Nabi Ilyas
Everyone’s very happy. Nabi Ilyas’s teachers and cute children are moving to the school on the main street. We all think it’s wonderful. Finally, we’ll have blackboards and desks.
The three of us enjoyed Friday’s lesson. Marci has been preparing very creative teaching materials. The children like her and her methods; she always has fantastic ideas for Jenny and me. Jenny’s very satisfied, and so are her pupils. They’re learning to identify and name animals, and have started singing “Old Macdonald.” The girls in my class are able to sing three songs rhythmically and with feeling. They read and discussed “Sinbad” while eating chocolate balls and different color candies.
A-Nabi Elias
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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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