Today we took a bus trip around Wadi Ara, the region of Israel where Barkai is located. Our guide was Lydia, a feisty British Jew who came to Israel in the 1960s. She's been an educator and journalist for many years now, and works with Givat Haviva.
She explained to us the convoluted border between the state of Israel and the West Bank, which although occupied by the Israeli army and settlers, is somewhat controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The Green Line is an armistice border agreed upon in 1949, but it doesn't denote the complete border with the West Bank; there is actually a "limbo" area between the Green Line and the security fence. It's not part of Israel and it's not part of the West Bank. There are both Jewish and Arab residents in this part.
There is a town called Barta which is literally split in two: half of it lies in Israel (West Barta), and the other half (East Barta) lies in the West Bank. When the first intifada (translated from Arabic as "uprising") happened in 1987, Lydia explained that many Israeli-Arabs were accused of being "traitors" and developed an identity crisis. They have Israeli citizenship, but their people are Palestinian in terms of heritage and culture.
We stopped at a few lookout points where Lydia could show us geographically how close everything is; we could even see the ocean in the distance. We also stopped in a town called Harish, where both Jews and Arabs live. I'll post some photos below.
Note how the words "palestinian authority" are lower case.
Lydia, our feisty guide. She emigrated from England in the 1960s.
A checkpoint for entering and exiting Barta. Contrary to what I previously thought, the checkpoint is not run by the army, but by civilians. It's mainly used by Palestinians living in East Barta (in the West Bank) who have permission to work in West Barta or in other parts of Israel. We were not allowed to take photos outside, but obviously, this one was taken from inside the bus.
My classmate Jacqui (left) and roommate Aly (right).
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