"We had houses and lands, we had dreams. The
occupation came and took all this from us and now we are refugees.”
We sit in an idyllic garden with fruit trees and birds chirping in the
background. It offers a stark contrast to the story the man we are meeting is
telling us. It is a story of occupation and a story of loss. Loss of land, loss
of income, loss of a whole village’s history and loss of one mans hope and
dreams.
Ahmad Barghouti, most known as Abu Nidal, has seven children. He and his
wife Rabaa live in the small village of Al Walaja, outside Bethlehem. At 67
years old he is unemployed, like the rest of his family. He used to work in
construction in Israel but no one in his family receives a permit to cross the
border anymore. They rely on what they can reap from the garden and a small sum
of money sent by one of his sons who work abroad. It is not enough.
As a child Abu Nidal lived with his family in the original village of Al
Walaja. In 1948, when he was just one year old, the whole village had to flee
when Israel occupied the area. Around 1 200 people were displaced. Most of them
fled to Jordan, and the rest, like Abu Nidal, settled in the West Bank.
Together they created a new village, the new Al Walaja. 66 years later, the
population originating from the village has grown to 20 000 people in Jordan
and around 2 500 in new Al Walaja.
When Abu Nidal talks about Israel and the displacement of his people,
you can hear the bitterness in his voice. But he does not only blame Israel for
that which has happened to them:
“The entire world helped in our
displacement, Israel is nothing without the help of European countries. We are
the victims of the United Nations.”
He tells us that he believes that Israel is a victim of Europe as well, that
they wanted to get rid of the “Jewish problem” by giving the Jews a state in
Palestine. They tried with many other places before settling on Palestine, just
to get them out of Europe, he says. Israel is also, according to Abu Nidal,
manipulated by USA, who uses them as a kind of weapon, a frontline in the
Middle East.
As he looks out over the valley, he points to the “green line”, the
official border dividing the land between Israelis and Palestinians. On the
other side of the border lays the rest of the land belonging to the original
village of Al Walaja. Even though it is so close, it is seemingly lost forever for
Abu Nidal and his neighbors.
“As a refugee, the only land I
have is this. They took 150 dunoms of my land for the Geilo settlement, 200
dunoms was confiscated to road building and all I had left was 40 dunoms.”
YMCA helped him plant 180 olive trees to be able to support himself by
exporting olive oil to Europe. It did not take long until the Israeli army came
and uprooted the olive trees, together with other fruit trees. Apples,
apricots, figs and grapes. Without notice, without explanation, they just came
and took his hope of a livelihood away. The plan was to use the land as a
source of living for the family. He had 30 beehives, plenty of goats and a
tractor to work the land. Now he has only a couple of beehives and six goats
left. And the tractor is no longer allowed to enter the area.
“Israel is like a bulldozer that
stretches it’s arm out and take all the land that it wants.”
Abu Nidal has lost a lot to Israel, but not his sense of humor, though
it is a tad dark. When asked if he gets intimidated or abused by soldiers at
his house, he answers with a hearty laughter:
“This house, it is the soldiers
house, not mine. They’ve taken everything. Maybe one day, they will even take
my wife!”
It is hard to not laugh with him, he has a contagious laughter, but he
is serious. They have taken all but everything from him. Two thirds of the 40
dunoms Abu Nidal had left, is now on the other side of the apartheid wall. The
wall is not yet built here, but it might as well be. A road cuts through the
landscape where the wall is to be built and already now separates Abu Nidal
from his land. He sighs and tells about how beautiful the view used to be, and
about how his grandchildren used to come and play on the land.
“About a month ago my granddaughter
was playing by the road, the Israeli army came and told her to move.“
It is not only his grandchildren that are forbidden access, he can not
use the land for farming or to graze his goats. Abu Nidal’s mother, father and
grandmother’s are buried in this land. The road was initially planned to go on top
of the family grave. He went to the court and they approved to move the road, with
the result that he lost more land. But at least, for now, he can visit the
graves. He has a walk-through under the road, but it will be guarded with a
gate when the wall is finished. He has yet to receive an answer on how often he
will be able to go through the gate.
Abu Nidal is clear about what he thinks about Israel’s policies, it is
apartheid. The wall is used to separate the Palestinian people, confiscate land
and build settlements. The last phase of colonization. The way to Beit Jala, a
nearby town, used to be five minutes, because of the wall it now takes 30
minutes. The villagers are afraid they may loose access to the town if the
Israelis decide to build a gate in the wall to prevent them from passing. When
the wall is finished they will live in an open-air prison, guarded by Israelis
at the gates. It is, according to Abu Nidal, part of their plan to displace
Palestinians and let only Israelis live in their land.
“Israel wants a Jewish state so it
doesn’t want to place anyone who is not Jewish here; this is a high level of
apartheid and racism.“
They demolished 40 houses in the village to build Israeli homes, some of
the houses were even demolished twice. People build their houses again and
again, even if it is torn down, because they have nowhere else to go.
“We are not allowed to build houses
because we have a green ID [Palestinian ID]. We are treated only with
bulldozers and demolitions.“
Palestinians water share in the area, according to Abu Nidal, is about
14 liters per day and person, while the Israelis share is 140 liters. They have
underground water in their lands but they are not permitted by Israel to make
use of it. Instead, the water goes straight to the Israeli settlements in the
nearby area.
It is no doubt that Abu Nidal is a politically aware
man. He talks about the boycott of Israel in Europe, he approves of the idea
but at the same time feels ashamed that the Arabs are not supporting it. In
Palestine the shops are full of Israeli products and he feels they are
supporting them by buying and using the products. He believes that the people
should stand in front of their governments. To put pressure on them so that
they will boycott the occupation and stop supporting Israel so it’s economy
will collapse. But resistance, small or big, is hard in Palestine. Those who
have a permission to work in Israel will not participate, or let their children
participate, in popular struggle such as demonstrations. The economical
situation is so bad that they can not afford to loose their permits. Popular
struggle also needs leadership, but there are no leaders here, Abu Nidal tells
us:
“No one protects
the ones who resist, even though it is their right to fight to end apartheid.
/…/ Here we don’t have safety, even the Palestinian Authority is protecting
Israel.”
Before answering the last question on how the personal
impact has been upon the family, financially and emotionally, he pauses and
gives up a tired chuckle before replying:
“I’ve got nothing
left…”
To learn more about the village Al Walaja and Abu
Nidal’s neighbours, you can see a short video, read a short text and see some
pictures that illustrates the life in the village, just follow the links:
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