November 2012 Visit to Beit Surik

This past week we, Clare and Tahmina, had the opportunity to stay in Beit Surik for a week. 
We are volunteers currently based in Abu Dis with CADFA, nearly 2 months into our 3 month stay here in Palestine.

Whilst in Beit Surik we had the opportunity to visit the two local schools, the local council, the local women's centre and meet some local beekeepers. 

A bit about Beit Surik
Beit Surik is a small town in the North West Jerusalem area. There are about 4,500 residents there. It is completely surrounded by the Separation Wall with just one road coming in and out of the village.

Traditionally people have made their money from agriculture or from working in Jerusalem. The Separation Wall and the settlements which now surround Beit Surik have separated villagers from much of their land. In 1948 Beit Surik had 14000 Dunams of land, today it has access to just half of that. Furthermore, checkpoints, ID requirements and the Wall have prevented the vast majority of residents from being able to work in or even visit Jerusalem. Therefore unemployment is very high in the area. We were given one estimate that it could be as high as 55%.

 One of the three settlements next to Beit Surik. The tall tower is a military tower.

 Some of the goods made by the women at the centre in Beit Surik.

Another settlement which surrounds Beit Surik and has taken the village land

                                           Sunset view of the mosque in Beit Surik

                                   Tahmina on one of the roads in Beit Sourik

                                          A street in Beit Surik


We had a particularly useful and fun time at the UNRWA School for girls (The UN refugee school) in Beit Surik where the local girls attend until they are in grade 9/year 10.
There are around 40 children in every class and compared to British classrooms there are few resources for the teachers to use, so they have a tough job! We got to see English teachers Asma and Fadwa work their teaching magic though!
We also had the opportunity to lead a grade 5 lesson, with Asma translating, where we told the students all about the different aspects to life in London (not just tourist London) and particularly life in Hackney. We showed the students pictures of Victoria Park, Hackney Town Hall as well as pictures of the Pembury Estate.
As the attack on Gaza was sadly going on at the time, we also showed the students pictures of demonstrations in London in solidarity with Palestine.

We hope that a long-term relationship will be forged between the UNRWA school and schools in Hackney. The teachers and the Principle were eager to improve their student's English whilst educating people in Hackney about the Occupation in exchanges between the two places.

 Grade 5 doing English

 Grade 9 doing Food technology

 Girls in the playground

 Talking to a Grade 5 class about London

With Asma and Fadwa, the two English teachers at UNRWA

                                                 The UNRWA school building

We also had the opportunity to meet with local bee keepers which was fascinating since we knew so little about it! Unfortunately, it seems that there will not be any twinning links to bee keepers in East London since the few bee keepers in Beit Surik are farmers who don't use computers or have access to internet, we were told.

Being shown the Wall, the settlements and the military camps which surround Beit Surik

There are three settlements which surround Beit Surik. 

We saw where the Separation Wall cut through the land and cut off farmers from their fields and olive trees.

 With Mandila, who showed us the land and how it has been affected by settlements

 Land which now lies on the other side of the wall. You can see the settler-only road in the middle of the land. There is only one road in and out of Beit Surik so residents cannot use this road.

 Beit Surik is a rural, agricultural community where much food grows.

 The military camp tower looms over the village

 You can see barbed wire fence to the right. This is where the village land has been cut off. This barbed wire fence is the 'Wall' here- and this means it can be moved to take away even more land if the Israelis decide it.

The military camp which overlooks Beit Surik.


Our Visit
We stayed with a local family who kindly fed us and allowed us to feel completely at home :) We had lots of fun with the children with lived there.
We were also lucky enough to sample some other local hospitality when two lovely grandparents invited us into their house as we just happened to be walking past it. They fed us grapes and sweet tea :)

Mariam and Rafeek- who invited us in for tea, grapes and to meet their grandchildren

                                             With some of the children we lived with.

Meeting with the Council
We asked many questions to the local Council about life in Beit Surik and about twinning.
Like many of the people we had the opportunity to speak to the Council expressed a big hope from twinning being that it will educate people outside of Palestine about the struggle of the local community her and also in wider Palestine. The leader of the Council said that he considers the future for Beit Surik to be much like the future in all parts of Palestine. He wants peace, but Israel are stealing Palestinian land and denying Palestinians their rights. He asked where were the UK, where were the US in all of this? (The recent attack on Gaza shows where the US and UK government are quite clearly).

We felt very fortunate to be invited and so welcomed by many people in the community in Beit Surik.
We found that the main thing local people want out of twinning is increased awareness about the occupation and the living conditions in Palestine.


We also met with the Council in a neighbouring town- Qatanna- where they were also excited about the idea of twinning!