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New
interview series: Conversations along the
Wall near Rachel’s Tomb
By
Nina Koevoets
Shibly owns a souvenir
shop with his brother at the end of the
former main street in Bethlehem now a few
meters from the Wall.
They started to build the
Wall in 2002 during the 2nd
intifada. First there was a fence and than
they came with these big concrete blocks.
The wall was built within 3 days! In the
beginning there was a lot of fighting in the
streets, there were clashes between the army
and the people. When they start building the
Wall it was declared a military zone;
Palestinians could not go there and see what
was going on. You know that Sharon was even
against the plan at first? Because the Wall
puts limit to the Israeli state. But finally
he agreed.
As you can see the Wall
is only about 5 meters from our shop and we
have to look at it all day now. It affects
your emotional well-being, your economic
situation; everything! This was the main
street of Bethlehem, where all the tourists
and people from the village crossed. It was
a very lively area, although that’s hard to
imagine now. It was the centre of all
economic life of Bethlehem. Now it’s a dead
area and people rarely come here; they take
another street. So we don’t sell as much as
we did before. Sometimes there is a group of
tourists, if we have a special deal with the
tour guide, but it’s not very often. We do
some special services, like bringing large
quantities directly to people’s homes.
The Wall, in addition,
stops us from going outside of the West
Bank. The checkpoints stop us from
travelling within the West Bank. I have been
in America and I felt so free; you can drive
for hours and hours without any one telling
you to stop. People just let each other live
their lives. I was in America with my music
band. This band helps me to enjoy life; I
love music and it is nice to travel. I would
like to live in America… It is such a free
country; you can do anything you want and no
one is looking at you, everyone just minds
his own business.
We cannot do much to
change the situation we are in; the
governments take decisions, not the normal
people. You can go every day to demonstrate
against the Wall, but no one will listen to
you, nothing will happen. People were
demonstrating a lot against the Wall and
sometimes they still do, but the government
of Israel just ignores these people and the
international community is not doing
anything either. Maybe you can try to
persuade your government, because if Europe
would pressure Israel, it can help. But will
I see the Wall fall? Maybe my grandchildren.
Right now it does not seem as if Israel is
trying to change anything; on the contrary
they are building more and more. But of
course I still have hope. Without hope you
cannot live! I hope that the times will get
better. Maybe there won’t be a solution or
an end to the occupation, but maybe it will
be better than it is now.
We must help each other.
That was very important In my family. My
brother and I for example: we always try to
help each other and that is how we can
survive.
Interview conducted in
May 2008
The interview was conducted in June 200888
Nina Koevoets (24) lived in the West Bank
for 3 months doing volunteering work for a
non-violence organization in East Jerusalem
and conducting interviews for AEI-Open
Windows on the impact of the Separation Wall
on people’s lives in Bethlehem. The personal
stories reflect different thoughts, hopes,
despair and ways of coping. |
