The House On The Hill In Al Khadr

No one likes a sob story. People want to hear good news.

In my trip to the West Bank in the Middle East I was fortunate to visit a family that lived in a place called Al Khadr.  Al Khadr is a small village on the outskirts of Bethlehem.




In the map you can see that yellow road.  I remember walking up to an area in the outskirts of Al Khadr which was set in beautiful rolling hills, with a cool breeze.  Back to that yellow road, on the Al Khadr side there is a huge wall surrounding al Khadr that has been built to keep Palestinians out of Israel.  You can see the wall in the picture below;

In this ideallic setting there is a watchtower with cameras that watch across the Palestinian side of this wall.  As you look at the picture above I am sure that you will agree that it would be a beautiful site if it wasn't for the wall and watch tower.

The land that this is built upon from which I took this photo belongs to a family that has owned this land for generations.  The day before I visited this family they lived in their own home living off the land with a bore whole for a water supply next to it.  There were many children in this family with a new born.

With an hour's notice, that family was told to leave the house as it was going to be knocked down by the Israeli Defence Force to make way for an illegal settlement for Israeli citizens that had just moved into the country.

Please help me to reach my fundraising goal of £1000 For Amos Trust

What was their home became a pile of rubble and that family were displaced despite their land being in their possession for generations.  The Israeli Defence Force even filled in the borehole so as to force the family to move on.

The lad in the photo below showed me around.

The demolished home of this Palestinian family.

The children were forced to live in tents.

The children showed me the coverage of their situation in the local newspaper.

This is the site of their only drinking water source, filled in courtesy of the Israeli Defence Force.

I sat down with the boy in the first picture as he explained in Arabic about what happened to his family.  He didn't even sound angry, he sounded hurt, tired, flat.  His tone of voice (despite my lack of Arabic ability) spoke volumes of the hardship he had experienced.  It took all my effort to not to fall apart weeping for this family.

A year an a bit on from then, I am pleased to say that Amos Trust made a difference to that family by helping to rebuild their home in peaceful protest to the Israeli Defence Force.  It was a huge risk for the volunteers and builders that did the work.  They could have been arrested and worse still , the Israeli Defence Force could have demolished the house again.

In a later blog I will give you an update on how that project went.

For now, please do consider my motivation for jumping out of a plane to support this work and click the banner below to help me to raise £1000 for Amos so that they can help more families to gain justice in the West Bank.

Thanks!