Saturday, 24 March 2012
Saturday, 29 May 2010
No One Can Tell Who Loves It More
Each and everyone of us loves his country in his own way, some express their love by staying in it, working and building it up, others leave it and represent it in a good way outside .both communities in Batir and Tormos A’yya love Palestine each in their own way. people in Batir decided to stay in their small village with limited services they decided to face the occupation and fight it as much as they can they knew that their village is one of the villages that the Israeli’s can’t wait till they put their hands on ,and that they are planning to build a settlement there, they know that by planting a tree they are preventing their village from being taken away, and that’s what they are doing. While most of the people in Tormos A’yya decided to leave to the untied states work there and invest all what they get to build up their village in Palestine and though they left their land but they still love it and try to find the best way to build it up.
In both Batir and Tormos A’yya there were lands took by Israeli’s in order to build settlements and there are such areas that they can’t build in because they are near settlements they have to be certain kilometres away from the settlements in order to make sure of the settlements protection .
The two villages are different in mostly everything and we noticed that since the moment we entered the villages, the architecture of the houses ,their resources, life style, mostly everything but both villages love their country and their villages both communities are trying to build up their villages in the best way ,and both villages are protecting their villages and preventing their land from being taken by the Israelis by cultivating olive trees on the hills ,that these hills wont be taken by the Israelis either to build settlements on or to use them as streets or protection for the settlements that are already there. Palestinians all over the world are considered stateless people ,though Palestine itself is divided into three areas according to Oslo Accords A,B, and C, each and every village is divided into these three areas or at least two of them, some suffered more than the other some more land were taken from them but no one can tell who suffered the most, its not about how many people were killed or imprisoned or how much land were taken . If one inch or thousands of inches were taken it is the same to us. People in Tormos A’yya are ready to help anyone build a house and settle down in their village, while people in Batir just can’t do the same because they are not allowed to build anything in their village
Palestinians are Palestinians wherever they are they hold Palestinian traditions and culture with them, they may not be holding any papers and documents that they are Palestinians , but still Palestine is their home town and they hold it in their hearts though they are considered stateless people and belonging to a stateless country.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Tormos A'yya welcomes everybody
Tormos A’yya is a fancy village located between Ramallah and Nablus it’s 22 km away from Ramallah and 27 km away from Nablus, I’ve never been to Tormos A’yya till my professor assigned a walk there. I’ve passed by Tormos A’yya more than once on my way to Jinen but never actually entered it. I was astonished by how fancy it looked and was really happy when I finally got the chance to enter it. We met at the entrance of the village, there a man from Tormos A’yya introduced himself to us as a’mmo Ashraf he was our guide, he himself used to live in the States just like most of the people in Tormos A’yya did, he lived in the states worked there and all the money he got he invested in his home village, first he built his own house and a small barn, then he thought of doing something new to his village which is something he liked since he was a child horse riding, and he was able to establish horse riding club in a really short time ,then another man from the village asked us a question of how many of us consider themselves as Americans? Many of us answered that they do, but then he clarified that he meant pure Americans and non of us considered ourselves as pure Americans because we all are form Palestinian origins even the ones that spent all their live in the states they can’t deny that they are from Palestinians origins. He told us how they never denied their belonging to Palestine, even though they emigrated and left their hometown they never forgot Palestine and saved everything they earned in the states in order to build up their village ,each one of them invest the money they get in the states to build up something new for their village.
As we were walking we met an old lady she talked to us about Tormos A’yya and even though we knew why was it called Tormos A’yya from a’mo Ashraf we asked her to make sure she knew, se told us the same story a’mo Ashraf had told us. That the villages in that area were governed by a person and he made them pay taxes, this particular village was lead by someone called Tormos and when the governor sent his men to collect the taxes Tormos refused to pay them and refused in Arabic is (a’yya) so they went back to the governor and told him Tormos A’yya which means Tormos refused to pay the taxes. After walking for half an hour we entered the municipality of the village they were really welcoming they opened the conference room for us and after we sat and there the major started talking to us about the village . He told us that Tormos A’yya comes from a Latin word (Terranesia) it was known for growing grapes , it was found 415 years ago with population of 8500 ,4000 of them live in the village and 4500 are living in the united states . More than 80%percent of the people in Tormos A’yya have the American citizenship . The village is developed it has two high schools one for girls and one for boys, and the same thing with secondary school there are two one for girls and the other for boys. They have preschool(kindergarten) and they have a hospital which was established in 2003 and they have a court and two banks in the village and they are working on changing the status of the village from village to a city. The people in Tormos A’yya are generous they welcomed us since we reached the village and didn’t leave us at all after leaving the municipality we walked in the streets of the village we walked between the houses, some of them were really big and fancy others were old and traditional small houses, most of the fancy big houses were empty the people that built them live now in the states and come to stay in them in summer, the Israelis’ took 4000 donoms from the village it’s under their control because they are surrounding settlements and just like people in Batir they cultivate the land that the Israelis wont take more land from them. And there is a certain area in the village which they can’t build in because it’s near the street which is area C .
While walking between the houses we found our selves walking in a hill which is sandy with no streets we had to pick the best path to walk in and the nature and wild plants surrounded us from everywhere and then we reached the horse riding club and there we saw a small pony we had a picture with him and we got to see variety of horses, and then we sat all together heard to stories about Tormos A’yya and had lunch there and left the village with all the intentions to come back to it.
As we were walking we met an old lady she talked to us about Tormos A’yya and even though we knew why was it called Tormos A’yya from a’mo Ashraf we asked her to make sure she knew, se told us the same story a’mo Ashraf had told us. That the villages in that area were governed by a person and he made them pay taxes, this particular village was lead by someone called Tormos and when the governor sent his men to collect the taxes Tormos refused to pay them and refused in Arabic is (a’yya) so they went back to the governor and told him Tormos A’yya which means Tormos refused to pay the taxes. After walking for half an hour we entered the municipality of the village they were really welcoming they opened the conference room for us and after we sat and there the major started talking to us about the village . He told us that Tormos A’yya comes from a Latin word (Terranesia) it was known for growing grapes , it was found 415 years ago with population of 8500 ,4000 of them live in the village and 4500 are living in the united states . More than 80%percent of the people in Tormos A’yya have the American citizenship . The village is developed it has two high schools one for girls and one for boys, and the same thing with secondary school there are two one for girls and the other for boys. They have preschool(kindergarten) and they have a hospital which was established in 2003 and they have a court and two banks in the village and they are working on changing the status of the village from village to a city. The people in Tormos A’yya are generous they welcomed us since we reached the village and didn’t leave us at all after leaving the municipality we walked in the streets of the village we walked between the houses, some of them were really big and fancy others were old and traditional small houses, most of the fancy big houses were empty the people that built them live now in the states and come to stay in them in summer, the Israelis’ took 4000 donoms from the village it’s under their control because they are surrounding settlements and just like people in Batir they cultivate the land that the Israelis wont take more land from them. And there is a certain area in the village which they can’t build in because it’s near the street which is area C .
While walking between the houses we found our selves walking in a hill which is sandy with no streets we had to pick the best path to walk in and the nature and wild plants surrounded us from everywhere and then we reached the horse riding club and there we saw a small pony we had a picture with him and we got to see variety of horses, and then we sat all together heard to stories about Tormos A’yya and had lunch there and left the village with all the intentions to come back to it.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Na Matter Where Were From, We All Belong To This Land
Raja shahade wrote in his book Palestinian Walks about green Palestine , about the Palestinian hills that our great grandfathers used to go walk in ,walk aimlessly just to feel free not restricted by anything just the way he defined going on a sarha"a man going on a sarha wanders aimlessly, not restricted by time and place, going where his spirit takes him to nourish his soul and rejuvenate himself. But not any excursion would qualify as a sarha. Going on a srha implies letting go".(Palestinian walks page2) unfortunately we are not as luck as our great grandfathers we can not wander in this land aimlessly without being asked where are we going and restricted by checkpoints that won’t allow us to pass.
I’m really thankful for our professor for giving us the chance to discover that part of Palestine that we saw in batir. Each one of us comes from a different place of Palestine some of us come from the city and some come from villages, some have a certain bond between them and the land and some barely know anything about the land ,but this walk was new to most of us even those who were visiting Batir for the second time found something new in going once again
We started our walk from DCO in BeitJala we saw the checkpoint that Palestinians that live in these areas have to pass after being checked carefully by Israeli soldiers in order to go to Jerusalem ,and we saw road number 60 which bypasses those Palestinian cities that the Israelis’ transport easily between the settlements without having to enter Palestinian areas which they consider as danger zones.
We walked in small groups and the environmental studies teachers introduce us to new kinds of trees which their names I find it hard to remember, after a certain stage while going down the hill there were no road any longer we had to find the right track especially that the soil was muddy, we were taken by the beauty of the nature and no longer restricted by time we saw caves ands qasers on our way down the hill and we also saw two men building ’salasil’ from three to four layers of rocks between a certain field of trees that prevented the soil from slipping down the hill when it rains. While going down the hill I slipped down and my pants were covered with mud ,but I was not the only one to slip the others that were behind slipped in the same place. When we reached down the valley we were astonished by the great view we were surrounded by hills that are covered with green trees ,I wish we could stay there little longer but we had to go back up. Walking up the hill made us notice how going down was much easier on our way we found wild herbs such as za’tar and meramyeh and we picked some there we were separated into two groups while we were going up the hill the other group stayed in the valley, we were told by one of the guides that dears lived in this area and on our way we found a skeleton at first we thought that it’s a dears skeleton but when we asked the guide he told us that it’s not the skeleton of a dear it was the skeleton of a donkey .it was one of the donkeys that were killed last year and were made into shawermas .
When we reached the top of the hill we were happy to finally have a break since we were walking for four hours we waited for the other group in the meanwhile one of the guides explained to us about the railway when he told us that it’s the railway from malha to yafa and Haifa and those places in the south I remembered that once my family went there and tried to ride that train And were not allowed by the Israelis’ because their permission was for Jerusalem only, and then we were welcomed in a small factory and the man that owned that factory was really generous to us he offered us sandwiches and drinks. He told us that his factory is set on the highest point of the hill. Then we went down to the spring the main source of water in the village we went down the hill first while the other group went directly up the hill in order to grow trees , on our way down we stole lemons fresh yellow lemons with some help from Hassan they guy that was guiding us through our walk and when we reached the railway I asked him is it allowed to cross the road he said yes and explained that there were cameras’ all over the place we sat on the railway and took a pictures and one of the guys saw a dear few miles away from us there Hassan explained to me that dears never drink water which was something really new to me . And when we started to walk up the hill we stole almonds from the trees it was a new and interesting experience and the best thing was that after we started walking up the hill the trained passed just where we were sitting few minutes before . When we met with the other group we found our spots and started growing trees and instead of writing our named we surrounded it with the peace sign made from rocks after growing the trees I had an argument with one of my colleagues because I didn’t knew what was the name of the thing we used to dig the soil with which eventually was a "toreye" the argument was about the difference between living in a village and being surrounded by lands and living in the city and surrounded by stores . After we finished our walk I was dead tired but also really happy that I got the chance to go on this walk which was worth everything. I don’t know where our next walk is going to take place but I’m sure it will be something new an adventure in our own land that we don’t even know .
Mariam Khalaf
Human Geography
&
Introduction to Urban studies
Supervised by Mr. Alessandro Petti
I’m really thankful for our professor for giving us the chance to discover that part of Palestine that we saw in batir. Each one of us comes from a different place of Palestine some of us come from the city and some come from villages, some have a certain bond between them and the land and some barely know anything about the land ,but this walk was new to most of us even those who were visiting Batir for the second time found something new in going once again
We started our walk from DCO in BeitJala we saw the checkpoint that Palestinians that live in these areas have to pass after being checked carefully by Israeli soldiers in order to go to Jerusalem ,and we saw road number 60 which bypasses those Palestinian cities that the Israelis’ transport easily between the settlements without having to enter Palestinian areas which they consider as danger zones.
We walked in small groups and the environmental studies teachers introduce us to new kinds of trees which their names I find it hard to remember, after a certain stage while going down the hill there were no road any longer we had to find the right track especially that the soil was muddy, we were taken by the beauty of the nature and no longer restricted by time we saw caves ands qasers on our way down the hill and we also saw two men building ’salasil’ from three to four layers of rocks between a certain field of trees that prevented the soil from slipping down the hill when it rains. While going down the hill I slipped down and my pants were covered with mud ,but I was not the only one to slip the others that were behind slipped in the same place. When we reached down the valley we were astonished by the great view we were surrounded by hills that are covered with green trees ,I wish we could stay there little longer but we had to go back up. Walking up the hill made us notice how going down was much easier on our way we found wild herbs such as za’tar and meramyeh and we picked some there we were separated into two groups while we were going up the hill the other group stayed in the valley, we were told by one of the guides that dears lived in this area and on our way we found a skeleton at first we thought that it’s a dears skeleton but when we asked the guide he told us that it’s not the skeleton of a dear it was the skeleton of a donkey .it was one of the donkeys that were killed last year and were made into shawermas .
When we reached the top of the hill we were happy to finally have a break since we were walking for four hours we waited for the other group in the meanwhile one of the guides explained to us about the railway when he told us that it’s the railway from malha to yafa and Haifa and those places in the south I remembered that once my family went there and tried to ride that train And were not allowed by the Israelis’ because their permission was for Jerusalem only, and then we were welcomed in a small factory and the man that owned that factory was really generous to us he offered us sandwiches and drinks. He told us that his factory is set on the highest point of the hill. Then we went down to the spring the main source of water in the village we went down the hill first while the other group went directly up the hill in order to grow trees , on our way down we stole lemons fresh yellow lemons with some help from Hassan they guy that was guiding us through our walk and when we reached the railway I asked him is it allowed to cross the road he said yes and explained that there were cameras’ all over the place we sat on the railway and took a pictures and one of the guys saw a dear few miles away from us there Hassan explained to me that dears never drink water which was something really new to me . And when we started to walk up the hill we stole almonds from the trees it was a new and interesting experience and the best thing was that after we started walking up the hill the trained passed just where we were sitting few minutes before . When we met with the other group we found our spots and started growing trees and instead of writing our named we surrounded it with the peace sign made from rocks after growing the trees I had an argument with one of my colleagues because I didn’t knew what was the name of the thing we used to dig the soil with which eventually was a "toreye" the argument was about the difference between living in a village and being surrounded by lands and living in the city and surrounded by stores . After we finished our walk I was dead tired but also really happy that I got the chance to go on this walk which was worth everything. I don’t know where our next walk is going to take place but I’m sure it will be something new an adventure in our own land that we don’t even know .
Mariam Khalaf
Human Geography
&
Introduction to Urban studies
Supervised by Mr. Alessandro Petti
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