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Faisal Al-Khatib from Hizma, a village north-east
of Jerusalem, tells us:
First of all, this story I'm about to tell you started a few years ago,
but it has intensified lately. I'm talking about Hizma and Beit Iksa,
two villages that cannot be given to the Palestinian Authority. Because
there are a lot of Jewish colonies there and these two villages are
right in their midst. In the case of Hizma it is right on the main road
serving the colonists from Pisgat Ze'ev to Adam, going through to Hizma.
That's how we see it.
So there are rumors probably leaked by the army that they want to give
our village and Beit Iksa a document under the heading 'Age no. 3'. Or
just 'No. 3'. Or 4. Something like that. In other words, neither Israeli
nor Palestinian citizen. A third category.
We won't be Shabak-prevented. Allowed to go to Jerusalem and to Tel
Aviv. Travel and work. But not belonging – neither to Israel nor to the
Palestinian Authority.
Unlike East Jerusalemites, not paying city taxes to the Jerusalem
municipality. Not getting any health services. I don't know what we'll
do about medical treatment. Probably have to pay.
We think it will happen after the Ramadan. Or at the end of this year.
We don't know all of this for sure. But we keep hearing about it. I
don't know exactly what the sources are. But the army has been leaking
it. The flower vendors heard this, near the roundabout on top of the
hill. The army and municipality inspectors came and grabbed their wares.
Told them that people from Hizma and Beit Iksa will be getting a new
document, so they could work inside Israel.
Years ago, during the Oslo Accords, Israelis talked with Abu Amar
(Arafat) about this idea, but he wouldn't agree to a document that has
no citizenship/residency.
There are several things related to this. That show it. They photograph
us, for example. In our village and in Beit Iksa, same thing. The army
came in and took pictures of every family.
This happened several months ago already, perhaps last year. Not now.
They would come at night with cameras, enter each house, note down those
living in the house, then they would leave. They would come at five, or
at midnight, all hours. They'd come, not disrupt anything, not raise
hell. Just ask whose house is this, take photographs, sometimes pictures
of people as well.
They came to our own house at 8:30-9 p.m. We already heard about it.
That they are coming around counting family members. Because they'd
already been to the whole neighborhood. But they came just like that, no
beatings, no rifles, just wanting to know exactly who lives in the
house. Young, old. Didn't even demand to see our IDs. They knew in
advance. Just confirmed it.
Say in our house, the parents live on the ground floor, my brother is
upstairs. The soldier knew all about that. He knew everything we told
him.
Then he photographs the house. Each room. And some of the children.
More than fifteen soldiers came around. But without doing anything. We
thought they were on maneuvers.
Then a few days ago they came and photographed the village streets.
Didn't enter houses. Just around the neighborhood. Jeeps of the Border
Patrol and army. But the ones doing all the photographing are army.
And three months ago they photographed schools. They stood on the
roadside, the one leading to Pisgat Ze'ev or to Anata. And took pictures
of the village. They photograph everything.
And there's something else, that's connected.
Say I'm from Jaba. So it's written that my place of residence is Jaba,
Ramallah municipal district. If I'm from the Qalandiya refugee camp,
then the city is Ramallah.
But our IDs are different. We have Hizma written as our place of
residence, and near the word city it says nothing. Just 00.
We asked our authorities why this is so in our IDs, and were told there
is yet no solution for our village from the Israeli side.
On the one hand people in the village say this idea is not logical,
Israel wants to get rid of all Jerusalemites. So suddenly Hizma
residents would be permitted into Jerusalem? And suddenly we're not
Shabak-prevented? Allowed to cross over. It doesn't make sense. From
their side it's not logical.
But I think that it isn’t because our village is good for them. If they
give us this document, they'll steal the rest of the land of this
village.
That's people's idea. That maybe they're giving this so they can take
whatever is left of the village lands.
And also because lately they've built the Adam colony. And they want to
enlarge it. And Adam is next to us.
They've already put up a wire fence and taken land. About a month ago. I
don't know exactly. They put up a fence and our lands are now on their
side.
And another thing about Adam: there was a colonist outpost near
Ramallah. And they dismantled it because of all that talk in the world
about Israel and Obama, and they moved to Adam a month ago.
Maybe this way too, if people from these two villages come to work in
Israel, then
all the workers from the Territories will no longer be allowed in.
I'll explain their method to you, about the fence. You've seen how they
sometimes put up a wire fence, and sometimes concrete walls. No one can
move a concrete wall, but they can move a wire fence whenever they want.
I say you got to check and see if they intend to take the land and then
switch from wire fences to concrete walls.
Say near Anata there's now a concrete wall and near Hizma and Jaba only
a wire fence, it's because they haven't taken all the land yet. They've
taken a lot but not all of it. Hizma's lands are out in the direction of
Jericho.
Maybe they want to take them and cut the land in half. Separate. That's
what I think.
The upper part will be Nablus and Ramallah districts and the lower part
Hebron and Bethlehem districts.
I also think this is just a preparation for what will be done to
Jerusalemites. I don't know exactly how it will be done, but that's what
I think. To make them go away.
We're worried. There are rumors but we don't know anything.
published
31.7.2009 |
