Khawla patted on a white sheep came with others to eat the parley she provided for them everyday, hoping that these sheep will increase very soon and enable Khawla and her women partners trade in their dairy and cheese products.

Khawla Mohammad (34 years) is one of 15 women from Beit Sira village located at 33 km west of Ramallah. Two months ago, these women, with support from the Palestinian Working Society for Development (PWWSD) embarked on establishing a cooperative society for sheep husbandry so as to generate incomes for their families.

By Luisa Morgantini*

Published in Italian Newspaper 'Liberazione' 18th April 2008

The last time that Widad hugged her son was eight years ago, in a prison in Ashkelon, Israel: for many years since she wasn’t allowed to see him, as the Israeli Authorities repeatedly denied her the permit for "security reasons".

Widad Naief Mohammad Atabeh lives in Nablus, is 78 years old, suffers from hypertension, diabetes and her sight has strongly worsen since the last time she saw Saed: « He hugged me and said that in that moment he was born again to life. Those minutes for us were the most precious, but the moment we had to depart from each other was the hardest and most disappointing». This is what she writes today in an appeal to all mothers in the world, in an effort to put pressure on the Israeli Authorities to allow her to see Saed for the last time making her dream come true.

Saed Wajih Saed Atabeh, arrested in July 29th 1977, is 52 years old and spent 32 years of his life in a prison cell.

“Will return again and again”, Ma’zoza Samarah said to the Israeli soldier who was guarding the Separation Wall that separated the village houses from the village lands. Ma’zoza is a 44-year-old woman and one of five Palestinian women from Bili’n village west of Ramallah who visited their lands located at the other side of the Wall.

The Wall, which Israel embarked on its construction in 2002, isolates approximately two-thirds of Bili’n lands (approximately 500 dunums) from the rest of the village in which agriculture is the main source of living.