View from house. The railroad runs
along the base of the hills across the valley.
 

On Saturday, November 3, David, Martha, and Patrick went to Al Walaja on the edge of Bethlehem to visit Atta and his family. Our small bus took a different route through the Salesian school and vineyards of Cremisan. This is a route that was blocked to traffic until people in the area demonstrated to have it reopened. This will be cut off when the Wall is completed.

We had to walk in about the last half-mile. Atta’s house is on the side of a hill overlooking the railroad from Haifa to Jerusalem. There are few houses in this area, except for the illegal Israeli settlement of Gilo on the hill across the valley. When Israel unilaterally expanded the borders of Jerusalem after 1967, they declared this area to be part of Jerusalem without informing the people who lived there.

Gilo Settlement on the crest of the hill.

Only in 1985 were the people informed their homes were illegal and would be demolished since they had been built without a Jerusalem building permit, even if they had been built before they were incorporated into Jerusalem. For further details, see the June 25, 2007 MPT report accessible at http://www.michiganpeaceteam.org/LTT_June25_2007.htm .

Part of Atta’s terraced orchard.

In June, Atta was sentenced to 96 months (8 years) house arrest for no stated reason and prevented from entering Jerusalem. (But his house is “in” Jerusalem!).  As a result, he lost his good job in Jerusalem doing maintenance and gardening for a convent of religious sisters. After about two months and $1500 of lawyer costs, the sentence was revised and he was given a Jerusalem temporary work permit, renewable every five months. To keep him occupied during his months of house arrest, his wife, Fatima, taught him embroidery— which they showed us.

Too much part of the family to be eaten.

The house is small but of good quality. It is surrounded by terraced fields with fruit trees. It commands a beautiful view of the surrounding area. His wife told us that all of them were involved in building their home and in the landscaping.

Under the stairway from their patio, they have built a pigeon house. The family decided to raise the pigeons to eat, but the pigeons have now become pets, so they are unlikely to be the dish of honor anytime soon.

Fatima expressing hospitality;
look for the three children in the background.

Atta has four children. When we first arrived, the youngest boy engaged David in kicking a soccer ball around the terrace.  David was careful to keep the ball from going down, down, down the hill.

The youngest was intrigued to hear that Patrick had been a fire fighter. He brought out a jigsaw puzzle depicting a fire engine, fire fighters, police, and a building on fire.  Fatima brought out tea, cookies, and fruit.

After awhile, Atta arrived from his new roofing job with his employer from Jerusalem. It took us awhile to realize that his employer was Israeli. The partner did most of the talking. He mentioned that Atta was educating him to the situation in Palestine.  He claimed that Hebron, Jerusalem, Safat, and Tiberias had a majority of Jewish occupants in the early 20th century.  This does seem to be true of Tiberias, not quite true of Jerusalem, and not even close to true of Safed and Hebron. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Safed for Safed, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/2339 for Hebron, and http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Jerusalem.htm for Jerusalem).  He mentioned the 1929 Palestinian riots against the Jews of Hebron, but asserted that Jews should not have re-occupied the city after 1967—some things just have to be let go.  He claimed that Palestinian legal challenges are beginning to succeed. He felt that Palestinians should confront the government of Israel with its own laws: if Atta’s house has been incorporated into Jerusalem, then Atta should be a citizen of Israel.  Atta said when he tried to confront this injustice by applying to be a citizen of Jerusalem, his troubles began. We did not press the issue that the army often ignores court decisions.

Toward the end, David played the violin, to the special delight of the children who took their turns trying it out themselves. Fatima was especially taken with the violin and asked for some songs we recognized. The youngest son was able to sing the “ABCs” as David accompanied him. We left before dinner, in order to attend the movie “Death in Gaza” at the Alternative Information Center in Beit Sahour.