Putting Humpty Back Together Again

Friday May 1st was Workers Day here in Palestine and I got the day off! So I decided to follow a group of friends to a March happening from Solomon’s Pools in Al Khader village to end at Artas village for their Annual Lettuce Festival! When we arrive at Solomon’s Pools there is a Dabkeh dance troupe there dressed in white.

They start off the pre-March atmosphere with their flute driven dabkeh beats, stomping and spinning down the street. Our guide Awad leads us through the windy hillside. Solomon’s Pools were built in the time of Kind Herod 2000 years ago. At one point they were full of water reserves but now they are mostly filled with litter.

In the third pool Awad tells us about two little boys who drowned the day before. They were playing on the ledge when one slipped and the other tried to help him. The pool is not very deep and had the children known how to swim perhaps they would have survived.

We make our way past these somber waters into the valley where Awad tells us about the land confiscation, settlements, uprooted trees and issues of the area. We are led to the land his grandfather owned. He tell us, without your land where is your heritage, where are your roots? In Palestine people are very connected to their lands and their families. In fact you could almost say these are the two most important things to people in this society.

The creation and maintenance of the state of Israel has done a lot to disconnect the Palestinian people from both of these things. And yet you have people like Awad whose land has not quite been taken yet and who is working to make sure that his heritage is preserved. When we get down to the bottom of the valley Efrat settlement becomes visible in the distance silhouetted by two hilltops. Awad tells us about the protest that took place here in 2007 to prevent the confiscation of land confiscation the Israeli state wants to use to expand Efrat.

For 22 days a group of Palestinians, including Awad Internationals, sat on the land. On the 22nd day bulldozers came in and uprooted olive, apricot and walnut trees amongst others. Ironically enough all the settlements in this area are named after fruit trees. Protesters were arrested and beaten, including Awad who was put in jail and forced to sign a piece of paper saying he would not go near his land in order to get out. Now Awad tells us he is illegal on his land.

We make our way out of the valley and into Artas Village Lettuce Festival in celebration of their famous crop. I did not get a taste of their crispy treat but we did get there in time for an impromptu dabkeh show. There were lots of kids and traditional Palestinian woven clothing embroidered in local designs and colors of red and black.

After a short walkabout we made our way to Wallejah to visit Abed on his farm and check out the farmers market he runs on his land. He welcomed us with coffee and a meal and after a sip and some greetings I asked him what the story was with his land. He tells me the story like he is speaking about someone elses story and he takes me on a tour of his open and beautiful farm.

Abed lives on a cave on his land, there used to be a home on the site but the Israeli military bulldozed it and told him he was not allowed to live there. In the West Bank there is an old Ottoman Law that is still used that says if someone does not live on a piece of land it can be taken by the state. For this reason Abed knows that he must live here in order to prevent its confiscation.

His land is very near the “green line” the border that separates the occupied West Bank from the internationally recognized borders of Israel. On a nearby hillside is Gilo settlement that is built on land taken from the West Bank city of Beit Jalla. Abed has an actual home with a wife and kids but chooses to stay here to preserve his heritage. He keeps asking me, what do they want from us?

Abed just wants to live on his land and he tells me that anyone is welcome so long as they come peacefully. He told me a story about how two Israeli soldiers came to his farm and said they wanted a drink. He told them to leave their uniforms and guns behind. So they did and they sat down with Abed for coffee. He works very hard and sacrifices precious time with his wife and children in order to preserve what is his.

There is a group of Israelis who come help him tend the farm and with the Friday market. A group of British people from Beit Sahours’ permaculture farm Bustan Qaraqa are currently helping Abed build a compost toilet. Neither the Israeli or Palestinian government will give Abed water facilities on his farm. So in order to adapt the compost toilet was the solution.

Compost toilets are also brilliant for places where there is not a lot of water as no water is necessary to run them. The compost will eventually be used to fertilize the soil and nourish the crops therefore creating a cycle in which everything has a use. Abed is a shining example for people everywhere on ways to build constructive solutions in difficult situations and live harmoniously on the land.

~ by deemadabis on May 3, 2009.