The request I received was simple: to help Charlotte, our friend from an international aid organization, who came to review activities that promote human rights in the Occupied Territories. For some reason, Charlotte was particularly interested in ACRI’s Action-A-Day campaign in the Palestinian village At-tuwani. I explained that this campaign took place 10 months ago, but she wanted to see how the connection to the water and electricity grid affected the residents of the village after a few months. Oh well. The trip would take an entire workday, but the opportunity to meet again with our friends at the village made me very happy.
At the entrance to the village, a USAID truck is bringing in flour, rice, and other staple foods. Saber is standing next to the truck and receives us with a very warm welcome. He still limps slightly because of a car accident, but he is doing much better. We go into his office for an interview.
Saber is recounting a little bit of history: How in the nineties, following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the residents demanded to lead the village council themselves; how they got a generator in 1995, 4 classrooms in 1997, an additional 10 classrooms in 2005, a health clinic in 2004, an office in 2006. All of this through never-ending efforts to face the authorities, struggling for every necessary resource.
Saber continues to tell Charlotte how since 2001 he has been trying to promote the connection of the village to water, and how an electricity network was established in 2009 and was almost up and running when the Israeli Civil Administration confiscated the equipment. Then he tells her about the surprising success of the connection to water and electricity last summer, together with ACRI’s Action-A-Day campaign.
And how have things been since the connection to the water and electricity grid?
Saber, Jumaa, and other village residents all answer in the same manner: this is one of the biggest positive changes in the lives of the local residents. The children are healthier, because the water is clean and there are no more amoebas and stomach problems. For the first time in many years, people can shower every day or two, not once a week. Water is cheaper, alleviating the economic burden. The connection to water still only exists at the entrance to the village, and there is no infrastructure for faucets in the village houses. All the requests to lay the pipes were submitted, and the residents are now waiting for a response from the Israel Antiquities Authority, which must approve the digging in the village grounds. Yes indeed, the Antiquities Authority.
Thanks to the connection to electricity, there are now refrigerators, so there is also cold water, and chicken eggs can now be kept for a few days. And for the first time ever, there is a computer lab in the council house, for the children of the village. At-tuwani is connected to the world.
The At-tuwani Elementary School, 2010
It is incredible how things we take for granted can be so precious: basic infrastructure that can completely change people’s lives. Yet there is one basic infrastructure that is still missing, and is highly needed: planning and building. There hasn’t been any advancement thus far in preparing a fair outline plan for the village, and building anything is still not possible, not even on the private lands of the residents. There are still families that have to live in crowded rooms of 8-9 people, because of the discrimination in planning and building rights.
Another basic right that is missing is the right to personal safety. The settlers from the nearby Maon Farm have increased the number of acts of violence and looting in the past few months, and there is no one there to stop them. A few days before our visit, some of them destroyed the wheat field of one of the elderly resident of At-tuwani. It still amazes me that basic things such as water or an outline plan are available for the residents of the settlement Maon Farm, only hundreds of meters away, but take years of struggle for the Palestinian residents of At-tuwani.
From this comes the choice not to give up, to take action. We may not always succeed as we did in At-tuwani, but the important thing is the choice to promote what should have been taken for granted – such as water, housing, freedom of movement – and to struggle against the common violations and prevention of these basic rights.
The next Action-A-Day campaign will take place in the Jordan Valley and will begin in mid-May. See you all there!
- Ehud Uziel is ACRI’s Campaigner. This post was originally published in Hebrew on the Action-A-Day website.
