Israeli plan for Al Walaja, www.arij.org

Al Walaja, a lovely Palestinian village northeast of Bethlehem and southwest of Jerusalem, is slowly being annexed into Jerusalem in order to expand illegal Israeli settlements. Brenna and Martha were invited for a Ramadan meal there by a wonderful family whom Michigan Peace Team [MPT] members have visited a few times over the summer months.

The Bethlehem region is in a narrow area about midway south in the Occupied West Bank. This area is being choked off in an effort to divide the West Bank into north and south sections. An October 10, 2007 news report by Akiva Eldar in the leading Israeli paper Haaretz, titled, “IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] orders the expropriation of Arab land near East Jerusalem,” states that this recently ordered annexation “would effectively sever the territorial contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank.” The nearly completed western annexation includes the village of Al Walaja.

The three-story illegal apartheid wall is being build around Jerusalem. 100% of the wall in the Bethlehem area is either on or inside of the Green Line, the 1967 Palestinian border. In some places, the wall cuts more than eight miles into Palestinian land.

During the 1948 War, Israel captured 65% of Al Walaja’s land and expelled the Palestinians living on it. This old village presently consists of a forested hillside and an illegal Israeli settlement, both considered a part of Jerusalem. The expelled Palestinians built houses on the village lands that remained in after the war, creating what is now known as the “new” Al Walaja village. In 1967, the Israelis expanded the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, annexing even the “new” Al Walaja. However, the residents were not informed that they were now residents of Jerusalem.

Illegal Israeli settlement and forested hillside

in “old” Al Walaja

In 1985, the Jerusalem Municipal Court issued orders to demolish two houses in Al Walaja, stating that the homes had been built without the proper permits from the Jerusalem Municipality. It was through these orders that the residents of Al Walaja first learned that their land had been annexed to the City of Jerusalem and that their homes and their presence was considered illegal by Israel. Since 1985, twenty-eight houses have been demolished, and there are orders to demolish thirty-five more, including the home of our host. Residents have been told that if they can show proof of having  lived in the village before 1967, they can stay.

In 1985, twenty-two young Palestinians were arrested, convicted, imprisoned, and pressured to leave their lands and sign a statement admitting that they were “illegally present” in Israel. They refused to sign, and were held for twenty-five days. Since then, another eighty-four residents have been arrested on similar grounds.

Israel has planned that all of Al Walaja – old and new – will be totally encircled by the Apartheid Wall, with only one exit, to be controlled by the Israeli Occupation Forces [IOF]. The construction of the Apartheid Wall is in direct violation of UN resolutions stating that the wall is illegal under international law.

Land confiscation by the Israeli government has impoverished the village of Al Walaja by destroying its means of income and its historical connection to the land.  A high percentage of village young people have no work and few possibilities of finding work.

 Nonviolent demonstration in Al Walaja

When Martha and Beth visited our Al Walaja host in June, he had just been served papers stating that he had been placed under house arrest for 96 months, or eight years. No reason for the arrest was given. His lawyer suggested that the arrest might be a punishment for his reputation as an “agitator” – he had organized people for the reconstruction of two demolished homes. After two months in a court case that cost over $1000, the house arrest was lifted, and our host was given back his permit that allows him to work in Jerusalem. However, the permit is granted for five weeks at a time, and he cannot work during the few days or weeks it takes to renew each permit. Because of his inability to travel to Jerusalem for more than two months, he lost is former job as maintenance man and landscaper at a convent in Jerusalem. He is now roofing, which causes him serious back pain. Our host told us he now resists the Israeli military occupation by raising money to help build a much needed new school (building a new school has been forbidden by the Israeli government) and by refusing to work in the illegal Israeli settlements.

In August and September 2007 weekly nonviolent demonstrations were held by villagers, Israeli and international peace activists. MPT members participated in August. Such demonstrations continue, but they are now attended by fewer residents of Al Walaja, our host told us. One of the reasons the villagers don’t attend demonstrations is that they do want to also be labeled as “agitators” – many of them need their Jerusalem work permits to survive.
 

Our hosts in Al Walaja

Despite the difficult circumstances, we still took pleasure in a delightful evening with this joyful couple – enjoying a delicious meal, laughing at the antics of their delightful six-year-old son, and sharing stories and riddles in the patio they had recently built. The family has many international friends from Europe and Africa who have been very supportive of them. Our host drove us to the outer road in a car that had many rattles!

What a wonderful family who struggles to be dedicated to peaceful resistance. 

 Tent for eating and sleeping

Martha and Brenna spent another two nights in Susiya, the same village in which they stayed last week, but this time with another family. There are currently six Palestinian families still living on their land in Susiya. Other families, although they are still heavily involved in trying to regain rights to their land, have moved to nearby towns because it is so difficult to remain in Susiya. All of the land in Susiya – whether it is recognized Palestinian area, “contested” land, or land now occupied by Israeli settlers – is privately owned by Palestinians.

The older couple with whom we stayed, Abu Khalil and his wife, aged 80 and 64 respectively, have twelve children, all of whom either work or study in nearby, more developed villages. Since the State of Israel has continually denied this elderly couple permission to build a home on their own land, and since the homes they have built have been demolished four times in the last twenty years, they are forced to live in tents. Much of their water is brought in from another village. Their “bathroom,” similar to those of other families, is a small tiled outhouse with a hole in the floor. The kitchen in which they cook is one small room built of stones, in which it is impossible to stand up straight. They have a small structure to store food, another in which they keep sheep, and a tent they use for eating and sleeping.

  Abu Khalil and wife

The sun in Palestine rises at about 5:30 AM at this time of year. At this time, Abu Khalil and his wife rise to do their prayers, and then one or the other takes out the sheep to graze for about two hours, before the sun gets too hot. Martha and Brenna went out with Abu Khalil and his neighbors, Hamoudi* and Sami*, ready to prevent and/or document any abuse they might receive by Israeli settlers. With us there, they are able to graze closer to the settlement, where land is not so dry. At about 6:30 AM one morning, two young settler men walked by with their sheep. When they saw the Palestinians in the fields, the settlers immediately got on their cell phones. About ten minutes later, we spotted two soldiers at the top of the hill, watching the Palestinians below.

The Palestinians quickly moved their sheep away from the settler road, even though they had been on their own land. The figures were still watching the Palestinians grazing their sheep when Martha and Brenna returned to the tent at 7:30 AM.

   Abu Khalil grazing sheep 

As it is now Ramadan, a period of thirty days during which Muslims do not eat or drink anything – including water – while the sun is up, after morning chores are done, the older couple rests for much of the day in their tent to stay out of the heat. They rise occasionally to pray. At around 3 PM, the sheep are taken out into surrounding land once more to graze, and supper is prepared – fresh bread (khubiz) is always made. At about 5 PM, they turn on the radio to wait for the announcement by the sheik that the sun has gone down and the fasting period is over, so they can eat. Once dinner has been served and eaten and cleaned up, more prayers are said, and the family converses around a gas lamp. Martha and Brenna attempted their best Arabic, often looking up words in the dictionary. At about 7 PM, the lamp was put out, and everybody went to sleep on their  mats on the cement floor. During the night, the Palestinians arose to pray and eat and drink some water, before the sun rose once again.

Israeli agriculture on stolen Palestinian land

When we left on our last morning with Ahmed* (we catch a ride with him when he drives the village children to school in town), we got a glimpse of the vast agricultural projects, including rows of greenhouses, that the Israeli settlers are illegally setting up on Palestinian land.

Martha with our host

Martha and Brenna will continue to travel to such villages in the south each week during their stay. They also continue to meet with Palestinians in organizations and villages around Bethlehem, to gather information about the future of MPT’s long-term presence in Palestine.

 *Some names have been changed to protect people’s identity