By Miriam Alexander | Resource Development & Operations Director
On July 1st, twelve participants from the US, Italy, Australia, and the Netherlands joined Achvat Amim for a 5-week intensive program. Three days a week they unpacked themes such as Zionism and Diasporism, toured the South Hebron Hills with Breaking the Silence, learned about the depopulation of Lifta with Zochrot, spoke with Shaul Maggid about the rise of Kahanism, looked at how militarism pervades Israeli society, and much more. They reflected on what it means to live in relation to violence — and what does refusal, solidarity, or transformation look like from within it?
We spent two days a week in Masafer Yatta working on summer projects with our partners. Our participants led a summer camp in Umm al-Khair each Wednesday and Thursday morning (before the heat got too intense), leading games, music, arts and crafts, and English lessons. The kids proudly showed off their new knowledge of body parts, animals, and fruits and vegetables before the next class. In the evenings we worked on a plot of land in Tuwani where the Israeli government destroyed a shelter housing farming materials and sheep and goats. In its place the land has been used as a farming plot, home to eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, and za'atar.
With rising settler attacks all over the West Bank and further encroachment into Umm al-Khair in a resident's backyard, right next to the community center, we need more folks on the ground now more than ever. We are grateful to our Achvat community for allowing us to continue to show folks the injustices in this land and channel more solidarity activists into the movement to dismantle the systems of power that harm us all.
By Miriam Alexander | Resource Development & Operations Director
By Becca Strober | Director
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