Palestine One Giant Concentration Prison...

"The Occupation doesn’t have the right to change the geography of the occupied lands." That’s what the International Law saying, but Israel then started to build the separation wall, without any respect for that International Law. So powerful had Israel become, such was the unlimited support it was getting from the United States and its British ally.

The occupation main target is how to force every Palestinian to become a refugee. They trying to put the Palestinians under the pressure of the occupation measures: killing, curfews, arresting people, land confiscation, houses demolition, closing streets, destroying schools and all other humiliating measures, so the people only asking for survival. So they will not think about the revolution! And beside all that they building the wall and building those settlements beside the Palestinian villages while the settlements blocs Israel planned to annex, which thrust like dagger into the Palestinian land, were now sheathed by the wall.

"The Separation Apartheid Wall" is a long reinforced concrete wall built by Israel in the west bank to prevent the entry of residents of west bank Palestinians to Israel or Israeli settlements. A political barrier has based on colonial racist ideology. The barrier is composed of fences and walls; the construction of the wall in 2002 under the Al-Aqsa Intifada (the second Intifada), as it is along the wall three times the length of the Berlin wall in length and double in height(1).

I'm a student who lives in a village that surrounded from several areas of that wall just like the other villages and cities in the west bank; I've been suffering personally from that apartheid wall; when I was thirteen or less my father used to take me with him to the Al Makased hospital in Jabal Elzaiton (East Jerusalem), where he was working as a nurse there, he was arrested many times by the Israeli military authorities, so he lost his Permit to get to Israel, but he kept going there without permission for three years, that was before completing building the separation wall, there were many points near Z'aem and El Sheikh Sa'd (villages near Jerusalem) where the wall wasn’t completed yet. My father used to take these points to reach the other side of the wall (Jerusalem), so he could reach the hospital; these ways are illegal and so dangerous; as he went back home many times without getting through and he was going two or three days earlier; he used to take me with him to avoid the dangers, so he would tell the army that he is taking his child to the hospital and that he isn’t making any danger to Israel by walking with his child toward the hospital because he can't go through the entries to Jerusalem. During that dangerous road to reach Jerusalem I used to smell an offensive smell that I will never forget, the smell was coming from the sewage from Z'aem village, and you can smell it far away from the plants that grown up from that sewage; I will never forget that betahon (A Hebrew ward means "security") they were guarding the area during the building of the wall and also guarding the bulldozers which taking its way through the mountains, the betahon looked like they were Bedouins, they were armed Bedouins, they were yelling at us, telling us to go away from here. I was really scared. Actually after we got through I started weeping, but I didn’t have the chance even to cry, because an Israeli army jeep was taking his way in the trace just next to the wall in the Israeli side, after a while we continued moving till reaching the safe side and a little away from the wall, there were no cabs to pick us up, so we continued moving till reaching the main street I remember in that day a friend of fathers came and pick us up to the hospital. While we were in the car I saw the last point we were about an hour ago nearby the betahon, I don’t think it could take ten minutes to reach him by the car.

If I can talk about the walls' effects on the Palestinian citizens in the west bank, I can tell that the wall destroyed economic installation depriving Palestinians of work and education, there's lack of hospitals in the region of the villages of Jerusalem. So that wall is not only eliminates the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, but also eliminates the potential of the Palestinian presence on this land.

Through our walk to Battir and into the Wadi we saw some farmers or workers, they were building a small wall to save the rain water for the plants, I asked the guide about them and their land, and he told me that if they stopped working in their lands, the Israeli Government will take their land because they are not working on it, so its nobody's land; and it will suppose that this is no mans land, that land between Beit Jala and Battir -the wadi where we walk through- is now an unspecified area as they asked if they want to be in the Palestinian side (with Beit Jala) or with the Israeli side (with Jerusalem).

In 1948, the Zionists seized on some buildings in the village and neighboring villages, like Walaja and Alqabo including the schools and the railway station in the village. And the people of Battir, Alqabo and Walaja were forced to escape to another areas which is now known as "Refuge Camps", but they didn't stay there, as Al-Mokhtar (the most powerful man in the village, usually educated more than others) ordered the residents of the villages to go back to the villages and he told them to spread the clothes in the open air, and to light up the lamps to show the Zionists that there is residents in the villages, so the cannot say that there's nobody n the villages so its nobody's land, but the people of Alqabo refused to do that and they preferred to stay in camps than going back to their home, as what the guide told us that they said, "here in camps we get the flour and the oil for free, but back home we should work hard to get our food." And they lost their land; that way Battiris' saved their land from stolen until Rhodes agreement, when the Zionist occupation to allow the people of Battir exploit agricultural land occupied. But still they cant build and building in some areas in the village, so you can see some old buildings, seems to be homes and factories, and to the down of it you cant see any new building, but only large green lands, all the new buildings that you can see are far away from the old beautiful buildings, while you are standing there you feel like you are in preserve.

Maybe we are students but we end up our walk by planning the olive trees; the olive tree shows the Palestinian confrontation the resistance against the occupation and it shows that the Palestinians withstand of against all kinds of hostility actions just near by the green line where we can't cross that line even if we can't see it.

The olive trees where we were walking in Turmos Ayya, where even in that village that 80% of its population are carrying the American citizenship, the occupation authorities confiscated part of the territory of the village and established by the settlement "Shilo," and the one can see the settlement on the top of the hills, I felt so sorry and thought that also if you was carrying the American citizenship, the occupation will not stop stealing your land and stop building the settlements on your land.
Palestinians started to convince themselves that the occupation is not existed anymore they trying not to see it, they just trying to forget about it, so they getting nearest and nearest to the wall and they think that they are FREE by doing that, all that came from their thoughts that the occupation will end one day, so they are just waiting and waiting and keep waiting without working on their dream "The Palestinian Dream", their land for their own, the freedom, and going back home, but we can't just wait! Wait for what??

We as a Palestinians are always waiting. We wait at the checkpoints, we wait for permits, and we have to get to the airport so early to make to make sure you can get through it. Our life is series of waiting episodes. Maybe now waiting for the political solution, and those people who are involved in the diplomatic solution, it's just not their children who have been starving, nor their children who were killed, and it's not their houses that were destroyed during building that wall which has got them away from their works, they are not waiting at the checkpoints for hours, they just can't feel it or understand it as much as we do, maybe they can see us on the TV, but though when they turn it off we still here and nothing change. We ask for freedom but we are not working for it, IMPOSSIBLE!! We just can't get our dream that easily. We are living our case since the childhood and yet we are still waiting… I hope that its fate be fate of the Berlins wall, which have become a symbol of the peace in Europe and the whole world.

Turmos Ayya

Turmos Ayya, or like what the taxi drivers call it "Texas Ayya," and that’s because 80% of the people there are American citizens, I don’t know why that huge number of the people of Turmos Ayya went to America many years ago, why Turmos Ayya, it's a very huge number for a village like Turmos Ayya. Why that huge number of people who went to the United States, from that specific town?

While we were on the road to Turmos Ayya there was a huge green fields, on right and left of the road the features of the region was filling it out; on the way between Atara and Sinjil there was an old destroyed village; actually it's an incomplete village, that was suppose to be the first new village that built, that would be even before thinking about Rawabi project, but after the second Intifada the Israeli government stopped building that town, and the area still non-durable like destructive town till this day. And we kept going and we reach Wadi Al-Haramyah, where Al-Fjer operation against the occupation have been done in 2002 by a young Palestinian man from Silwad who had an old English gun, he went up on a mountain near Wadi Al-Haramyah, where was a police station was built within the British Mandate, that police station became an Israeli police station, in that day there was eleven soldiers who were killed and five of them were in Serious dangerous injuries.

We reach Turmos Ayya and started our walk with the guide and the teacher and we went to the local council of the village and the president of the council started to talk about the village and he was describing the whole area, he talked about the town's resident's work in agriculture, especially in the cultivation of olives; he also told us about The spring known as Turmos Ayya spring. And that's recently been established in many services, including building schools, development and construction of a hospital and developed many of the services and infrastructure. And he talked about the Legitimacy court which near the headquarters of the hospital to serve the people of the town and surrounding towns Seeking municipal hard to open the Office of the Palestinian Interior Ministry For the establishment of an international sports stadium project. And the total population of about 10000 people, of whom about 4500 lives in the Diaspora An area of eighteen thousand acres Surrounded by the territory of the villages changer, Jalud, Sinjil, Almazra'a Alsharqya, Khirbit Abu Falah.

While we were walking between the olive trees on our way to the Equestrian Club, and that’s near Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqya, we saw an old man and his wife, the old man was carrying his shovel, putting it on his shoulder, and his wife, that old woman, she was carrying a huge bag on her head; actually that sight is rare in Turmos Ayya, because these days you can only see the tractors, you cant see the traditional methods of agriculture; and the machines is working everything. Maybe those are old parents for son or more in the United States.

The occupation authorities confiscated part of the territory of the village and established by the settlement "Shilo", and the one can see the settlement on the top of the hills, I felt so sorry and thought that also if you was carrying the American citizenship, the occupation will not stop stealing your land and stop building the settlements on your land.

Battir's Old School Glory

I started my journey from Bethany, where I live, heading to Battir village I didn't face any trouble reaching the Countainer chechpoint; a checkpoint which is located in the middle of the West Bank, and separated the North of the West Bank from the South, we got through that checkpoint so easily that we did not even stop a moment getting through it, and that's not what we used to, especially on that checkpoint, the taxi countinued going to the DCO area, where me and all the students will meet Professor Petti and the media team to start our walk through the wadi from the DCO area in Beit Jala to Battir.

Battir is located to the South-West of Jerusalem, away from about 8 kilometers West of Bethlehem, which is lies about 5 KM, rising from the sea 800 meters, with an area of the urban village of about 420 acres; surrounded by the territory of Walaja, Beit Jala, Husan, and the Basement. Etymology is due out on the label to the amputation of Phoenician words "Cut and Separated", as well as in Arabic, as well as there are other account of the bird and the house was in Roman fortress; that was about 5000 people in 2005*. The village of archaeological site contains old buildings, pools, seductives, and floors paved with mosaic.

Battir agricultural town, because in many of its territory grow olives and fruits and vegetables, different kinds of form-fed water Inaba, including: the country appointed, he was appointed collector, sparkling, moving water to farmlands through a coordinated network of canals from the spring of the village, some of canals dating back to ancient history, while the associations charities and donors form the village to renew or complete delivery to areas of new agricultural.

In 1948, the Zionists seized on some buildings in the village and neighboring villages, like Walaja and Alqabo including the sbhools and the railway station in the village. And the people of Battir, Alqabo and Walaja were forced to escape to another areas which is now known as "Refuge Camps", but they didn't stay there, as the Mokhtar (the most powerful man in the village, usually educated more than others) ordered the residents of the villages to go back to the villages and he told them to spread the clothes in the open air, and to light up the lamps to show the Zionists that there is residents inthe villages, so the cannot say thatthere's nobody n the villages so its nobody's land, but the people of Alqabo refused to do that and they preferred to stay in camps than going back to their home, as what the guide told us that they said, "here in camps we get the flour and the oil for free, but back home we should work hard to get our food." And they lost their land; that way Battiris' saved their land from stolen until Rhodes agreement.

Rhodes stipulated agreement signed by Jordan, like other neighboring countries to Palestine in 1949 with the zionist occupation to allow the people of Battir exploit agricultural land occupied, and their what helped them with that agreement is the school and that they still residents of that village, but that was no admission of any armed to the land, and they cant build and building in some areas in the village, so you can see some old buildings, seems to be homes and factories, and to the down of it you cant see any new building, but only large green lands, all the new buildings that you can see are far away from the old beautiful buildings, while you are standing there you feel like you are in preserve.

Crossing the teritory of the village railway reached Jerusalem to Lod in Palestine itself and from Cairo to Damascus in the area, that railway can then move them to many of the Palestinian territoriers through a network of railway company carried out by France in favor in favor of Ottmans Government, but the Zionists have seized that railway and they use it for themselves now, as it is connecting Israeli cities and settlements together and the Palestinians cannot use it anymore.

Through our walk into the Wadi we saw some farmers or workers, they were building a small wall to save the rain water for the plants, I asked the guide about them and their land, and he told me that if they stopped working in their lands, the Israeli Government will take their land because they are not working on it, so its nobodys land; and it will suppose that this is no mans land, that land between Beit Jala and Battir -the wadi where we walk through- is now an unspecified area as they asked if they want to be in the Palestinian side (with Beit Jala) or with the Israeli side (with Jerusalem).

Battir has many areas in it, and its area A and area B and the green line that cross the land, and there's 1948 lands and also no building areas; and before a while there was the Jordanian Government was the control; Israeli Government now is trying to take the land and to make it as a small settlement that belong to Alasyon's Great settlement, they started it by taking the railway, then building huge settlements around Battir, like the Nefoptir settlement to the South-West of Battir.

So it is all different ways of reaching the main purpose for the Israeli Government and it's to let all the Palestinian refuges in their country and the other Arab neighbor countries, by taking the little villages, and we have to fight back in all the way as Palestinians on this country; and that's what we had done by the end of the walk, we fight back the Israeli Government, by planting the olive trees just by the last allowed area we can reach as Palestinians in the West Bank. The olive tree shows the Palestinian confrontation the resistance against the occupation and it shows that the Palestinians withstand of against all kinds of hostility actions.