Sabri Abdallah Abu Kamesh was 6 years old when the State of Israel declared its independence in 1948. He has lived in Beitillu all his life and now, with his daughter, he tends his smallholding in a beautiful, green wadi near the village. We visited him there on Independence Day this May. He made us tea and gazed proudly at his neat rows of vegetables and fruit. In two months time, he told us, everything will be green. We promised to come back to see it.
Sabri Abdullah’s smallholding
It sounds idyllic. But two years ago Israeli settlers from the nearby settlement of Nehali’el arrived just before the harvest. They destroyed everything. They come regularly, we were told, with cars and guns, and soldiers to protect them. Sabri Abdallah irrigates his crops from a natural spring by means of a pump and plastic piping. The settlers have destroyed his pump, poisoned the water and cut and destroyed the irrigation piping.
All this is happening in what Israel calls the “disputed territories” of Judaea and Samaria, and what the international community calls the Occupied Palestinian Territories – land which Israel has held under military occupation since June 1967. Under International Humanitarian Law, which governs the behaviour of an occupying power and its treatment of the population of the territory is it occupying, “The Occupying Power shall not ….. transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Yet Israel allows and in fact encourages, by means of tax breaks and favourable mortgage arrangements, the growth of settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied Territories. Today, some half a million Israelis live in settlements, considered illegal by the international community, in the West Bank.
Tea is brewed for the guests
Sabri Abdallah worries for his daughter’s future. He has had surgery for cancer, but he will not give up his smallholding and he will not leave. “When people come… and drink tea with me, and listen, it gives me power to stay” he tells us. He understands that we cannot solve his problems or get rid of the settlers, but our presence and our support and understanding is much appreciated.
We take our leave and go on to visit another peaceful wadi nearby, also belonging to the village of Beitillu. Here Israeli settler families are enjoying picnics on their public holiday, under the protection of a couple of bored-looking armed soldiers. “Chag sameach!” they greet us – “Happy holiday! We are celebrating our freedom in this land”.
Yes. But whose freedom?… whose land?
The settlers’ picnic. Note the vital piece of picnic equipment slung across the shoulder.
Through My Eyes and Ears 