Turmus Ayya – a relatively wealthy village, some of whose residents have emigrated to the United States and South America and send money and sometimes their adult children as well, so that they know where they come from and where they are going. The donations have been used to build an impressive, state-of-the-art eye hospital, the only one in the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinians are treated there every day, but dozens of settlements and illegal outposts have been established around the village and from time to time the settlers come down to the village and run riot. About a year ago, we investigated a fire in which several houses and 30 cars were burned. A few weeks later, we met a young man who told us that young people in the village had organized themselves into a civil guard and they were patrolling the village and calling residents to stand up to the Jewish rioters.

Today we went to the hospital with the elderly patient Maryam, who was blind 5 years ago and has regained her sight over the 5 years we have been taking her to the hospital for injections into her eyes. At the hospital, local residents told us that three days ago settlers had appeared accompanied by armed soldiers. The villagers faced them with bare hands (well, maybe with a few sticks and stones) and defeated them. The villains were unable to enter the village and vented their anger by burning a few houses outside the village. Seven Palestinians were injured and hospitalized.

At the hospital itself there were hundreds of people and we had to wait hours to be seen. The doctor who examined her did what he could to save us another journey by conducting a series of tests that aren’t usually done during a single appointment. It turned out that her eyes are in very bad shape. She hadn’t received injections for almost a year and this had seriously damaged her eyes. There is irreversible nerve damage. Over the coming months, she will need to receive injections twice a month. I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage it unless friends can help.

Since the army destroyed the old woman’s son’s tiny tent and expelled him and his wife, Maryam has been almost alone. Her husband, who is also a diabetic, has been hospitalized due to a severe infection in his leg. Maryam herself is unable to walk without help. We asked her how she washes herself. She said that her neighbor Tahrir sends over her 15-year-old daughter to help her. We stopped and bought her five large bags of vegetables when she told us that apart from onions she hadn’t seen a vegetable for ten days.

As we left the hospital, Maryam felt unwell and it looked as if she was going to faint. We had to go back into the hospital and sit her down. She was as white as a sheet. She told us she hadn’t had time to eat breakfast and her blood sugar level had dropped. I ran to the kiosk opposite and brought her orange juice and after about ten minutes she recovered.