Qalqiliya

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Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
what I was walling in or walling out
and to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall.

(From "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost)

This week Lars, Ciara, Gjermund and I visited Qalqiliya, a city that is completely surrounded by the Barrier. We met with Muhammad Selim, who is working with refugee issues, and Rafiq Marabi, who is the leader of the National Committee for Grassroots Resistance, an organization working against the wall and the settlements. Rafiq Marabi took us around Qalqiliya, and gave us an introduction to the situation there. He told us that 60 percent of the land belonging to Qalqiliya was taken in the war in 1948 (Israel during this war conquered more land than was given to the state in the UN partition plan, to be more precise, 78 percent as opposed to 55). Today 70 percent of the inhabitants of Qalqilya are refugees. After Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, additional land around the city of Qalqilya has been taken to settlements. Finally, in 2003, 2500 dunams (a dunam is 1000 square meters), ended up on the other side of the Barrier. The Qalqiliya that is inside the wall consists of 6500 dunams, 4000 of which is built-up area. Here's a map over Qalqilya city and the surrounding area:



As should be clear from the map, not only Qalqiliya city is divided by the Barrier, but the whole area around it. If you want to see how the Barrier is crisscrossing the entire Qalqiliya governorate, see page 4 of this UN report. All in all the wall is taking 60 percent of the land. The rest is divided by the Barrier and by settlements. "They are killing the possibility for a Palestinian state, they are killing the possibility for peace", Marabi comments.


Rafiq Marabi and Lars looking at a map.

In Qalqiliya city 45,000 people are living. But many are moving, because their lives have become so difficult. At the time 37 percent live under the poverty limit. Traditionally Qalqiliya has been a center of agriculture, because of its rich water supplies. According to Muhammad Selim, this is also why so many settlements have been constructed around it, and why the wall now is taking even more land. Farmers who have land on the other side of the wall, have great difficulties in reaching it. Many greenhouses are abandoned because farmers are not able to look after them during the day. If land is not cultivated within a period of three years, Israel can use an old Ottoman law to confiscate it. Other greenhouses had to be removed in order to make place for the Barrier.

The National Committee for Grassroots Resistance works against these Israeli policies in different ways: media work, demonstrations, working with political leaders and also legal work within the Israeli court system. In court they have managed to change slightly the route of the Barrier. What they asked for was for the Barrier to go along the so-called Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. The reason that was given why this was impossible was the settlements. If anyone wondered, the settlements are just as illegal according to international law as the Barrier is.

Back at Muhammad Selims office, we talked more about the effects of the Barrier on people in the area. Selim spoke about the difficulties of getting proper health care for the people left on the other side of the wall, and also of maintaining social ties. "If you want to have a wedding, you have to get permits for all your guests to cross the gate", Selim said, and continued: "We don't want to be animals, who just eat and work, we want to be human beings. You start to think that you are not like others, there are limitations everywhere."


The Wall in Qalqiliya.
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Victory in Umm Salamona

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For those of you who have been reading my blog regularly, you might have been wondering what has happened to the hilltop in Umm Salamona, where we planted trees in November and December to avoid it being taken for settlement expansion. For those of you who haven't read about Umm Salamona, the matter in short was that the supreme court has ruled that the hilltop has to be cultivated before the end of 2009, or it would be confiscated (and beyond doubt, given to the neighbouring settlements). See my posts The hills are alive and Trees and threats in Umm Salamona for more background.

I contacted Awad, the initiator of the campaign, last week to hear how things were going in Umm Salamona. Awad told me that the land will not be confiscated. By planting 1250 trees there, Awad and other activists have managed to reclaim the land. Even though deer held by settlers are damaging many of the trees (there is no money for building metal fences), Awad describes the situation as good.

People, Palestinians and foreigners, have, by non-violent means, prevented a hilltop from being stolen. The people in Umm Salamona can go there, to enjoy the beautiful landscape or to harvest the trees. And they can feel that there is some kind of right and wrong in this world, and some way to pursue it. Still around half a million settlers are living on stolen land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. But the victory in Umm Salamona is a message, to the settlers and the Israeli military that the land belongs to the Palestinians, and that it is important to them. And to the world about what is going on in the lives and land of the Palestinians.
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Planting hope

Last week the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI), where I volunteer, arranged the Olive Planting Program together with the Alternative Tourism Group. Over forty people came from Europe and the USA to plant olive trees and learn more about the situation of the Palestinians. In total we planted 1600 olive trees, all sponsored by individuals and groups from all over the world. The trees were planted in areas that are threatened to be taken in order to build settlements. In this way JAI aims to "keep hope alive", which is the slogan of the campaign. On the photo below you can see one of the fields we planted, belonging to the village of Beit Eskaria. The buildings in the background are part of an outpost (a settlement not recognized by the Israeli government).


The man in the front is Osmund, who read about the Olive Planting Program in an article by me and the other GoCYs in the newspaper and decided to come!

One of the places where we planted olive trees was Oush Ghrab, lying just outside Beit Sahour. People in Beit Sahour fear that Oush Ghrab will be taken to build settlements. If this happens, Bethlehem will be surrounded on all sides by settlements, which among other things means that there is no way for Bethlehem to expand. Oush Ghrab was used as a military base both under the Jordanian and the first decades of the Israeli occupation. In 2006 the military left the area, and people in Beit Sahour decided to build a community center to make sure that this area would not be confiscated again. Among other things there's a football field and a hall for parties there now.


From the community center at Oush Ghrab. Note the star of David on the climbing wall.

The hall was built illegally, since Palestinians hardly ever are allowed to build in area C (which comprises most of the West Bank, and where Israel exerts full civil and military control). Two years later, in 2008, settlers started coming. This article from Times gives an impression of what was going on. Lately the settler activity has escalated. Settlers come to Oush Ghrab every week, sometimes bringing rabbis who preach there, other times spraying David stars and racist motives on the place. If you want to read more about Oush Ghrab and the settlers, see this article by Hagit Ofran, director of the Settlement Watch project of the Peace Now movement.



Two weeks ago, people in Beit Sahour formed a committee for the popular defense of Oush Ghrab. They decided to work non-violently, among other things by planting trees. And so it was decided to bring the people on the Olive Planting Program here to join the peaceful resistance.


Two girls from Rønningen folk high school in Norway planting trees in Oush Ghrab.


Fatima Jubran and her son, Ra'ed Jubran.

The trees were planted in the parts of Oush Ghrab that are still fields. While people planted, there were Israeli soldiers watching us. The owner of the land, Fatima Jubran and her son Ra'ed were there and expressed their gratitude for the support.
- We are afraid to come here alone, because of the Israelis. The people who come here to help give us courage to come and plant our land, Ra'ed said.
He told me that another piece of land close to the hill Abu Gneim had been taken from him and annexed to Jerusalem. Now it is on the other side of the wall. I asked Fatima and Ra'ed what thoughts they had about the future.
- We hope that peace will come to our land, but the Israelis and the settlements are preventing peace, Fatima answered. Ra'ed said:
- We need to feel that we are humans and have rights like everyone else in this world.
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