IN STEREO

In Area C, of course we have problems with the Israeli occupation. It’s forbidden to construct; it’s forbidden to make water networks. The simplest rights, like you want to make a bathroom, it’s forbidden. I mean, there are rights that a human can’t live without today: water, electricity… Before, they were living in a primitive way, and they were happy. They built small homes with stone, and they made a small well, with the bucket from it, you know? I mean, this was their life. But today, we can’t live this life, because of civilised development. Today there’s a computer; there’s internet; there’s a car. They used to come and go using animals and keep living outdoors until the rain fell. Now [if] something was demolished, it’s forbidden that you redo it.

[Or] there’s a well that doesn’t work. It’s needed to gather water during winter so that they can drink and give water to animals. It’s forbidden to fix them. It’s my land, my homeland, [and] I feel a stranger in it. I mean, all the world’s countries’ occupations went away except for here. Then you’re on the land [and] you find settlers come down, or the army comes and assaults you. They have the right to shoot you; they have the right to hit you; they have the right to arrest you on your land, in your house! If you resist it, they say, “We killed a saboteur; we killed someone who wanted to attack us!” I mean, I didn’t go towards them; it’s them who came here. So however much we try to cohabit with them and give our hand for peace, they don’t want peace. – Basher