story. Since then they have kept in touch, and Daoud considers it a great accomplishment to have reached out to at least one of the nearby settlers.