The "Via Dolorasa" of the soap 

The "Via Dolorosa" of Sindyanna's Olive Oil Soap: From Nablus to Majd al-Krum in Galilee

M.T. is a third-generation soap manufacturer from Nablus. While Israeli tanks roamed around the city this spring, he was confined to his home for three weeks.

Whenever the curfew was lifted, M.T. rushed to his family's small soap factory, which is located on the outskirts of Nablus. To his dismay he saw that his factory too had received a "military" treatment: Israeli soldiers had broken open the iron doors, turned over the boxes and barrels, spilled liquids on the floor and taken the hard disk of his computer. They had damaged the machines and urinated all over the place. Barrels of olive oil had been squashed under tanks. The damage amounts to at least $10,000, but no one will compensate him.

There is also accumulated damage. Since 1967, the little factory has produced soap mainly for the Israeli market. For long months, however, Majtaba has not been able to market his products. Israeli merchants do not enter Nablus, and like most Palestinians, he is not allowed to enter Israel.

The last delivery of olive oil soap was made to Sindyanna of Galilee by "underground" methods, while Nablus remained under curfew:

1. Whenever there was a pause in the fighting, olive oil was smuggled to M.T. through the hills from surrounding villages.

2. The soap was produced, cut, and put into cartons.

3. Then he had to wait until the area was quiet. On the day set for delivering the soap to Sindyanna's warehouse in Galilee, there was a suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva. Nablus was put under strict curfew. The truck driver had to transport the soap to the nearby village of Deir A-Sharaf. In normal times, the trip would have taken ten minutes. It took four hours. To avoid roadblocks, the driver had to wend his way through the hills over dirt roads. Because of all the bumping, 2000 bars of soap (out of 24,000) were squashed. At the village, another truck from East Jerusalem (with a license to enter Israel) was waiting for the soap. Because the Nablus driver only reached the place at dusk, the licensed truck had to postpone the trip until the next morning.

On May 29, the soap reached our warehouse in Majd al-Krum. There the women of the village will scrape it, wrap it, and send it on its way to friends of Palestine around the world.