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The New Israeli Geography Erasing History Of Villages
Saeda Hamad Al-Hayat 2003/11/21
According to the new Israeli geography, the village of Azoon Atmeh in the district of Qalqilia is no longer part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank. The separation wall has 'moved' it westward, locking it between an iron gate and the fictional Green line. And yet, according to Israel's plan, the village itself and its 3,000 inhabitants will not be part of the state of Israel.
To enter the Palestinian village, one must come from within the Green line, where Palestinians who do not reside in the village are forbidden to cross the iron gate to the West Bank and enter it. The village inhabitants are allowed to cross the military gate toward neighboring villages, but only during the hours set by the soldiers. The scene is all the more surprising because Israelis describe the wall as a security wall, but in the village and around its houses, there are houses of the Jewish settlement of Shaar, which are only separated from the Palestinian houses by a fence. The village is just a few meters away from the village of Kfer Qasem, and there is no material separation between the village and the Green line after the military barrack was removed, leaving only an Israeli military patrol to control the passing cars.
On both sides of the military gate, dozens of students and teachers wait every morning to be allowed to cross the gate because one part of the common school for both villages is in Azoon Atmeh and the other in Beit Amin.
As for the teachers who have no identity cards showing they live in one of the villages, they should get special "authorizations" from the military authorities. The matter is even more complicated, as one of the teachers complained that they had to wait until the soldier finished playing with the dog to begin the identity inspection.
Palestine's flag and the settlement
In the secondary school of Azoon Atmeh-Beit Amin, a Palestinian flag flutters in the breeze. The settlers are bothered by the national anthem and call the military governor of the region to complain. Hence, he calls the school principle and orders him to immediately stop it.
The Palestinian flag represents the height of provocation; an Israeli patrol asked a Palestinian citizen to go to the school and remove the flag under the threat of taking his identity card.
The Israeli wall that isolated the village from the rest of the West Bank is not as dangerous as the 'maps' Israeli forces distributed about the fence that would encircle the village and transform it into a huge prison, the people would carry out new identities that are not Eastern nor Western, not Palestinian nor Israeli.
According to the map, those people would lose the majority of their agricultural land. They would be totally destroyed. They would suffer hunger, unemployment and poverty. The people know that the Israelis do not care about the security issue; they only want to take over the most fertile lands in the West Bank.
Another scene is the house of Hani Amer, 46, in the village of Mesha, a kilometer away from Azoon Atmeh. Amer built his house in the midst of the fertile land that was cut from the rest of the village following the Israeli policy of controlling the widest land possible with the less Palestinians possible.
Hence, Amer has for neighbors a few settlers only. Their houses are only separated by a very high fence. In front of them, there is the thick cement high wall and the iron gate guarded by a soldier. His house was encircled with a fence that turned it into a real cage with a door to the iron gate.
Amer opposed a fierce resistance to the Israeli financial offers in return for leaving his house and move. But Amer said he would not sell his house and wants to remain in it. He mentioned that long before, his grandparents were forced to leave Kfar Qasem and today, he will not accept to see this being repeated. When the Israeli authorities understood he would not budge, they sent him an intelligence agent who told him that if he does not move, his house will be destroyed. He answered that this would be their responsibility and that any way they were a mafia and not a state. According to Amer, it is unacceptable that one leaves his house when it is his country as well, no matter what the circumstances are.
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