Yoav Shavit:‘ Women of Refaiya’ and the Politics of Water in Palestine
By Yael Heiblum
The three El-Amur girls in Yoav Shavit’ s 2012 short documentary film Women of Refaiya wake up every morning at dawn. They go back and forth between their home and the spring,“ down and up” the hill, to bring 30 buckets of water to their Palestinian village. The walk down the hill takes seven minutes, and the walk uphill— with a full bucket of water on their heads— takes fifteen.
As in many cultures in Africa and India, collecting water in Palestine is specifically women’ s work. This is both out of necessity and out of a tradition that dates back hundreds of years in Palestinian culture where women are the arbiters of water.
Samah, Ayat, and Sumaya El-Amur’ s entire existence has been dictated by water beginning from when they were seven years old. They must do the dishes, feed the cow, heat the water for a shower, and get enough buckets for the day— all before going to school at 7:45 am. The health and wellbeing of their family rest in their hands.
Women of Refaiya does not exoticize or traumatize the story of these girls, but gives a thirteen-minute window into their daily lives. This story, of not only the El-Amur girls’ relationship with water, but countless other Palestinian families, goes widely unheard or is eclipsed by the larger looming Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Palestine, access to clean water is not only a physical struggle, but also a very tangible manifestation of a political and social conflict. Israel controls the main sources of fresh water in Palestine. Any water that does get to the Palestinians through the pipes is mostly unsafe to use and drink due to high levels of pollution.( In 2015, 96 % of the available water in Gaza was unsafe to drink.)
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