Al Aqaba: The war of nerves

The entrance of the village of Aqaba, in the Jordan Valley

Picture: Palestine Monitor

Al Aqaba is a small village of 300 inhabitants located in one of the most fertile areas of the West Bank, between Jenin and the Jordan Valley. The green valley would be a paradise, if the village hadn’t been the target of Israeli aggressions since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, when Aqaba was declared a closed military zone. Since then, the Israeli government has been literally trying to get rid of the town and its Palestinian residents, using many ways to achieve their plan.

Two Israeli military bases are stationed near Al-Aqaba, and until June 2003, when the town won a groundbreaking victory in Israel’s Supreme Court, a third was located directly next to the village. For the last 40 years, the villagers have been surrounded by military training fields, where the officers train with live ammunitions, injuring tens of the residents.

The fields that surround Aqaba are used by the Israeli soldiers as military training fields where they train with live ammunitions

Picture: Palestine Monitor

Haj Sami Sadiq is one of the victims. The Head of Al Aqaba Council is a charismatic and emblematic character who has devoted his life to the future of his village, as his personal history has been so deeply affected by the occupation. The man, who has been sitting in a wheelchair for the last 36 years, inspires sympathy and respect. When Sami was sixteen, he was shot by three live bullets in his back while walking on his land. The bullets hit his back and he turned paraplegic. This was on the 28th of June 1971 and he still remembers it as if it was yesterday. “Now, our kids are playing with the bullets that they find everywhere in the fields around” Haj Sami noted sadly.

Haj Sami Sadiq is the charismatic Head of the Council of Aqaba. He has been sitting on a wheelchair for 37 years, after he got shot by the Israeli army when he was a teenager

Picture: Palestine Monitor

For the last 30 years, many villagers from Aqaba have been, like Sami, the victims of the Israeli will to get rid of the town. 8 people have been killed by live ammunitions and more than 50 villagers have been injured as a result of the Israeli occupation during the daily and nightly trainings of the Israeli soldiers. Some have been injured by live bullets, others by mines that are scattered everywhere in the fields around.

Teenager from Al Aqaba painting Handala on a wall in the centre of the town, a symbol of resistance

Picture: Palestine Monitor

“Once a shepherd from the village went to that field”, a woman from Al Aqaba recalled, while pointing at a vast green area just next to the entrance of the village. “Then we heard an explosion. We thought it was a bomb.” It wasn’t a bomb but indeed an explosion. The man had stepped on a landmine, and was heavily hurt in both his arms and legs.

Attempting to erase a Palestinian village from the map

The village lies in a small ‘A zone’ enclave –that is supposed to lie under full Palestinian civil and military control- surrounded by a larger area located in zone C, which is fully controlled by the Israeli government. Those zones were established after the Oslo Agreement in 1993 and 1995 that divided the West Bank into three zones: Area A which lies under full control of the Palestinian Authority, Area B which lies under both Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C where the Israelis have full control over the zone. But on the ground -and unfortunately- the places and villages located in the zone C are almost not Palestinian anymore, as they are completely ruled and colonized by Israel and its Jewish settlements.

In addition to its strategic location on the border of the Zone C, the village also lies on the Jordan valley soil, a fertile land that enjoys a lot of aquifer resources underground. To Sami Musallam, the governor of Tubas, the Israeli government has three main goals in the region: “destroying the villages, confiscating their lands and their water resources“. He is right. The evident aim of the plan is to cleanse the land of Aqaba of its Palestinian population, and to colonize and confiscate it in a second stage.

Although the main military base has been removed, the village still has to face many other struggles. The village has been deprived from accessing healthcare and education as Israel is carrying out a highly restrictive policy that prevents the village from obtaining any legal permits to build houses or any public infrastructures such as a Mosque, school or health centre. By refusing to issue legal permits, the Israeli government is securing its own policy and producing its own argument to legitimate the house demolition policy: As buildings are erected illegally, the constructions can be destroyed.

The village is prevented from obtaining any legal building permits from Israel. As a consequence, many houses are made of tents

Picture: Palestine Monitor

Many private properties and houses have been demolished and Aqaba’s shepherds and farmers have been prevented from accessing their land by the Israeli army claiming the ‘military purpose’ argument, taking away the only income of many families.

As a consequence, what could have been a prosperous Palestinian village is now almost left abandoned. Before the 70’s, a thousand of people used to live in Aqaba, but since the Israeli policy started to heavily target and besiege the city, many of them decided to leave, looking for a brighter and easier future. From a thousand inhabitants thirty years ago, now only 300 remain.

Facing a new round: The building of the Wall

Since September 2003, Haj Sami and the villagers have been facing a new round in the war of nerves as the Israeli government released a new map for the route of the apartheid Wall. A route that will pass right at the entrance of the village, isolating Aqaba from the neighbouring villages.

Kids from Al Aqaba attending a summer camp in the village

Picture: Palestine Monitor

Initially, Al Aqaba owned an area of some 30 000 dunums of agricultural and grazing land. But according to the new Israeli plan, the villagers are forbidden from residing outside of the 20 dunum area that represents the centre of the town. And even amongst the 20 dunums that remain, at least thirty-five homes have already received a demolition order from the IOF.

But thanks to Haj Sami’s dedication and steadfastness, and despite the ongoing Israeli policy of siege on the little town, the situation of Al Aqaba is now improving. Determined to do everything that was in his power in order to facilitate the life of the villagers, Haj Sami Sadiq contacted numerous foreign donors and launched a sensibilization campaign to improve the citizens’ life. The village was shown great international support, received donations from Belgium, Japan, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Canada, and now benefits from a clinic, a mosque, a school and a kindergarten that welcomes more than 130 kids from Aqaba and the neighbouring villages.

All these are ‘built illegally’ –from an Israeli perspective- i.e. without permit. These amazing improvements which are a result from Haj Sami’s struggle might remain useless if the Israeli government carries on it siege policy on the town, as they have already issued numerous warnings stating that the new buildings –including the kindergarten- are built illegally without permit, on a military zone.

The Kindergarden of Al Aqaba welcomes about 130 children. As built without any legal permit issued by the Israeli governement, the place is threathened by demolition order

Picture: Palestine Monitor

To Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, who organised recently a celebration in the town to show support to the villagers, “Al Aqaba’s and Haj Sami’s struggle is one of the best forms of non-violent resistance.” A long-lasting, peaceful and successful non-violent resistance.

Women from Al Aqaba attending a celebration to show support to the village and its residents, host by Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi

Picture: Palestine Monitor

Kid from Al Aqaba attending the solidarity celebration

Picture: Palestine Monitor

But if Al Aqaba was shown a lot of international support, the other neighbouring villages trapped in the area C and surrounded by Israeli infrastructures, don’t enjoy the same fate. In Al Hadidya, as the town has been completely forbidden to develop or build any houses, the residents are living in caves. “The village’s fate is completely unknown and forgotten by the International community, as you can not even reach the village which is isolated from sides” deplored Sami Musallam, the governor of Tubas. About the village of Nyerza, in the same rural zone, the governor emphasized: “the only place in the entire village that got a legal permit issued by Israel is a small room, 9 square meters big!” he said. “All the rest of the village is made of caves”.