Whenever I go to Palestine, I come away shocked at what Israel is doing there, without any American recognition.
I realize that I am almost as blind as all the other Americans– because our media has done nothing to inform us about conditions. Our society has ignored these conditions by saying, Well it’s a tough neighborhood, or, They’re Arabs. Below is a video about the Arabs in that tough neighborhood. It is one of several videos I’ll be posting in days to come.
The video is of Haj Sami Sadeq, who is mayor of a little village in the occupied Jordan Valley. I made it the night I spent as his guest in Al-Aqaba.
As you know, the Jordan Valley is considered strategic for Israel– its only buffer against the tough Arab neighbors in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
Israel vows never to give up the Jordan Valley. And there are two Israeli army bases near Al-Aqaba. Israel has seized village lands on all sides.
And what comes through plainly in the video is that little Al-Aqaba is being ethnically cleansed: The entire Palestinian village is under a demolition order. The Israeli army regularly comes in and destroys roads in the village. Under this assault, the village’s population has plunged, from more than a thousand many years ago to a couple of hundred.
When you say you believe in the two-state solution, something I believe in occasionally– consider that it would allow Israel to stay in the occupied Jordan Valley forever, persecuting these people on an ethnic basis, because they are not Jewish.
So now please watch the video. Sadeq is in a wheelchair because he was shot on his family lands 30 years ago, by an Israeli soldier. Sadeq wasn’t doing anything, just visiting his parents that day.
He is as gentle a person as you will ever find. And listen to him describe the fact that the Israeli army bases have wells and water– their confiscated lands are green — while Aqaba cannot get permission to drill a well. The village cannot get permission to drill a well, because it is in Area C. And meantime the Israeli army drills well after well. And the village must bring in water by truck every day.
Phil, someday you must post an essay that EXPLAINS the LAND-OWNERSHIP system of Palestine before 1922 and maybe until 1947.
It’s explained, I believe, by a book by Raja Shehada. The point is that it is not the same as western, or British, or American real property law. Ownership is not limited to PERSONAL, STATE (or VILLAGE). There are also (as I dimly recall) various types or grades of communal lands, for grazing for instance, used by all residents of a village and regarded as their land. there is also land owned by religious “trusts” (waqf land).
Israel pretends that land not PERSONALLY owned is STATE land and that they may usurp it at will. This is probably not true EVEN of actually state land, under international law, but it is especially galling where it conflates various types of non-STATE#, non-Personal ownerships with state-ownership.
Check it out.
Thanks, Phil!
this is a really powerful video. i just tweeted this and added the words powerful video to the tweet. only 10 people have watched this. that is a shame.
phil, i think you should move this up the queue because i completely missed it this morning and i don’t think i am alone. this is too important to move down the page so fast.
The village’s motto is “Rebuilding to Remain” and lots is going on right now. They’re planning to build homes under permits issued by the village in coordination with the PA. For more information about this very imaginative plan (which anywhere else would be normal, but in Area C is a form of civil resistance), please see this statement.
Note that on Wed, Oct 19th, the village, with help from international supporters, will attempt to crowd-sourcing house down-payments on GlobalGiving.org, taking advantage of a GG 30% matching grant that day to entries that reach a certain threshold in that single day.