IN STEREO

We took a decision to fight the Israeli government with ideas – not with stones, not with people helping us from [overseas]. We used Israeli people who protect the nature in Israel; we went to an Israeli judge. We used a singer: she’s Jewish, from Israel. We asked her to come to Battir. And after that, we went to the Israeli judge: “Look, she is famous, and she’s come to Battir without any security. Why do you want to build a wall here?” And the judge said, “Yeah, we’ll study it and we’ll speak again after three months.” [The next time], we told him there are foxes in Battir that come to drink where the spring is, then they go back inside Israel. “When you build a wall, maybe you’ll kill these foxes.” And the judge said, “These people are thinking about animals. From my heart, I cannot build a wall [there]. Again, I want to study if we should build a wall here or not.”

After that, we asked the lawyer to say to them: “You want to build a big wall, and this is expensive! You’ll spend millions of dollars. You can put a big camera here on the mountain. It’s just $2000. You can see everything to secure your area. Why do you want to spend millions when you can put up a camera? I give you a guarantee: I won’t judge you if you see my private life. You want to see my wife’s bikini? No problem.” And the Israeli judge said to the military, “Yeah, why would we spend money? We can put up a camera and secure the area.” In this time, another team stayed in my house [and] made a study of Battir, and we made Battir a World Heritage site. [So] when we went to the Israeli judge, now it’s a historic place, under the protection of UNESCO. He said, “OK, there is no wall.” – Sultan