Al-Walaja Village Gasps for Breath

We went to see Al-Walaja with professor and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh who wanted us to witness how the Separation Wall is encircling the village of 2300 people in order to separate it from the agriculutral land from which it survives. The benefits for Israel are: 1) that the village's land that will be on the other side of the wall will be available for expansion of the settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, and 2) villagers who can no longer make a living, will leave, thus reducing the overall Arab population that Israel has to deal with.
To put today's crisis in perspective, Mazin gave us this history. The original Al-Walaja was completely demolished in 1948 by Jewish forces fighting the indigenous Arab inhabitants in order to establish a Jewish state free of an Arab population. It had been a prosperous food-producing area on its 17,793 dunams (4440 acres) of land. When the 25,000 villagers were forced to flee, they dispersed to Jordan and to refugee camps all over the Middle East. Among them was Abu Nidal (Ahmed Bargout) who was hosting us on this visit. He was also among the 10% who came back in 1963 to rebuild. By then the village was reduced to a quarter of its original size and under the control of Jordan.
However, life was to take another sorry turn in 1967 when Israel conquered the Jordanian territories and started the military occupation that endures until today. At that time, and without notifying the citizens of Al-Walaja, Israel annexed most of the village into Jerusalem. Al- Walaja did not come to realize what that meant until 1982 when all of their homes and structures received demolition orders for being erected on land claimed by Israel. The orders were promptly executed. Having nowhere else to go, and determined to hold onto their ancestral lands, the villagers lived in caves and shelters until they could once again rebuild. This time they knew that their new homes, schools and mosques would be considered illegal by Israel and subject to demolition at any time. Many have been demolished.
Fast forward to 2006 when Al-Walaja heard of the Israeli plan to build the separation wall around the village. They went to court - Israeli court - and though a case is still pending to decide if the wall can be put there, the wall is under construction. We could see parts of the tall, concrete structure that have been finished, and, just below Abu Nidal's living room where we sipped tea, we could see the heavy equipment moving up and down the dirt road where the wall will soon be. Like many things in pPalestinian daily life, there was a surreal quality to this view. On the near side of the dirt road are Abu Nidal's house, animal pens, fruit trees, gardens, and us sipping tea as if everything were normal. On the other side of the dirt road and down the hillside into the valley below are Abu Nidal's olive groves, grape vineyards and sheep pastures--90% of his land. Also on that side is his family cemetery where his mother is buried. The view out another window shows one of the village roads, which has been blocked from use while the wall construction goes on. When the wall is finished, he has been informed, the reopened road will be about 5 feet wide, which cannot accommodate a car.
When the wall is finished...which won't be long now, the houses inside of it will not be exempt for demolition orders. More than half of them already have the orders. Part of the torture is that no one knows when the bulldozers will come...
Abu Nidal is a distinguished-looking man with white hair who must be in his 70's. He has seven grown children. Three of his sons have not married because they don't have any money. He ended his explanation of what is happening here by mentioning the emotional stress everyone is under which shows up in the increase of tensions within families. One of the biggest strains is the separation from parents, siblings and children caused by the restrictions on travel. For example, he has a sister in Jerusalem, but he is not allowed to go to Jerusalem from the West Bank. And soon his sister will not be allowed into Al-Walaja because only its residents will have passes to cross through the gate in the wall.
We asked Abu-Nidal what he thought about the future. He laughed. "Bleak," he answered. There is alot of animosity towards the occupier, the world doesn't do anything to help, and there are those within Palestine who collaborate with Israel. The PA doesn't do anything and "this is more dangerous than the settlements." He called it a "conspiracy of silence."
Before we said goodbye to Abu-Nidal, he took us up to the roof for a better view of Al-Walaja and Jerusalem just across the valley. As a parting gift he cracked open his home-grown walnets and handed us the fresh meats.
Mazin then took us to meet with the leader of the Village Council of Al-Walaja, Abu Ahmad. He added more history and analysis to the picture. Before the occupation there were 26 water wells in the village. Now there are only 2, and these are being tapped by the nearby settlements. When the wall is finished, the 2 wells will be on the other side, and the occupation does not alow Palestinians to dig new wells.
Sixty percent of villagers now depend on U.N. aid, for which they are eligible due to being officially designated as refugess from '48. I asked Abu Ahmad what he thought of the PA's economic development plan. Did he see any benefit for Al-Walaja? He answered, "The PA is under occupation." To illustrate his point, he pointed out that Israel forbids Palestinians to import fertilizers or pesticides.
As for pledging allegiance to a "Jewish state" as Israel's parliament is now considering, he said he was shocked that the U.S. would support this idea because it takes away the rights of all Palestinians, those who live in the diaspora and want to return and those who live inside Israel but could not swear loyalty to a state only for Jews. He concluded that moderates in the Arab world who want a peaceful solution for Palestine are losing credibility, which will leave the radicals in charge of the field. Here in Palestine, people voted for Hamas in 2006 because they were fed up with Fateh, not because of Hamas' ideology, but if they voted today, the resistance parties would win because they are willing to fight.
Meanwhile, Al-Walaja is gasping for breath.