The Palestine Monitor
Fifty three year old Mohammad Sarkhe looked over towards his elderly
father's house, just eighty meters away and asked himself if he
would still be able to visit after Israel has completed its
"separation" wall.
Indeed he says this wall is one of separation - separating too many
Palestinians from their land, their places of work, their schools,
shops and services, but ultimately from their families, their loved
ones. The Israeli wall that so abruptly severs Palestinian family
ties will not only impair the relations between Sarkhe and his
father but also those between himself and his four brothers and
their children. They will also find themselves living on the other
side of the wall.
The house of Mohammad Sarkhe is located on the outskirts of As
Sawahira ash Sharqiya village, south-east of Jerusalem. The village
is not itself easily definable, it forms part of a larger community,
merging into and sharing the facilities, particularly schools and
health ammenities of the villages of Jabal al Mukabbir and Ash
Sheikh
Sa'd. The wall being built through and around the Palestinian
districts of East Jerusalem however pays no heed to the social
groupings or distribution of amenities located in the neighborhoods
it is isolating. According to PARC, when the 17km wall being built
around the south of East Jerusalem is completed As Sawahira ash
Sharqiya village along with al - Aseriya, and Abu Dis and their
populations comprising roughly 74,000 Palestinians will be
completely isolated from the rest of the city.
This phase of the wall through the southern districts of East
Jerusalem is just part of a further 45km of wall ripping through the
holy city and effectively pushing back the border between East and
West Jerusalem by approximately two kilometers. Israel expects the
building of the "Jerusalem Envelope" to be finished by the end of
the
year, successfully annexing several illegally constructed East
Jerusalem settlements into Israel proper.
The Israeli government has declared that the entire wall, more than
750 kilometers, reaching from the Jordan Valley to the very south of
the Hebron Governorate will be completed by the end of 2005. The
time when, according to the Road Map, Palestinians should in fact be
getting their own independent state. If Sharon has his way and is
allowed to continue with this apartheid wall which Palestinians
complain does not follow the 1967 borders - but in fact cuts deep
into the West Bank confiscating thousands of dunnams of Palestinian
lands and isolating its communities from each other - there will be
no possibility of a viable Palestinian state, Palestine will have
been transformed into a series of walled in ghettos and prisons.
Three months ago Israel began building another section of the wall,
establishing its progression around the eastern part of the city.
With no apparent logic this section of the wall will further
separate Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the city from
those closer in as well as severely hindering all access to and from
the center.
This section of the wall is approximately 20km in length, 8km of
which will run through As Sawahira ash Sharqiya.
We began our visit to As Sawahira ash Sharqiya from Abu Dis, another
village of Palestinian East Jerusalem severely affected by the
construction of the Israeli wall. At the entrance to the town we met
with Jamal Abedat, a Sawahira resident and member of a local
committee formed to resist the construction of the apartheid wall.
It
is December 2003, and like dozens of people were still able to do at
the time, we climbed the concrete blocks initially in place which
closed off ½ km entrance to the village.
The walk to As Sawahira ash Sharqiya is not far and we soon reached
the outskirts where the houses over look Israeli bulldozers
destroying the land in order to establish the wall. Jamal Abedat
points out to us the Al Quds university soccer pitch, through which
Israel had decided to build the wall from end to end. It was only
after much media coverage and negotiations that Israel alternatively
conceded to building the wall alongside. Still, it will be located
inside land of the university.
Not far from the soccer field we meet Mohammad Sarkhe. Some years
ago he had bought a small piece of land five meters from his house
on which to keep chickens and birds. He told us that the wall will
now be built on this land. Israeli engineers are seen there often
and have already marked the ground for the wall's construction.
Asking rhetorical questions he knows all to well that visiting his
father and relatives across the other side of the eight meter tall
concrete wall will now become almost impossible. Communication with
his family will exist only in the form of telephone conversations.
The likelihood that Israeli authorities will install access gates
for
these families has proven improbable, the chance of meeting soldiers
who will actually open these gates is quite another predicament. In
other areas in the northern West Bank where the wall is largely
completed Palestinians complain that the gates are usually closed.
The Israeli authorities cite reasons of security but the reality is
that access is usually granted at the discretion of the guarding
soldiers. Experience has shown that their decisions are based much
more often on personal disposition than orders from those in
authority.
Mohammad Sarkhe says he never thought the Israelis would separate
him and his family in this way. They are Jerusalemites he says; the
city is just 2km from their home. Sarkhe's main concern now is the
future of his son. Qassam is twenty and is currently studying
engineering at Al Quds University. Sarkhe fears soon Qassam will
only be able to look over a wall at the university he once attended.
We left Mohammad Sarkhe feeding his birds and followed the crumbling
road as it zig zagged up the hill. As we progressed we could see an
Israeli placed two meter high barrier blocking the village entrance
and thus preventing the people of As Sawahira ash Sharqiya traveling
to Jabal al Mukabbir and Ash Sheikh Sa'd in their cars. In the road
we met Nazir Saleme, a student returning to his house in As Sawahira
ash Sharqiya from his school in Jabal al Mukabbir. "I don't know
what
I will do after they build the wall" Salame said with an empty
gesture. He has not yet decided if he will try to continue his
education at his present school or look to find a new school in
another area perhaps more easily accessible. He said that he will
decide according to how easy passing through the gates will be. He
says he will just have to wait and see but at fifteen he is
reluctant to now change schools and complete his education away from
his friends and teachers.
Nazir explained to us how already he is forced to walk to this
barrier at the entrance to the village and then after climbing it he
must take a taxi to the school whereas before it was one simple car
ride. His journey now takes half an hour whereas before the Israelis
closed the road it was just five minutes. The local committee
against
the wall in As Sawahira ash Sharqiya said 374 students studying in
schools on the other side of the wall will be disrupted.
Leaving Nazir we continued along the road towards a group of elderly
men assembled outside the butchers shop. One of these men, Sameer
Zaatra asked where they would burry their dead - in our houses? His
fear is that when the Israeli soldiers build the wall they will not
be able to reach the cemetery located in Jabal al Mukabbir. This
cemetery is shared by all three villages.
Zaatra told me how he, his brothers and the other pall-bearers at
his fathers' funeral a few months before were forced to take the
body of his father over the barrier - they had to literally carry
the coffin whilst clambering over the obstruction - then they had to
take his father's coffin to the cemetery in another car. This, he
explained is
happening with all the dead in the village yet even this poor
procedure will be impossible in the future when the wall is
completed.
His friend Hassan Abu Hussein 41 also asked sadly if he would be
able in the future to go to the hospital located in the nearby
village of Tour which will be separated from As Sawahira ash
Sharqiya by the wall. Hassan's sixteen year old son Faras is
undergoing a course of treatment at the al Maqassad hospital which
requires him to have a blood transfusion each month. Already Hassan
is forced to drive to the hospital, the only one in the area, via
back roads, avoiding roadblocks, but he will not be able to do this
when Israel has completed the wall. Thirty five year old Ziad Jaafer
sits with Hussein and the other men. Ziad is working as an
electrician in a workshop in Israel. He too reaches work taking the
back roads as he has West Bank dentification and is therefore not
allowed to pass through the checkpoints to reach his work. He asks
how he will feed his four children in the future. His village is
very small, it is far
from self sufficient and could certainly not offer work to him as
well as all the other workers who will become unemployed after
Israel builds the wall.
Leaving them we continued down the hillside. "There was a forest of
trees here" said Abu Hussein who now accompanied us and began
comparing the now empty bulldozed barren area destroyed for the path
of the wall and the other surrounding areas still plentiful with
olive trees, plants and fruits. Near this cleared area we saw
Israeli bulldozers still uprooting dozens of trees - trees abundant
with lemons and olives. The destruction they have brought to the
area gives the effect that an earthquake has struck the locality.
"Every tree is like a son to me" said Ata Ewesat, who we met sitting
on the hill overlooking the valley. He was referring to his uprooted
trees on the land below - he is the owner of this land where the
Israeli bulldozers are now at work. Ata looks old and tired, his
appearance is disheveled - a man without hope. He says that the wall
will destroy dozens of dunnums belonging to him and his brother.
This is their main source of income, the support for both their
children and grandchildren. Up till now Israeli bulldozers have
uprooted about 400 trees on this confiscated land. He explained how
he suffered a heart attack and was taken to hospital by his children
when he first learned three months ago that Israel would confiscate
the land. His
brother also fainted on hearing the news. Ata says his memories link
him to every tree in this land - every time he sees them uprooted he
remembers his father planting the very trees and as a child picking
the fruit or playing here. He is heartbroken that this is being
taken away from his grandchildren.
Ata described how he and his family, including the small children,
could do nothing but throw stones at the workers when they came to
dig up their land. After being threatened with death or arrest for
their actions they were forced to stop. The family went to the
Israeli court hoping to stop the building but they like so many
others lost their case. Israel has confiscated the land of so many
Palestinians citing the importance of Israeli security in their
defense. All sixty one year old Ata Ewesat can do now is come here
and look at what is happening to his land while his children afraid
of his already suffering health try to stop him.
We leave As Sawahira ash Sharqiya village with its residents still
asking questions about its future and awaiting what will come with
the continued construction of the wall. According to PARC the wall
will destroy 144dunums of land in this area alone this includes some
143 dunums planted with more than 4,000 olive trees.
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