Reflection

At-Tuwani: Clearing the Land

By Jan Benvie

The landscapes of the Southern Hebron Hills remind me of my own Scottish Highlands. They both share the same poignant, barren beauty. Here the ragged, rocky hillsides are more sparsely covered, but both landscapes are littered with the sad ruins of forsaken homes and villages.

The Scottish ruins date from a shameful period of history (over 200 years ago) known as the ‘Highland Clearances’. In the civil wars of 1715 and 1745 the Highlanders supported the defeated Jacobites (those who wanted James Stewart as King) and the victorious government wanted to get rid of these rebellious citizens. Some land was sold in shady deals, some was taken by the government and given to their supporters. Few Highlanders had legal papers proving land ownership, so it was easy for the victors to steal the land ‘legally’. The new ‘owners’ forcibly evicted between 150 and 250 thousand people. Many Highlanders, deprived of their homes and livelihoods, lived and died in broken-hearted poverty in far away towns and foreign lands.