Rewriting the Story of the Palestinian Radical
entertainment
Tucked in the hills surrounding the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, is a small spring that has been fashioned into a swimming pool. The spring is bordered by large stones; around it, large canopies shade picnic benches. When I visited the area, in November, 2019, the late-afternoon heat had driven many children into the water, their parents looking on. My guide, a representative from the Israeli human-rights organization BâTselem, pointed out a hulking man, in a lime-green shirt, carrying what looked to be a semiautomatic rifle. It was then that I noticed a dirt road leading from the pool toward a village, whose rooftops I could only just make out. For decades, the spring had provided water to the Palestinians living there, but Israeli settlers had cut the pipe and turned the spring into a recreational site. Palestinians were banned from entering. The pool was technically unauthorized by the Israeli government, but it had been marked with a white plaque, in Hebrew, that was placed on a rock nearby.
The New Yorker
Apr 14, 2021
