Pediatric Wheel Chair

peace for Yanoun

window
The window is wide open, it's summer. Behind me, the students are loud and boisterous. It is the last day of vacation, but from Jerusalem, a group of musical instruments, toys and good cheer come. They play with the children and playing with enthusiasm.
The window is wide open. We are in school. On the opposite slope no laying flocks are seen, as before on summer days. In general, no one is there on the hillside, not now and not other times. It is the safety zone of a non stated limit. Up on the crest of the hill are some houses and barns. There is a large chicken farm, and perhaps other agriculture. But no one knows here in the village. No one was ever up there. While it is all the land of the farmers down here in the village, but they may not set foot in this country. Above, the "Mustauteneen," a word that fear and terror on the faces of the children are causing. Jewish settlers who have taken this country, do not have the right, but protected by the army be. And that they are entitled to. The Palestinian farmers have no right, at least none that could prevail in practice. They have lost their land. They have lost their cattle in large part because they have no more pasture and the fields towards the Jordan Valley is no longer where they were grown in the winter feed for cattle and sheep and horses. They have lost their freedom of movement and have to drive long detours, where they have run previously over the hills. And they should be expelled.

The window is wide open. Empty is the slope in the summer heat. And there were days and weeks, in which, the school was empty. The windows were farmers, as they leave their village had left open. That was in October 2002. The teacher had his adopted children. The families had fled. The pressure from the Jewish settlers had become unbearable. Day and night the settlers came to the village, masked, with dogs, sometimes on horses. They had overthrown the water tanks of the farmers. They had destroyed the generator. They had bathed in the well shaft their dogs. They came with guns and had fired. There had been a dead man, Hani Maniyeh Ben, aged 24 years. One day, the settlers had made clear: "We do want to see the next Sabbath is no longer here. Leave the village, goes to Aqraba. And for the first time in 1947 and 1967 had shown Israel's settlement policy and her face cleared a Palestinian village completely.
(read at: Living with Settlers, interviews with Yanoun Villagers, by Thomas Mandal) was empty

the school building. The village was empty. The windows were wide open, so that the glass was not shattered by rocks - if there was a chance to come back one day ... will

village life

Today, almost 6 years have passed. The villagers have come back, because committed Israelis fought for them and made known the story in newspapers and were heard from the authorities. Because volunteers from Europe and North America have come back with them and since then day and night in the village are present. Since 4 years, the volunteers are from the World Peace Program.

Today we are playing, while the children devotedly, or shy, the youngest on the lap of their fathers, the older cool and distant. All join in, the children of Yanoun, the aid workers from Jerusalem, the giraffe on the wall, which steadfastly desires peace over Yanoun.

All children know us. The days when the kids are running into the house if they have seen strangers in the village are over. Now they know how the settlers and what the volunteers. They greet us warmly, get back to their parents so that we stay there for a coffee. Or type in the ass on which they ride, an extra beat, so he begins this flirtatious patter. A cheeky little guy is always there: Here in Yanoun he calls the volunteers when they go through the village, to: "Mustauteneen"
. The first time he was successful: The volunteers have now taken their mobile phones, selected hectic and held to the ear, have turned around to see where the danger came, and made anxious faces. But now we just laugh and look forward to that one about "Mustauteneen" Jewish settlers, also can laugh.

The giraffe

the troops to Ghassan, who came from Jerusalem, can dance the children sing, and play games to win where the rapids or the clever. But they also give the slow ones a chance. The faces of the children show all the gifts that people need to make the world the home of love and beauty and justice and trust in the neighbors. In the background, the wall is painted, for example, a giraffe (from a Berlin graffiti artists) who announces in a speech bubble for peace Yanoun.

Some fathers sit beside it and are proud when their children make a point. But The fathers also make tea for the adults and even have the whole thing organized. The mothers cook - we learned only later, when the children bring us Msakhkhan, chicken on bread soaked in olive oil. It is a day that is more like the many everyday life, which consists of work, fear and slowly growing confidence, glad. The village celebrates its children. In the evening the big boys play football, against the backdrop of the village, the forbidden wall and the stables of the Jewish settlers.

Perhaps the open window is a good symbol: that the school is open to a future and a hope that these children a life free from occupation and Settlers have no war going on.

Photos:

Spieletag in school

open window overlooking the slope and the settlers
viewers
The giraffe

father and daughter