Subject: trans. Agricultural crossing, Hablah, Azun Atmeh

Agricultural crossing Habla, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Mon. AM, 8.11.10

07:30  Habla

The gate opened on time but, despite the late hour, there are still about 20 Palestinians waiting to cross.  The soldiers are polite and make the crossing swift and well-organized.

07:50  ‘Azzun

There is a "hammer" opposite the entrance to ‘Azzun, observing those coming and going.  We enter the village on our way to ‘Azzun ‘Atma.  We travel the pleasant road through the villages Thulth, Sannirya and Bet Amin, and arrive at the abandoned gate which embittered the lives of the residents in the past.  The olive harvest is almost over, and you only see individual pickers here and there.  The burning and smelly garbage dump which was on the side of the road for many years, between Sannirya and Bet Amin, is extinguished and seems to be taken care of.

The entrance to the village of ‘Azzun ‘Atma passes at the foot of the houses of Sha'arei Tikvah.  Their balconies are actually next to and attached to the fence.  We pass by two schools and arrive at a very new attractive building which serves as a learning center and kindergarten.  There are new playground toys in the courtyard, grass and flowers.  Donated by the World Bank.

We reach the upper gate which is manned by soldiers and serves as an exit for workers in the nearby settlements.  Also, Palestinians whose lands are on the other side of the fence "succeeded" in receiving permits to go out to their land.  Dozens of cars of Palestinans from the nearby villages, who have work permits for the settlements, are parked on the roads leading to the checkpoint and in an improvised parking lot alongside the checkpoint.

We talked with some taxi drivers who were waiting for passengers about the present situation, which is a bit better than the past, but still pretty awful.  For example, one of the taxi driver's family has an olive grove on the other side of the fence.  His brother is unemployed, but didn't receive a permit to work during the harvest.  In contrast, the brother who is a taxi driver and employed, did receive a permit but then lost work days so that he could help his elderly parents…They gave us other examples of hard-heartedness and difficulties. 

In fact, our visit in the village was in preparation for a meeting with the residents who have lands along the seam line and even within the area between settlements which are near the village.

After a phone conversation with the head of the village, we traveled to the town hall and met with the village secretary.  The town hall is in the lower portion of the village, in a large building which has a big auditorium on the ground floor which serves as an events hall for the residents.  On the next floor, there is a public clinic with doctor and nurses and also the Physicians for Human Rights work there once a week.  On the top floor are the village offices.

We met the village secretary, a very impressive man, a graduate of A-najah University in Nablus.  Speaks excellent Hebrew.  Before the building of the fence around the village, he had a fruit and vegetable shop near the entrance of the settlement Sha'arei Tikvah (on his own land).  Israelis from the area would shop there, settlers and army personnel who passed through.  In the year 1997, when the settlement was enlarged, he received a demolition order for the shop and, after it had been demolished 6 times, he gave up.  Even now, Israelis call him up and ask how he is doing and how his father is, and speak sorrowfully of the present situation.

We spoke for a long time, about the situation in village and about the land problems and about his life and that of his family under the occupation.  He and his extended family live in a house which is outside the fence, opposite the gate, and their daily dependence on going through the checkpoint all the time for work, for school, to the store and the doctor, is unbearable.  We concluded that, after the holiday in the coming week, he would invite representatives from 3 families to meet us in the town hall, so that we could gather information in an organized and exact way.  He agreed with us that one can't expect much regarding the "arrangement" of permits;  the goal is to publicize the difficulties of the occupation, with an emphasis on the land problems.

We returned again through the villages and saw that, at this late hour, the shops and cafes were still open and there were a lot more people in the streets.

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