IN STEREO

When we take a decision, we win. Of course, all the lands of Battir are for us – there is no settlement. And the land that is located inside Israel is for us – we can use it. This was our deal, between us and the Israeli government, in ‘49. Three or four months ago, a settlement came to this mountain, where there is a trail. One settler with his family, and he’d built a caravan. Wow, Battir now will have settlers. What did we do? We went to him: “Why are you here?” He said, “This is my land.” Of course, that’s not true. Because the people don’t use this land, the Israeli government takes it – but after that, if the Israeli government doesn’t use it, we can make it come back for us after 15 years. But Israel does what it wants: “This is for us, forever.”

“OK, you said this is your land, yeah?” He said, “Yeah.” “OK, and that land?” He said, “No, not for me.” OK, I want to live here. And this family wants to live here. And this family wants to live here. We leave the village, and we live where he lives. [We] didn’t do anything, just stayed, made a fire, and ate there. “Welcome!” And I told him, “If you don’t have a house, come to my house. For clothes, I’ll give you some. And if I have bread, I’ll give you half. If you have any problem… Come make yourself at home.” And maybe 500 soldiers came to his caravan, to ‘protect’ him from us. The soldiers asked us to go home. We told them, “We don’t want to fight him. We said ‘Welcome’ to him!” After forty hours, “Skrrt!” – they took him and his caravan. – Sultan