Stories from Palestine - Ne'meh and Fedeyieh Shabaneh

A group of Belgian activists and two representatives of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development have visited the house of two old women, Ne'meh and Fedeyieh Shabaneh, whose lives are an ongoing struggle against the Israeli extremist settlers:

Ne'meh and Fedeyieh Shabaneh don't remember exactly when their small house was built, but they are certain it was before any of the near settlements were brought into being. The two women of 64 winters have lived in the house with their brothers and their families for so many years, yet after a new settlement was built on top of the near mountain, and because their nieces and nephews were very young, Ne'meh & Fedeyieh's brothers had to move out to live in the village of Senjel. During the second intifada Ne'meh and Fedeyieh had to bear the aggravated hostility by the angry settlers who wanted them to evacuate the land.

The house is located on top of a slope in the outskirts of Senjel, and on the mouth of a junction which leads to an Israeli settlement nearby. First, it was designed to be a gift shop to attract the tourists who visited the mountains and the olive groves below, and a residence to the Shabaneh family. The shop which was meant to be a source of income to the family contained embroideries, porcelains, traditional cooking and harvest tools, as well as souvenirs inspired from the Palestinian heritage and culture.  However, with the deteriorating political and economic conditions, fewer tourists came, and more settlers attacked. The old ladies manage to buy their food and necessities from Senjel, twice or sometimes three times a week. They keep their front door shut to the outer world unless a familiar voice is heard calling their names from outside. Usually at night, groups of settlers bring their shadows, and begin their vandal ceremony and sabotage. Ne'meh says that whenever they attack they wreck the satellite dish, and cut the TV cables. They wildly stomp with their feet on the roof, that sometimes it feels as if the ceiling is going to fall in any minute. They break the solar bath, and throw stones at the windows. They occasionally write aggressive slogans on the front wall, and continuously rape the olive and almond trees. "Why don't they leave us alone? We've lived here long before they had come and we love this land! We miss our groves!" the old lady weeps. In the land before the house which also belongs to the Shabaneh family, the Israeli government has posted a control tower, and notified the family that they have decided to build a gas station in front of the house. Palestinians are not allowed to build in their lands, and rarely allowed to harvest  their trees, yet gas stations and settlements are freely established whenever the settlers felt like it.

 

Another threat that challenges Ne'meh and her sister is what is known as the "Randoms". These small groups of extremist Jewish settlers, which sometimes consist of one family, arrive in trailers, start with a camp, and shortly after they build a house in any land they choose, always protected by the Israeli Army, and justified by the Israeli Government.

Entering their 64^th winter, the Shabaneh old ladies face the fist of the settlers and the fist of the time wheel. Both continuous and strong, yet their resistance never fades away. "We haven't known any other home, and we won't budge" Ne'meh confirms. Like the patient candle on their table which dissipates the darkness, Ne'meh and her sister try to fight time, to save the house a little longer, and their just cause will always live within the warm walls of their threatened house.