IN STEREO

The Battir area is unprepared to have tourists and a trail in it. Why? Because it’s a small area with narrow streets, right? I mean, imagine tourism time – which is Friday [and] Saturday. It’s overcrowded to the point that we’re annoyed. The people of the area, I mean. During a period of time, we’re not able to walk in the street. This is the bad thing. Someone who lives here, what will [they] gain, other than noise? Then, the good: it’s good economically for the people of the area. But it’d be better if the area was prepared. I mean, imagine that I know every person in the area, right? I mean, I talk, and they respect and appreciate me. Every person would do me a favour. Now I start to see strange faces. And this happened at the beginning, some problems between them and the [visitors]. I mean, of course: I’ll be sitting at this table alone, and suddenly there are twenty people sharing with me, some I know and some I don’t know.

The first thing they have to know, from [our] people themselves, is that Battir’s people are welcoming, Battir’s people are respectful, and the Palestinians in general are a welcoming people, whoever you are, right? This is a point that everyone should understand. The second thing [is that] we have to show the aspects of beauty of our areas, the beautiful views we have. I’d like to let them know that we made this. I mean, we made efforts for this. We worked for a year; we made it piece by piece. [So] they know our experience. They have the impression abroad that Palestinians bite. I mean, once King Hussein [of Jordan] went to visit a foreign country. At that time, the president’s son circled around the king, looking. He told him, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I want to see his tail!” We want to show people that we’re people, mate. – Fuad