Turmusaya

The Mysterious Walk

I heard a lot about it, and I pass a lot in front of it when I go to Nablus. It was a mysterious village, even its name is very strange and mysterious; it called Turmusaya.

There is more than an opinion on the reason for naming the village of that name; one of that, it is two words, Terra Mesa, which means the fertile land in the Spanish language. And the other reason which I like more that, 415 years ago there was a ruler for the village and its surrounding villages, he was collecting the taxes yearly from the bosses of the villages and one year one of the men who is name was Turmus refused to pay the taxes, that in English “aya” means refused, so since that day this village was called Turmusaya because of that man..

Once I decided to read about Turmusaya in the book Beladona Falastein “our country Palestine” to Mustafa Al-Dabagh, he talked about Turmusaya in a very great way and said, it is a great village in the west bank in Palestine, it belongs to Ramallah district. Turmusaya was located in the vast plain called “Marj Eid” or “Marj Al-Athara”. It’s most important crops are olive trees, figs, grapes and almonds; also it is characterized by its good and generous people. At the end Mustafa said, Turmusaya is the city of dreams for me..!

When I read these wonderful words I had an increased longing to visit this land. The village was still a mysterious to me till April 15 when my dream came true; on April 15 I went with the college to this great village in a filed trip.

I started my path at 7 am when I left from Bethlehem to Ramallah till we arrived there. I was full of hope for that day because the whole way I was enjoying with the beautiful views of my land while I was listening to Fayrouz..

Nssam alaina el hawa mn mfra’ elwadi..

Ya hawa dakhl el hawa khedni ala blade….

Now we are in Turmusaya, honestly its amazing entrance gives you the happiness and the energy to start the walk.

At the beginning we met with one of the most important men in the village, Ashraf Rabi, who was the guide for our field trip. Ashraf is like most of the people in Turmusaya; they travel to the United States either for studying or to have a job.

Ashraf traveled to America when he was 27 years old; since he was a child he was a horse lover, which gave him the energy to comeback to Palestine to achieve his dreams and to do what he planned to do. Later his dream came true and he established Turmusaya to teach the horses lovers the right way in riding horses. So with this great achievement Ashraf feels very happy because he accompanied a great and an important thing for his land.

When we started walking in the village I felt mix of feelings; I was very happy to walk in this village and so excited to walk with the golden sun rays, but at the same time I was sad because of its people who left this great village alone and decided to travel abroad. Also I was so sad for them because I tried the alienation and its bitterness; I heard their sad voices from the diaspora, and I heard them singing Mahmoud Darweesh’s words….

Aheno ela khobz ome (I miss my mother’s bread)…

Wa qahwate ome (and my mother’s coffee…)

Wa lamsate ome (and my mother’s touch)..

Our first station was the municipality. There we met with its president who gave us very valuable information about this amazing village.

So Turmusaya is a Palestinian village in the West Bank; an area of 18000 dunums, away from Ramallah about 22 km north-east, also it is located in the middle between Ramallah and Nablus; on the main line that linking the two cities. It is rising 720 meters above the sea level, surrounded by the territory of the villages Elmgheir, Sinjil, jalud, Elmazra’ Alsharqeya and Abu Falah. Its total population is about 10000 people of whom about 4500 live in the diaspora and distributed between the United States, Panama, Brazil, Jordan, and in other countries around the world.

When he started talking about the use of the lands, I thought that they are working very hard and they are trying very hard for the development of the village.

The land area is 18000 dunums, but 4000 dunums of it under the Israeli control. As shown in the above picture, the northern region is confined by the Israeli settlement “Cello” also it is not allowed for anyone to build in this area and the ministry do not give a building permit only if it is away at a distant of 150 meters. Moreover the western region is confined, but the eastern and southern region still with area A and B, so Turmusayawe people are trying and they demand to expand the lands, so they can accomplish their projects.

On the map, within the boundaries of the “beige region” people in Turmusaya can take the building permit from the municipality, but outside this region they must take the permit from Ramallah which can’t take it except from Israel. So if they don’t have any new plan to build a new settlement they will give you a permit to build in Turmusaya, but maybe later they will come one day and tell you to go out of your home because it is unauthorized ! Who knows..

We new that the municipality accomplished many projects just as schools, kindergarten, hospital, court and two new banks. In addition, they are planning to achieve two more projects which are a sport field for the Olympics and a public garden.

After that we continued our walk to the next station, while we were walking in its streets we saw the old city and the old buildings, also we saw the new buildings; we saw very wonderful villas and new houses which attracted us and drew our attention to its style, its way of building and its design. I began to take photos; one for its entrance, another for its height and another for the whole attractive view. When we reached the water well we had a rest, I sat on the rocks and the whole village was in front of me. While I was interested in watching this wonderful image, in a glance I started thinking and I asked myself why, why did we decide to do that? Why we travel abroad instead of staying here in our land? I know that the situation here is so bad and difficult but there are some places still good that can be the starting point in developing our cities and our Palestine in order to get it back..

These thoughts didn’t leave me even when we continued walking in the mountains between the amazing olive trees, now I said in my mind that after the 48 and 67 wars the Palestinians preferred to build something new but at the same time there are different projects now going on in Palestine that actually is trying to bring the Palestinians back to the old city because this is also in a way how we can reestablish the roots with our past, also it is very important that this part of the city which will be renovated became like part of the history of the village. Like we saw some typical plants that we will find also in the destroyed Palestinian villages, and if we look at this part you will remember some Palestinian villages in the 48, for example, when we have cactus is always where we can find some ruins of the Palestinian villages.

So sometime we have all this idea that we lost our villages in the 48 but unfortunately then when we have this great old village in our own village just as Turmusaya we don’t take care of it. It is also a kind of problem that we always claiming that this village was destroyed and they took it over but then when we are inside our own village nobody taking care, so I think it is important that in a certain moment the community will start to come back to this place and to use it for collective beneficial uses because this is exactly where also the contemporary and the past identity could be shaped and combined. In addition, it is showing and representing the relationship between the architecture and the identity. I know that people in Turmusaya are trying very hard to develop their village but why don’t they build their homes on the Palestinian-style instead of building villas on the American-style which almost looks like the settlements. I felt very sad when I looked at the old city when we stood at the roof on the old home, and I hoped that this thing can change to take care of the remaining villages.

The last station was so great; it was the Equestrian club, when I rode the horse I felt super happy and I broke the anger in my heart. I feel like there is a secret feeling between you and the horse which gives you the hope for the future and I was super super happy when I saw the Palestinian flag flying on the top of the mountain.. so I came back home with the hope to get our Palestine back…

coming back

COMING BACK

I saw the sad spangle in sette (my grandma’s) tears when
she was telling me about my Palestine. I was setting with her in our garden in Bethlehem while she was drowned with her memories in our land before the 48 war; she was drowned with the wonderful mix-colors trees, with the olive trees, kenya, berries, figs, lotus, jujube, dates and castor-oil plant.

We deprived from the enjoyment of our land and we deprived to inhale the smell of its golden soil, just because very selfish people stole our land while its people were sleeping, but not every one was so, some Palestinian stayed awake to defend the land just as Battir!

(General old view,with the railway to the left)

(General view)

Battir is a rural Palestinian village located west of Bethlehem, characterized by its attractive nature and its traditional vegetable gardens; also it is famous by the Battiri eggplant.

It is rising from the sea almost 800 meters with an area of the urban village of about 420 acres. It is surrounded by Al-Walaja, Beit Jala, Husan, Al-Khader and Al-Qabu.

The day after I was sitting with sette, on Thursday, I went with the college to a field trip to Battir. I was so excited to go in this walk because I love walking so much. But that time the walk was different, its purpose was different and its situation was different!

We met in Beit Jala at 9 am. The weather was great with the golden sun rays. When we were at the top near to the DCO and I looked at the whole area I felt something strange, something gave me the power to start the walk.

The land is a Palestinian land but the Israeli government put it in area C when they divided our Palestine to three areas.

When we got down to the mountains under Beit Jala we started walking quickly. Me and other nine of my classmates were the fastest, may be what made us to walk quickly that we felt free and nothing and no one can stop us. We felt the meaning of freedom or rather part of it, and then we stopped to have a rest and to wait for the rest of the group. I sat with my friend under an olive tree and the whole valley was in front of us, it was attractive with the green carpet that covered it after the winter, so the scene was like a mountain ranges that flows one after the other.

(Retaining walls to protect the soil from erosion)

Then when we continued our way it was really nice when we were stopping at each unusual tree to predict its name and to discuss its components and its origin with prof Alice.

In additions, we saw many homes were built before 100-200 years ago but now they are empty from their people.

Almost the whole way was full of rocks, grass and spiny plants that obstructed our way but that did not stop us from walking, then we reached a very ancient building called Latton, was used for the manufacture of stone rock.

While we continued our walk the strange feeling that I felt at the beginning cam back again but in that time I knew it, it was the feeling of anger, oppression, humiliation and the dissatisfaction with the injustice. And so then I understood sette’s feeling when she said ( ya sette who knows Palestine must cry day and night)!

Later when I sat with my friend, Aya, on a huge rock to eat something. when we saw the homes and the building in Battir we knew that we almost arrived, then I started singing a song for Fairouz:

Snarga’ yawman ela hayena (we will come back one day to our neighborhood)

W tan’a almsafato ma bainana ( and the distances between us will decrease)

Fia Qalb mahlan…………...trn trn trn nnnn)

In that time I sang it from my heart and at that time I understood and I felt its meaning and its words, in that time it was not just a music with a lyrics but it was a real words because we will come back one day and I myself will inhale the soil smell and touch it by all my senses.

When we reached the bottom of the valley we saw the train crossed the rail in front of us with the blue and white flag! We had nothing to say, even what we can say, so we preferred to keep silent!

In 1948, the Zionists seized on some building in the village including its school and railway station which was built in the time of Ottomans. And to the south-west the Zionists set up a colony (Nefobattir) in 1950.

The funniest thing was that me and the other guys thought that we were the fastest so we will be there the first but when we reached the railway we knew that the rest took a shortcut and arrived to the downtown and so they were waiting for us, but anyway we were lucky that we saw many new things that other didn’t see.

After that when we reached to the top we were a half dead so we went with group to a small workshop to have lunch. The small factory makes masterworks by lime, stones and pottery.

We sat in the balcony, the view was so attractive and from this small balcony we saw whole Battir. its director and workers were so kind. They gave us a memorial gift, then we decided to go to plant olive trees. When we were walking in the village we saw how much the people there are good and generous as usually all the Arab, that everyone asked us to drink coffee and tea in their homes so we didn’t stop hearing (Ahla o Sahla,, tfadalo).

Finally we arrived to the spring and we walked down along with it till we reached the place to plant the trees.

It was a great feeling to plant even a small tree in my Palestine. I felt super happy, me and Aya caught the hatchet and worked together to plant the olive tree. After finishing, it was a wonderful teamwork contributes to return the freedom to our Palestine.

We sat beside the tree and looked at the attractive village from the top of the mountain, I started singing...