Nabi Ilyas
Nabi Ilyas
About 20 children of various ages arrived for the activity.
At 10:00 the girls were already seated in Brenda’s classroom, ready to learn. A lively, cheerful lesson, but serious, took place. It’s easy to see the pupils and teacher are enjoying one another very much.
Adam worked in the next room with a group of boys of various ages. What they had in common was that none knew how to read English, and Adam began by “warming them up” for a more structured lesson next time. An older youth has joined the younger boys; he doesn’t know how to read or write English either. When he left the class he was beaming; he said it was excellent.
Marcy worked with the boys in the basement auditorium. Not all of them arrived this time, some had gone with their parents to the games fair in Qalqilya. Marcy, as usual, prepares her lesson carefully, filled with wonderful educational games. Most of the boys are interested in the class and enjoy it, but the two overactive boys also came again whose charm and enthusiasm is very disruptive to the lesson. The club’s assistant director had promised to join the boys’ class and help but she was busy with other matters, which made it very hard to conduct the lesson as planned.
We’ll have to arrange with someone from the village to be present, like we do elsewhere.
When class ended Brenda went to visit S., the student who ordinarily helps with the lesson, who broke her leg a few days ago and couldn’t come to class.
At 11:45 we left for Tel Aviv.
A-Nabi Elias
See all reports for this place-
A-Nabi Elias this is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, east of Qalqilia on Road 55, north-east of Alfei Menashe colony and west of Karnei Shomron colony and the Palestinian city of Nablus. As of 2016, the village was populated by 1,458 inhabitants.
Near the village is a maqam (holy site memorializing a sanctified person) - the prophet Elisha. Until 2021 Road 55 crossed the village. Then a bypass road was paved through olive groves that were sequestered from the villagers. Consequently, the farmers were left with small olive groves that they could not access nor cultivate. Inhabitants protested against the road for weeks, supported by peace activists, but nothing helped and the road is now a given fact.
The village's main street had been a shopping center for all residents, including colonists. We even saw a Kashrut (kosher food) inspector in a butcher shop close to the falafel stand… The bypass road, according to tradesmen, has impacted their businesses and clients, while others claim that there are customers now for parking has become easier.
Alfei Menashe and Tzofim colonies nibble at the village lands from the north and south and get closer to it all the time. Colonists of Alfei Menashe have outdone themselves, sending their surplus sewage from the oxygenation pools toward a-Nabi Elias land, even reaching the houses.
The villagers are known as seekers of peace. For years there was no hostility towards Israelis. On the contrary, we were always welcomed warmly and stopped there to enjoy their delicious, inexpensive falafel.
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