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The dump workers are mainly children under 16. (NY Times Photo) |
CAIRO — Denied access to work in Israel and access to millions donated to the Palestinian Authority, many Palestinians are now eking out a living from the garage of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"Sad to say, but our life is the garbage. Our future is the garbage," Mohammad Al-Ammour, 42, told The New York Times on Sunday, September 2.
He used to work in Israel as a painter, making 35-50 dollars a day.
Like many other Palestinians who found themselves jobless due to Israeli closures, Ammour sought a living from a dump set in the dusty hills in the village of Ad Deirat.
The dump is used both Palestinians and Israeli settlers.
Working with two of his eight children, they bring home around 12 dollars.
"If we don’t work, we can’t live," said Ammour, whose home has two rooms for the family of 10 and no windows, just holes in the walls covered with yellow fabric that does little to block the sun.
"No one from the (Palestinian) Authority comes to check on us; no one really cares," he said.
"The Palestinian nation gets aid and help from abroad, but we never see any."
Rabah Rabai, a 48-year-old who used to work in Israel as a builder making more than 650 dollars a month, comes every morning before dawn with three children from a village eight miles away.
He makes a living from driving an old tractor pulling a small cart full of salvaged garbage.
"It’s our taxi," he said. "It’s our Jaguar."
Settler Garbage
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| The scavengers basically hunt for settler trash in which they can find valuables. (NY Times Photo) |
The dump has become the official workplace of many Palestinian younger than 16.
Most of them walk long miles and sleep in makeshift shacks or blanket tents in the dump, before returning homes for the weekend.
Their hands, arms and legs are scarred from sharp metal and broken glass.
"It’s a very difficult life," said Mohammad Rabai, a 23-year-old municipal bulldozer driver.
He and three relatives also salvage trash, trying to feed a family of 25.
Wearing a salvaged camouflage pants and a dirty baseball cap, Rabai denied being the unacknowledged boss of the dump.
"We try to be friends here; we try to be equals."
The young scavengers search the settler trash for such "valuables" as a piece of metal, a crushed can, a soda bottle or a stinking T-shirt.
They can make about 5 dollars each a day.
Mahmoud Ibrahim, 10, found a pair of angel’s wings, apparently from a costume party or a ballet performance. He wore them upside down.
His brother, Mohammad, 11, happened on a discarded suit, several sizes too large.
Youssef Rabai, 18, found a bright orange ribbon, the symbol of settler opposition to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.
The political implication of the ribbon means absolutely nothing to him.
"I’m a settler here."
The UN warned in a report released on August 30 that unless Israel dismantles its illegal West Bank settlements "the dismal humanitarian outlook" for the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians "will intensify."
The report, by some of the UN's top Middle East experts, said the steady growth of Israeli settlements is undermining the prospects for peace and making a two-state solution "elusive."
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