Our meeting with Nadwa begins with a drive to Ras al-Amood, a suburb of Jerusalem high in the northern hills from where you can look across to the glittering dome of Al-Aqsa mosque crowning the Old City, and down into the wadi that separates these hills. Here stands the tile-factory that Nadwa inherited it from her father in 1994, and that she now runs. We spend time looking around the area which is being gradually taken over by settlers, powerfully backed by the Australian magnate Moscowitz. Last summer a nearby house was taken over by force. The authorities stepped in and 'settled' the problem by installing Yeshiva students. Nadwa's factory is surrounded by land that the settlers are claiming. Recently they threatened to close the only entry to the factory.

There's a police station within sight just down the road. Nadwa says they have never intervened to prevent settler harassment, which has occasionally exceeded intrusion and verbal threats. Recently she has taken to sleeping in the factory to prevent a settler take over during the night. This takes exceptional

courage since most settlers are armed.

The machinery of the tile-factory is so noisy that we can't record here, return to the city to seek a quieter spot.

Nadwa Sarandar speaks (in English):
"My father set up a tile factor in early 1950 in Ras al-Amood, and he worked until 1994 when he passed away. I took over the factory not realizing that I'm going to be facing a lot of problems due to the settlers' presence soon after. On the same lot that he rented from a friend of his there was a garage and a bus company parking lot. In 1977, no just before that, when I asked the Municipality for a license, they told me that I have to re-apply for the license and they'll give it to me. I discovered later on that they wanted to give me only a license for five years. The law [says], if you inherit a place, an old place, and you have a license long before 1967, we were supposed to get a life license not a 5-year one. So the Municipality is taking us to court for that. Soon after that we were faced with another problem, the settlers came and took over the land next to the factory....They started harassing us..."