Day 1 in my placement of Jayyous (just south of Quaqiliya town) saw gleeful youth and welcoming teas accompanied by horror stories. Farmer X, while waiting on his tractor for the agricultural North Gate #943 to open, raised his eyebrows and pointed his eyes to the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint. Then to me: “Do you have this in your country?” He repeated it again.
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| Agricultural North Gate, Jayyous, West Bank |
My ears rang with his patient annoyance. How could I even begin to explain to him the barbed wire culture which South Africa lived through for decades. I could only smile and nod my understanding towards his own plight.
My team received a call from our local informants that a demonstration was planned in Kafr Qaddum village nearby. Palestinians were marching in peaceful protest against Israeli settler violence. Our vehicle faced a road block by Israeli soldiers. We had to turn back. An ambulance proceeds. From afar, we saw smoke = soldiers had burned olive trees to create a barrier from protesters. Settlers looked on from their homes on top of the hill. But they were safely fenced in as they “illegally” occupied Palestinian lands. Their sewage drained onto Palestinian lands, thereby contaminating water aquifers. Not to mention the building rubble from constructing settlements, dumped onto Palestine farmers’ lands.
Abdul Karim Sadi, an EAPPI informant and head of a progressive Palestinian human rights NGO, B’tselem, hosted us that evening on his hilltop farm retreat. He complained about his eyes and chest still burning from the tear gas he consumed that afternoon at the protest march.
But the day was filled with comradery, jokes, tea and cakes from our Palestinian partners. They knew we internationals were an important presence in the oPT (occupied Palestinian Territory). Somehow, we EAs were realizing this as our partners conveyed horror stories - about the continued Israeli occupation - that punctuated the night.
Day 2. “No pictures, no!” shouted the soldier at agricultural North Gate, after 10 minutes of my taking photos! Donkey carts, trucks, and tractors passed that morning with some children on school holidays, helping in the fields. The gates closed on time after 30 minutes. The soldier swept the gate inside to remove footprints until the gates opened again later in the afternoon.
Suhad of “Medical Relief”, an NGO in Qalqiliya town of 45,000 people, is a mover and shaker. Her boisterous voice conveys stark realities as she mapped out how Bedouin children and women faced intimidation and harassment at gates they needed to pass through to enter Palestinian fields and schools. Qalqiliya rests on the largest water aquifer in Israel which explains why occupying “colonialists”, the Jewish Settlers from many other countries, want to build their communities here. As a result, the bottle of Palestinian land is shrinking as land is grabbed, fences move, newly-built walls are camouflaged by trees, and roads are deterred to give settlers direct access to Israel. Palestinians are left with sewage deposits from settler’s drainage channels
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| Sewage at Palestinian side of Wall from Settlements |
and with the infamous 8 metre high concrete wall, decorated not by trees but with graffiti slogans. This is the ‘green line’ of 1948 which carved out the Palestine borders, but subsequent incursions by Israelis to land grabs, house demolitions, and continual occupation on Palestinian lands have altered the earlier arrangements under UN mandates.
As water metres are installed for these colonizing settlements, Palestinians living in Qalqiliya District end up paying 100% more for water than the settlers pay.
Back in Jayyous, a festive procession with loudspeakers announce a wedding. Men are dancing, women are clapping and taking photos, children are driving their bicycles through the streets. Another tea and fruit party for us by taxi driver, Abed, in his home. The mosque prayers stop everything for 30 minutes; then the parties resume, as do the people’s resilience and patience in this “crazy land”. Spirits seem raised….
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| Wedding celebrations, Jayyous streets, West Bank |
