WEST BANK: A traditional type of flatbread baked on an open fire remains a Palestinian staple

Record ID: 555463

  • Title: WEST BANK: A traditional type of flatbread baked on an open fire remains a Palestinian staple
  • Date: 27th June 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) A BEDOUIN, BAKES TRADITIONAL BREAD 'SHRAK', FATIMA AL-ABED SAYING; CHILD LOOKING: "This movement helps the bread spread out, it should be thin so it can bake quickly on the fire."
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2007 13:00
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  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZAE1UMQXYYGWG2K8ICQKFDPJ
  • Story Text: Faced with increasing levels of poverty, Palestinians in the West Bank fall back on a traditional way of break-making. The making of the "shrak" flatbread requires little more than flour, water and firewood.
    Fatima al-Abed, a mother of ten children, gathers pieces of firewood and lights them in the yard outside her house in the outskirts of the West Bank town of Jericho.
    The Palestinian Bedouin doesn't have enough money to buy an electric or gas oven, but she still manages to bake her own "shrak" bread using the "saj," a large dome-shaped pan resembling an upside-down chinese wok which is placed over the fire.
    Shrak is eaten throughout the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian communities in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. It is especially suited to the Bedouin nomadic way of life, but is also popular amongst Palestinian rural communities in the occupied territories where poverty is rife.
    "This 'saj' is for poor people of course. Because where ever you go, even if you live under a tree, if you have one with you and have some firewood, and if you carry some flour with you in a container and a bottle of water, then you can bake bread for the children and eat some lunch. Of course it's for poor people," explained al-Abed.
    Shrak is an unleavened thin flatbread made with flour and water. Al-Abed has taught her farmer neighbour Raoofa Sadeq how to make the dough and shape the bread, and Sadeq has embraced the art with enthusiasm, not least because it provides cheap and delicious food.
    "Sometimes, I do not have five shekels (approximately 1.2 US dollars) to buy bread from the bakery, and I find this type more delicious, and I can make many loaves from this amount of dough," Sadeq, a widow and mother of nine, said.
    "This is why God gave us intelligence and hands and good health, in order to bake bread and eat. This is more delicious. If you bake some of this bread and eat it with a little olive oil and herbs with your children sitting around you in the early morning, it's a lot tastier," she added.
    Poverty levels increased with the imposing of a crippling Western aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority which took effect after Hamas came to power in March 2006 because the Islamists refused to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals. Western powers have said they will lift the embargo now that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Hamas government following inter-factional fighting earlier this month.
    The United Nations, citing Palestinian statistics, said in March two thirds of the 4 million people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip live in poverty and nearly half suffer from food insecurity.
    Most people simply tighten their belts until they have run through every "coping mechanism" they can think of, the U.N. said.
    The economic pain gripping the Palestinian territories affects every aspect of life, from salaries to power supplies.
    Al-Abed and Sadeq often meet outside al-Abed's home to make the bread. The dough is divided into small balls, and each ball is flattened into a disk and twirled over the baker's hands until it spreads into a large, thin disk.
    "This movement helps the bread spread out, it should be thin so it can bake quickly on the fire," explains al-Abed.
    The disk is then placed over the hot pan for a minute or so until it browns on one side, then turned over to quickly brown on the other.
    Shrak is most popular in rural areas; In Palestinian cities, the bread is mostly used as a base for the traditional dish "mansaf," where it is covered with spiced rice, cooked meat and yoghurt, or as a casing for "shawarma" grilled meat sandwiches.
    Al-Abed and her neighbours sometimes make a few shekels when they allow some of the few tourists that come through the historical West Bank city to pose alongside the women whilst baking the bread.
    The extra coins come in handy. Aid agency Oxfam warned earlier this month of increasing poverty among Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Battered by spiralling violence, Palestinians are also facing soaring personal debts and three quarters have nothing left to sell to meet personal needs, Oxfam said.
    A report by Amnesty international released earlier this month said the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank has led to a state of affairs where "the Palestinian economy has virtually collapsed under the weight of harsh restrictions by Israel."
    Israel has said the barrier, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice because it runs through occupied territory, has stopped Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching its cities and could be removed under a future peace agreement.
    The barrier, mostly razor wire-tipped fences and shorter sections of concrete walls, already stretches for 220 miles (350 km) and is planned to cover 450 miles (720 km) when finished.
    Amnesty said the barrier created a breeding ground for Palestinian resentment against Israel and, if completed to plan, would encircle 12 West Bank villages and 31,400 people, with more than half a million Palestinians living within a kilometre (half-mile) of it. This will cut them off from places or study, medical treatment and work, further harming the Palestinian economy.
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