Dara - HRI

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Palestinian (in)dependence I - West Bank

Stuart Reigeluth

Out of Israel’s Greater Jerusalem precincts, the West Bank countryside is rocky and the terraced hills are covered with grey stones and green olive trees. The main north-south road – Route 60 – passes next to Pesagot, one of many Jewish hill-top settlements (called mustawtanat in Arabic), then past a Palestinian village, vacant since a large portion of the population emigrated. Haze on the horizon. An Israeli military watch-tower. Signs for Ariel, Ofra, and Shilo – other larger Jewish settlements (Ariel sits on the largest aquifer in the West Bank). The road passes an Israeli bus-stop, then an Israeli gas station… Another Israeli watch-tower and another Israel blue-and-white flag with the Star of David, just outside of Ramallah, the political capital of Palestine.

The road descends into Wadi al-Haramiyyeh (the Valley of the Thieves) where nine Israeli soldiers were picked off by a Palestinian sniper at the checkpoint there. After the incident, the checkpoint (mahsoum in Hebrew or hajiz in Arabic) was removed. There are still over 600 checkpoints in the West Bank. Out of the valley, there is a mobile checkpoint and a long line of cars in the other direction. If you have yellow Israeli car plates and a blue Jerusalem identity card then you can go to the front of the line and pass quickly. Green and white Palestinian plates with the “P” and green Palestinian IDs can kindly wait. Palestinians can leave Jerusalem, but cannot get back without the Jerusalem ID, or a permit, which takes longer, much longer.

Past the settlement of Shilo there are tin barrels that protect the newly planted olive trees from animals. The old trees were cut down by Jewish settlers descending from the hill-tops. The road passes the Jewish “ELI” Cemetery where building is underway, then another Israeli gas-station and another settlement. A sign for the Environmental Protection Association Samaria – Samaria is the Jewish definition from the time of King David of the northern West Bank (the southern part is called Judea). The road bifurcates at the Hamra checkpoint near the grey Palestinian village of Huwarra and goes around Nablus. Here Jewish settlers have attempted to take more land. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) was not been able to stop construction: a new red rooftop can now be seen just above the hill-top.

Past the settlement of Qedumim, inhabited by hard-core Jewish settlers from the US, past another Israeli gas station, the road narrows and the hills are green. There is a water filling station at the crossroads, which leads to Palestinian villages in the foot-hills. The main entrance to the village of Azzoun has been bulldozed closed by the IDF. Further up the road, past another gas station and another Israeli watch-tower with the blue-and-white flag, the rubble blocking another entrance to Azzoun was cleared enough to let IDF jeeps and cars through. A boy sitting surrounded by goats nods once to affirm that the road is open ahead. The village streets are nearly empty: no cars, few people, stores and doors closed, no noise: full Israeli-imposed curfew in the middle of the day in Azzoun, West Bank.

The curfew in Azzoun was implemented to stop Palestinians from throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli settlers’ cars. Unable to catch the culprits, the IDF cut off all main access roads to the village, but Azzoun also suffers another kind of shortage. Besides the palpable existential ennui in the empty streets, with no work and no school, the Palestinians also lack proper access to water. The Jordanian company, Hadad, is permitted by Israel to drill wells, but only to a certain depth. Mekrot, a large Israeli water company, reserves the right to deeper sources. Moreover, digging designs must be approved, inspected and essentially controlled by Israel, which maintains a monopoly over water distribution in the West Bank.

Located in the water-rich district of Qalqilya, Azzoun is just west of six neighboring villages that are all dependent on one filling station at a small crossroads. 40 cubic liters enter the filling station every hour for Far’ata, Immatin, Jinsafut, Al-Funduq, Hajja and Baqat al-Hatab (see OCHA closure map). This water derives from the water network for the Jewish settlements elaborated by Mekrot. The West Bank Water Department of the Palestinian Water Authority has been allowed upon payment to plug into the Israeli network. Despite acute dependence, Palestinians lack proper valves and pipes to transport the water. Reservoir trucks are now beginning to be replaced by water pipes to villages, but as the 40 cubic meters are shared between the six villages some have drilled for more water. Hajja’s illegal digging was punished by cutting off water – a severe punishment also suffered by the connecting village of Baqat al-Hatab.

Azzoun also borders Areas B and C as demarcated by the Oslo Accords, under which Israel reserves demolition and evacuation rights on all Palestinian construction efforts. Such is the case in the adjacent village of Izbat al-Tabib, where a tool shack was destroyed by IDF on 11 March 2008. The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) had disbursed funds to help the villagers buy tools, but since these had been acquired, the money was used to build a tool shack. The few Palestinians remaining watched, many others have already emigrated. Just up the road, more rubble: the remains of a Saudi-funded effort to build primary schools. 17 houses in Izbat al-Tabib and 3 (animal) shelters have outstanding demolition orders (an approximate 60% of the village), the remaining 40% have stop work orders, both issued in 2000-2002.

From the neighboring Palestinian village called Isla the view gives onto the new Jewish settlement called Alfe Menashe under construction. The contrast of the crane activity is acute compared to the destruction in the villages. Also on the hill-top, a large cement water reservoir pumps directly into the new settlement from the Israeli network. The source used to feed the Palestinians, and now reaches the villagers the long way around: after the Jewish settlements, then the Palestinian network, and back to the village, which is highly problematic in the summer season. Also on the other side of the security fence, the Palestinian olive trees are pruned, but the hard way: Israel has placed the entrance gate on the other side of Qalqilya, at least 40 minutes away. During harvest season, the entire village goes to shake olives out of the trees, but Israel only allows a 1-day permit. Divided land, lesser hands and fewer hours do not make for substantial harvests…

At the entrance of Qalqilya, before the high slabs of cement wall that surround the city, there is another Israeli checkpoint, and off to the side is an Israeli military training base. Upon entering the city, Fatah police man a squalid checkpoint, waving you past with their guns. Palm trees line the streets. School is out for the day, and groups of children swarm along the sidewalks. The gentle buzz in the air is subdued by the occupation, by the simple fact that they cannot go to Jerusalem and that yellow-plated Jerusalem cars are not allowed to enter (nor can they enter Nablus or Hebron). No exit and no entry. The road connecting them – Route 60 – is replete with new tunnels passing under for Palestinians only. No access and no movement. And the end of Palestinian dependence and the beginning of independence for Palestine are as far in space as the distances between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.