Settlements Along the Roads — Without Warning, and We Who Sowed the Seed

-        10-11-2018

-        As every year... and at this time at the start of winter... I sow the seeds designated for the winter season... in a small hacura... it is the garden of my rented house in Al-Bireh. With an area of about 400 square meters..... whose crop was excellent last year.. from the spotted American peas.. to the Cypriot fava beans to the Mexican chickpeas... and much else...!!

-        I set out with part of my family to my town Azzoun in Qalqilya Governorate... and although I visit it once every month, I smell the scent of the land... the birthplace... and we visit what we can... of family and friends. We return the ill and participate in the town's occasions of the townspeople, whether joyous... or sorrowful... yet our town's situation is difficult like that of many towns and villages of the homeland.. for surrounding our town Azzoun... and within its lands are four Zionist settlements or five... most of them on lands of the town of Azzoun... and confiscated by military orders in most cases...!!! Also a settlement wall surrounds it enclosing it from more than one side.. and the occupation seized the townspeople's lands through which this wall passes and for many meters on both its sides.. all confiscated militarily.. and this settlement density... leads them to close the town ... to chase the townspeople in the town... arrest them and secure and protect the settlers' exits on the roads surrounding the town so they can assault the townspeople.. and obstruct their exits.. and burn their crops.. and thus it is not easy to come to the town..... moreover the timing of this visit does not allow... carrying out many activities.. for most of what we spend there... in the land of the fathers and grandfathers and at every visit... is a day and a night... and usually it begins Friday morning.....!!! where we pray in the town's old mosque where my house is in its neighborhood... this on the infrequent ordinary days.. whereas most of the time the town's main gate is closed and subject to humiliating individual military searches...

-        My town Azzoun is surrounded by gates at the main northern entrance.. where the main road that links Nablus and Qalqilya runs and from Azzoun there is also a road to Tulkarm city.. as for the southern road it leads to Jerusalem to the south passing through many villages and towns... The occupation forces have inaugurated gates with locks and keys at its entrances for many long years....... In most cases they close the town's outlets and open fire and tear gas grenades.. the tear-inducing gas.. and blood-inducing gas at times... and they also built permanent watchtowers... in the elevated areas of the town from which whoever mans them can see the ships in the Mediterranean Sea.. on Palestine's shores....!! The occupation forces pursue the peaceful resistance youth... who stand guard – throw stones – at the occupation forces stones of flint.. and other means classified among the tools classified and permitted by the United Nations. And our leadership first and foremost....!! But the occupation forces consider stones a prohibited weapon and a means of expressing hatred of the occupation and resistance... by the citizens.. therefore... their forces raid at night and at pre-dawn hours on the citizens' homes in our town... as they arrest and beat and break household contents and wound and kill.... and uproot trees... and wreak havoc.. in the town searching for the town's sons.. and they arrest children.. It is worth mentioning... that the current prisoners from Azzoun to my knowledge number more than four hundred prisoners among them dozens of children.. under the age of twelve... and dozens with repeated life sentences... and consequently.. on many nights and during our visits they break into our houses... the door searched for resistors.. and this is distant from the middle of the pre-dawn... so there is no quiet sleep in our town in addition to anxiety for the town's sons and their property... and the town suffers commercial stagnation.... due to the presence and patrols of occupation forces in the streets even the narrow ones..... and they open the gates only rarely... whereby they prohibit entry and exit movements even for health reasons or seeking knowledge... noting that the area of our town Azzoun is classified as "C" in the Oslo agreements.. 1993.. but they have not left to the memory in this homeland as a whole anyone who preserves the classification... and the categories A, B, and C... for all of them ...... are common property to them !!.. they respect no one..!!. Even foreign supporters of peace who visit the town and neighboring towns... are many times beaten.. and arrested.. and their cameras destroyed so that the world is not informed of the truth of what is happening...

-        On our journey whose title was "and we are the ones who sowed the seed" we saw the Zionist settlements... which were built on hilltops.. and have begun to spread and buildings and villas have appeared.. which we did not see before.. where it seems that the settlers seized new lands... around them.... without accountability or oversight... toward the slopes. Thus they have come to appear and overlook passersby who drive their cars on the public roads.... and they choose — that is, the Zionist settlers — the hilltops to control..... from above.. where the terrain is difficult to reach by any resistors... in addition to the fact that whoever drives on the roads in his car cannot notice the development of the settlements' construction.. and it seems that they have become unconcerned... and have begun to extend... it has been observed over years extending more than two decades... that each time we go to our town Azzoun.... we see new houses built .. or new landmarks or new factories belonging to the settlements...!!! But I said... to myself... why don't our authorities!! publish statistics on the new permits... granted to the settlers... and that new housing has been built.. it has been customary... that statistics are published and protests made on this... and an appeal to the United Nations to put an end to such practices to change the homeland's features.. and create a new fait accompli for them!!! From such statistics.. what is transmitted from the Hebrew press and from Israeli leftist organizations.!!.. but these organizations or the statistics of our community... are not announced.. most of them.. except based on what is circulated by the Israeli newspapers.. by publishing tables of building permits in the settlements..... And it seems that the Zionist occupiers have refrained from routing approval of building permit transactions in the settlements to their official circles..!! so that some are not routed via the media or Israeli organizations.... so they have become building without permits... not randomly but rather with silent authorization and planning that our community's observatories do not detect ..!!. Or the observatories of Israeli peace organizations... and when you ask our workers who work in the settlements!!! .. do you know about these buildings or additions in your area.. they say.. that most likely these buildings are under the title "fattening existing settlements" meaning not building new sites... and the expansion of existing settlements by what is known as fattening settlements according to the natural population growth.... for the occupation sees that such expansion of existing settlements is not internationally prohibited..... according to sources.. the fait accompli..!!.. and according to expressions invented in the negotiations "settlement freeze". and not building new settlements.. in the sense that we recognize the existing settlements.... and in reality.. they do not care... no shouting here or plea there.!!.. And these days and under the cover of new regional and international problems... they have occupied the world .. and distanced the appeal even in freezing settlement... they are quietly carrying out feverish construction... for new settlements and others for new buildings in the existing settlements...!!

-It is worth mentioning that the settlements... their construction intensified some time ago.... The number of settlers was around 150,000 settlers in them in the late 1980s of the last century... As for the beginning of the 1990s of the last century, settlement began to expand at a rapid pace... to the extent that the settlers of these settlements from the Zionists until these days number more than 800,000 settlers... despite the rounds of negotiations that were held with the Palestinians throughout this period....!!.

-        In light of that and often we avoid visiting our towns..... except after Friday afternoon and throughout Saturday when the settlers according to their religious rites... are Sabbath-observant in their homes...!! And despite that, many killings by settlers occurred.. of young Palestinian women who were pregnant with children in their arms.. on the occupiers' holidays.....!!

-        I went to the Golden Ear shop in our town Azzoun where seeds and agricultural materials are sold.. and pesticides... and grains... and seedlings... and it is a shop I had established at the start of my entering Palestine in 1994 when we entered to reopen the banks' branches there, licensed in my wife's name... where I worked at the beginning of our entry as manager of the Arab Bank in Nablus... this shop that we own in the town... is managed by one of the town's loyal and trustworthy young men.. named Ahmed Anaya – Abu Abdullah –.. where I told him .. O Abu Abdullah... put for me – give me – two kilograms of spotted peas.. and one and a half kilos of Cypriot fava beans and one and a half kilos of Mexican chickpeas.. and some spinach seeds and one kilo of onion sets.. and some parsley seeds and the same amount of arugula seeds.. and some seedlings of cauliflower and cabbage and red cabbage.. and we put them in a large carton... and with them four kilos of white ammoniac fertilizer.... and I loaded them into the car... on the morning of Saturday.. corresponding to 10-11-2018....

-        A journey filled with longing, love and pride that we are present on a part of its land.. despite the settlements... the cancerous ones that... are being built these days without warning even though among our ranks there is a minister.. to monitor settlement and the wall... and to announce the statistics!!! And among his difficult tasks with the occupation authorities... is to solve whatever he can of the citizens’ problems.. to the extent of the group’s capabilities... our primary authority!!.. this is what they can do..!!!. They build without statistics and without warning.... and we sow and strengthen our ties to our land and let it be.. cultivating the land!! For it is resistance!
We are trying to use the Arab Peace Initiative that the sons of our people launched... long ago.. to spread peace with the occupation..!!. in a clear delusion... from which we have not learned over time. From the days of the Khartoum 'no's.. and we conceded a great deal... and the Arab initiative came.. but they rejected it and cast it... away.. and we are still appealing to them to that delusion called peace... according to the occupation’s standards..!!.

-        And although some of the reasons for much of this.... are us.!!! .However, we are all believers that "on this land there is that which deserves life.".!!