For the last month and a half I have been puzzling over how to discuss Israel’s Unrecognized Villages with you. I cannot help feeling as if I have less than half of the information I am going to need to explain this properly, even in an introductory way. This is what I understand thus far:
In 1948, when Israel became a state, the Bedouin population of the Negev (the southern desert region of Israel where I now live) was about 160,000 people most of whom were semi-nomadic, meaning they lived in traditional and highly agrarian villages and the men moved the flocks of sheep, goats and camels to distant areas for months at a time. Through numerous pieces of history that are not yet clear to me, a vast majority of the Bedouin left the Negev shortly here after and moved to Egypt, Jordan, etc. For the 20,000 remaining Bedouin the Israeli government built 7 cities over the next couple of decades in an attempt to have the Bedouin leave their traditional lands and settle into a more structured, “modern” lifestyle. Israel also forcefully moved a vast majority of their rural populations to a small triangle of land near Be’er Sheva which consists of about 2% of the land their people had inhabited for hundreds of years. Needless to say this did not sit well with the Bedouin Arab-Israelis, especially since this same triangle of land contained several large military testing zones, massive toxic waste dumping sites and huge chemical production plants.
The Bedouin Arab-Israelis have for the last 10-20 years been moving back to the parts of the Negev where their traditional ancestral homes are and building villages that are unrecognized by the Israeli government. There are currently approximately 75,000 Bedouin in the 7 recognized cities and 80,000-90,000 Bedouin living in 45 unrecognized villages. These villages are on land that used to belong to the same families that now live there… but since their land-ownership agreements were all oral, the government has not honored their possession of the land and claims ownership itself. (It should be noted that approximately 95% of all land in Israel is owned by the Israeli government.)
And there in a nutshell is the issue. These unrecognized villages are on not on official maps. They do not have schools, clinics, water or electricity. They have no legal representation in Israel’s government. In the last few years several of them went to the Israeli supreme court and won the right to pursue recognition and those 8 villages have started building schools and clinics, but still do not have water or electricity… and they are still not recognized because the Israeli government wants them to build their village in a certain way… but the villages already exists and the Bedouin don’t want to tear down their homes and rebuild just so they can receive recognition, especially since they believe they should already be recognized. I have had a number of lectures about the Unrecognized Villages and even spent the night in one, but I am still so far from completely understanding all of the nuances.
On a completely different note, yesterday I went to Jerusalem! About 25 of my classmates and I were taken on a tour of the Old City… we saw the Roman ruins in the Jewish quarter, shopped in the Arab quarter, and went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian quarter. It is a privilege to have walked in the streets where King David and Christ walked! We stood on the rooftop of the Old City and learned the geography and history of the four quarters. We did not, however, visit the Armenian quarter because, ever since the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians during WWI, the Armenian Christians have preferred to keep to themselves.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is amazing… such a place of dispute and disquiet in the holiest center of my faith. Tradition says that rock on which Christ’s cross stood, as well as in which Adam’s skull was buried, as well as Christ’s tomb and the final resting place of Christ’s cross were all found in the relatively small space where this church now stands. The church, in particular, is shockingly filled with sense of a conflict. Every block of stone is measured out so that none of 6 or 7 denominations of Christians that claim rights over the church has more space than the others. The outside is unfinished and the inside striking in its lack of unification. The inscriptions turn from Latin to Greek to Armenian to Russian as one moves from room to room.
I will go back soon… perhaps by myself, so I can be there without the social obligations of my new community. It was singularly odd to visit these sites with my
classmates… along with me, those classmates that I know share my faith, seemed more hesitant to leave the room were the Last Supper was supposed to have taken place and the Church… we seemed to wander with more wonder and I sensed a mild disquiet in our hearts as our classmates walked simply with eyes of historical/cultural interest. Perhaps this was only me.I was overwhelmed by the Holy City from the first moment off the bus when one of my classmates quietly pointed out the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane from
where we stood on the Promenade of Jerusalem, a view point from which you can see the Old City and the Mount of Olives adjacent to each other. This promenade is traditionally the location of Jesus’ trial and condemnation. From there I could see the Dome of the Rock shining like a sunrise and yet later in the day, when I stood at the Wailing Wall, so close to the Dome that I couldn’t see it, pressing my prayer into the cracks, I was struck by a sense of sadness. Back on the bus headed home to Be'er Sheva, I read the chapter of C.S. Lewis’ "Mere Christianity" were he writes on pride and cannot help feeling like Jerusalem, the Holy City, is daily torn by the pride of millions of believers from the world over. My classes continue well... I am currently taking Microbiology, Immunology, Biostatistics, Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Histology, International Health & Medicine, Clinical and Global Medicine, Aging Around the World and Hebrew. This past week I had 38 hours of class! I am slowly but surely making a few new friends and have found a really great faith community! I play soccer two to three times a week, run regularly and just this past week started playing tennis and riding my bike. The weather is rapidly cooling and at night it cools off to the mid-70s which is lovely. My apartment is large and has a guest room should you feel the need to avail yourself of it!
With all my love and with the name my classmates call me by:
K
(Nearer the top are several classmates in the market in the Christian quarter, then a picture of the Dome of the Rock, then R and I pressing prayers into the Wailing Wall and finally A and I in front of the Wailing wall with the Dome of the Rock peaking just over the wall. There are no pictures of the Unrecognized Village because we weren't supposed to take any...)
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