South Hebron Hills, Thu 3.1.13, Morning
Purpose of the shift: Activity #4 for this year in the Hashem el-Daraj preschool, together with Huda.
Topic of activity: My house
When we arrived, the children were already seated in a semi-circle, either on chairs or on the floor mat, listening to Huda read a story. During the workshop conducted with Huda and the preschool teachers from Um el-Khir, Souha suggested that the classroom space be divided into areas dedicated to specific topics, such as reading, artwork, etc. The children would begin and end their day at the preschool sitting in a semi-circle around Huda as she did today.
The activity began with Huda reading “Yael’s House” – in Arabic it is called “Miis House”. The plot of the story was changed somewhat (for example, there are no “kibbutz members”). The children were enthralled! Afterwards, as a result of preparations at our previous meeting, children were chosen to act out the story. Although Huda gave some direction, the ‘actors’ really entered into the spirit of the story. In the future, we should consider bringing some costumes for the children to use as they act out stories.
After the play ended, Amna, Huda’s assistant, took the younger children to the other classroom. The older children sat around the tables. The activity included making houses and background by pasting geometrical forms onto construction paper. Huda had cut out the forms prior to the activity. Some of the children worked beautifully, with much enthusiasm. Some are still somewhat apathetic and needed to be prodded and helped. After the children finished pasting the forms, they decorated the pictures using colored pencils and markers. We then hung (stuck) the pictures on the wall designated as the artwork area (we hope that next time we will be able to organize a way to hang the pictures there more simply and effectively). The children seemed very pleased and proud with their artwork. Some of them called us or pulled us over to admire their work.
Pictures of the activity (Judy – Gan Huda art activity January3rd, 2013
https://picasaweb.google.com/113044451662544057850?authkey=Gv1sRgCNS_j8qy0sCOGA
“Staff” meeting: We discussed the activity as we drank tea and ate cookies that we had brought. We encouraged Huda to involve the childrens' mothers in problems arising at the preschool — as for instance, how to hang the heating elements [provided by Hamed] on the walls of the classrooms. It seems to us that it is not our responsibility to solve these types of problems. We discussed the next activity – teaching children’s songs in Arabic and the music activity after the winter break.
We left feeling pleased with the successful activity.
South Hebron Hills
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South Hebron Hills
South Hebron Hills is a large area in the West Bank's southern part.
Yatta is a major city in this area: right in the border zone between the fertile region of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants.
The surrounding villages are called Masafer Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.Since the beginning of the 1980s, many settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with withholding water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.
There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Roadblocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.
Updated April 2022
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