Dear Friends and Supporters,
As many of you know, I spent five weeks last winter with the PFTA
(Palestine Fair Trade Association) conducting interviews and doing
research for my undergraduate thesis. Now, I am back in Jenin to
complete a two to three month internship with the PFTA. I will be
sending weekly emails to this list with anecdotes, experiences, and
news from the West Bank.
In the United States, the bulk of the news from Palestine consists of
reports on the Annapolis Peace Conference, the rockets from Gaza, the
so-called "terrorist" elements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the
"clashes" between Palestinians and Israeli settlers and soldiers. In
the midst of all these international news stories it sometimes becomes
hard to remember that there are millions of people living their lives
and finding ways to overcome the difficulties of living under
occupation. In Palestine there is frequently a palpable feeling of
despair paradoxically mixed with a sense of hopefulness and a
determination to overcome. In the space of ten minutes, it is not
unusual to see tears and hear laughter, to hear a story of humiliation
and one of triumph.
A few days ago, I went to visit a farmer in the village of Anin.
Situated about twenty minutes northwest of Jenin city, Anin is a
village that has lost 12,000 dunums of land because of the wall. This
loss represents a stunning 75% of the total land belonging to the
village, disconnecting farmers from their land and trees. Speaking
with a farmer who has lost two thirds of his land he explained the
difficulties caused by the wall. The Israeli military has constructed
a gate to (theoretically) allow farmers to plough their fields and
harvest their crops. A mess of rolls of razor wire, motion sensors,
and cameras, this gate is scheduled to be open every day between 5am
and 5pm for farmers with land on the other side. The farmers carry
slips of paper issued by the Israeli government as permission. In
reality, this gate is open from 10am to 2pm and farmers are allowed in
only by foot and with donkeys, and sometimes, if they are lucky, a
tractor. Obviously, it is not easy to harvest thousands of kilos of
olives, load them on a donkey and carry them through a gate for four
hours every day for one month. The farmer I spoke with claimed it
would take at least twice this long to effectively harvest his olives
not including the time needed to plough the land and prune his trees.
I asked the farmer about the concept of samud, or steadfastness. As he
began to cry, he explained that no matter how much money he is offered
he will never give up his land, preferring to farm his trees and drink
tea in his field. After answering, he walked to a rock and sat down,
looking at the fields, smoking a cigarette, and crying. Twenty minutes
later, I found myself seated in the sitting room of the farmer's house
chatting happily about unrelated subjects. While the PFTA cannot
remove the gate or change IDF regulations, they are able to offer
farmers a higher price, making the loss of volume of the harvest
slightly less painful economically.
Another story: After returning to Jenin from Ramallah yesterday, we
passed the Al-Jalama checkpoint at about 6:30 in the evening. As we
approached it was clear that something unusual was going on. A crowd
of about sixty almost completely silent men were standing across the
street from the checkpoint complex. It turned out they were waiting
for the body of their family member, who had died in an Israeli jail to
be returned to their custody. The man was arrested without being
charged and died because the Israeli jail did not give him the
necessary medical care when he became very ill a few weeks earlier.
As the "Annapolis Theater Production" (aka peace conference) already
shows signs of failure, as the military continues its daily incursions
into the West Bank, and as Palestinian and Israeli leaders fail to
improve the lives of their citizens, life goes on. It's amazing that
in the face of all this despair, Palestinians are so welcoming and
hospitable and try to enjoy themselves in any way they can. After
hearing a story about difficulty at a checkpoint, one PFTA employee
said, "It's normal, life will continue with all its problems."
Here's to a 2008 of freedom. Happy New Year.
Salaam.
Andrew Pappone