Pictures of Abu Dis

This is Abu Dis taken after nightfall. There is quite a lot of variation in living standards here. A lot of building goes on, new blocks of flats, a lot of people seem to work as builders. Some of the houses are quite large. Someone pointed out a spaceous house that belonged to the head of the local council here. If you own a shop or a business or a farm you will be quite well off. Many of the people I have met are university graduates, and have either got a fairly good job (like the man who works for Jawwal mobile company) or have expectations in that direction. When you consider that universities are not free here, this creates a gulf between the people who can and people who can't afford it. My flatmate Sarah told me that when you go to university you get a loan which you have seven years to pay off. You don't get awarded your degree until you have done it. There are lots of poor people. If you don't speak English, your chance of getting a good job is diminished. There is no social security or social safety net as we would know it in the UK, but family life is very strong. People I meet turn out to be cousins of other people I know. There is a tremendous sense of mutual help, people support each other materially and in the things that happen to them. That is the social safety net. That and Islam which is very strong here, creating a sense of social solidarity, and as I have been told a way of asserting their Palestinian identity. Several times a day (the first being well before dawn), the recorded call to prayer sounds out from the mosque near our flat, and this is echoed at different pitches and volumes from the other mosques across the town. The effect is very eiry.

The town is full of internet cafes, pharmacies and mini-markets. Lots of people have mobiles, and dress fashionably in jeans. But there is a general look of delapidation about many of the streets. The roads have got holes in, stones litter the roads, rubbish is not collected and decays in the sun, which produces a very powerful smell in some parts of the town. There are lots of cafes. Most of the women above the age of sixteen wear the hijab - which might be a head-scarf - and occasionally the nikab, full face covering with slits for eyes.