Violence and the Land

Yesterday I went to see my friend's family in a village I haven't been to in a year maybe. I know the way well. A few summers ago I went there often. Driving around the West Bank is really quite horrifying because not only do you see manifest racism and apartheid as you drive on the settler roads only to be forced off of them to potholed dirt roads where Palestinians drive but you feel the anger that such racism and apartheid create. Sadly this is nothing new nor even shocking anymore. What so disturbed me yesterday was that in getting to this village we were blocked at multiple turns. Roads that were used just yesterday were now inaccessible after the Israeli military pushed heaps of trash, dirt and rocks into the path.




Turn around and try another route. We literally went in a wide circle around the village to the north then the west before circling back to the east. It was the same leaving: a huge circuit around that was utterly unnecessary. Solely frustrating. And for what? How can you learn the land when such violence is imposed on it, daily violence against land. How can you live when you don't know which way to go? The path to your house is new today, and again tomorrow. The path you walked as a child and are forbidden now from using with its destroyed trees and broken soil. They are destroying the land.

And when we left, a military jeep had blocked a road and stopped us. In Hebrew and Arabic he gruffly demanded my id then said to wait. In a line of cars, more time, more gas, more humanity stolen.