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In Pictures: The Bees of Bil’in

Women’s collective in small Ramallah village view bee farming as a way to learn more about community living.

Bil(***)in has received international media attention amid weekly demonstrations against Israel(***)s separation wall, as life in the small village continues quietly.
By Rich Wiles
Published On 21 Apr 2014

For a Palestinian community of fewer than 2,000 residents, the Ramallah village of Bil’in has received significant international attention over the past decade, with weekly Friday demonstrations against Israel’s separation wall drawing throngs of journalists, photographers and activists.

Receiving much less attention is daily life within the Bil’in community. There, a group of 30 women known as the Bil’in Women’s Cooperative has been farming bees and honey since late 2011. The women say they are learning important lessons about community living from the millions of bees they study daily.

“We learn a lot from the bees,” group member Samaher Abu-Rahma told Al Jazeera. “We learned how to work with them, but we also learned from them. They work together as a community, in uniform and supporting each other. For people, this is a model of living that we can learn from.”

The Bil’in Women’s Cooperative is one of a series of groups established by the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Area C of the West Bank, which makes up more than 60 percent of the territory and is under complete Israeli military control. There have also been workshops on honey production, marketing and women’s rights.

The UAWC provides bee hives and other essential equipment to the community, and as another long summer approaches, the cooperative members are busy preparing for the next honey harvest.

The Bil(***)in Women(***)s Cooperative has been farming bees and honey since October 2011.
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Before beginning work, Nilli Abu-Rahma dresses in full protective clothing, stored outside in barrels and boxes.
The collective(***)s 36 hives are all kept together alongside one house in the village, with each hive housing between 60,000 and 80,000 bees.
Smoking the hives while working with the bees interrupts their defensive responses and reduces the risk of stings.
Toxins from teargas fired by the Israeli military during the weekly demonstrations is carried on the wind and affects the bees adversely, leading to deaths and lower productivity.
"I love working with bees," says Faris Arar, a bee expert with the UAWC. "Even after 12 years of working with bees, I still learn new things everyday."
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After the honey is harvested, it is divided among the cooperative members based on how much work each member has done through the year.
Long grasses are cut away from the front of the hives to enure the bees can move in and out with ease.
The eggs must be examined daily and those containing queen bees must be removed, as a hive can only support one queen.
Dried sugar accumulates on the wooden trays and must be chiseled off before the trays are washed down.
The honey is harvested in June and sold within the community and to people from neighbouring villages at 60-70 shekels per kilo (approximately $17-$20).
"This work helps us to support our families but it is also a social thing; it brings us women together," Samaher Abu-Rahma says.
Asmahan Abu-Rahma enjoys her work, and her children enjoy eating the wax, which even early in the season contains small amounts of honey.