The uncertain future of PaLLand: Places, Immigration, Conflict and stories
Palestinians are increasingly leaving their homes to live abroad in such places as United States and Canada. Factories are closing down, mostly because of increasing violence and economic uncertainty. 20 factories have relocated out of Gaza in recent months, about the same as in the previous six years, taking 12% of already scarce jobs with them.
According to pollster Nadir said “what Israel couldn’t do by force, we were able to do with internal dispute, lack of leadership, accompanied by economic pressure and the siege on Palestine”. To prove this, there are many studies and figures dating back to September 2006 show that the proportion of people who think of immigration has risen to 44%. Most of them are highly skilled and educated a brain drain that is leaving behind an increasingly poor society. This is in stark contrast to the trend in the 90s. When hopes for peace brought many well-to-do Palestinians back to the West Bank and Gaza, bringing business and investment.
Therefore if we look around us we will see many of the Palestinian villages are facing this problem, one of them is 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 them that, it is two words, Terra Mesa, which means the fertile land in the Spanish language. And the other reason 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, an area of 18000 dunums. It belongs to Ramallah district, away from it about 22 km north-east, also it is located in the middle between Ramallah and Nablus; on the main line that is 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. Turmusaya was located in the vast plain called “Marj Eid” or “Marj Al-Athara”. 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.
Its 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..!”
These wonderful words taught me that reading just provides facts, and the only way to get the essence of what these facts mean is walking; which I never tried before but I found that through walking and adoring things around me I was able to identify myself with these things and to touch the meaning of what they represent. Also reading these kinds of books taught me that the world of urbanism is the soul of bringing life into cities. So it’s not just about the building and the structure but it’s a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economics, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.
As Jonathon Barnett mentioned “no urban area will prosper unless it attracts those who can choose to live whenever they wish” and so nothing can attract you more than this great urbanized entrance; Turmusaya’s amazing entrance which give you the happiness and the energy to start the walk. In its entrance you must sing Fayrouz’s wonderful words…
Nassam alaina el-hawa mn mfra’ el-wadi…
Ya hawa dakhl el-hawa khedne ala blade…
“What ever I live in the states is only my work but Turmusaya is my country, my home, here where I was born and here where are my memories.” these are the words of Ashraf Rabei, our guide. I surprised when I heard them because I was always thinking that Palestinians abroad are enjoying and don’t care about anything happening here but later it seems different! Ashraf is like most of the people in Turmusaya; they travel to the United States either for studying or to have a job.
He 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 Equestrian Club 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. “This is my habit, horses, so this is what I did to my village, other people have different habits so they do it also for the village, therefore this is the way Turmusaya” (Ashraf Rabei)
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)..
When you take a moment to look at the use of the land you will see that the land area is 18000 dunums, but 4000 dunums of it is 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..?!
The municipality accomplished many urban 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.
Later while we were walking in its streets we saw the mix urbanized buildings; 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 there was a storm thoughts are fighting in my mind that after the 48 and 67 wars 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.
At the same time, when we think seriously about the situation here and about the reasons for immigration we will see that human does not realize the magnitude of any cause whatsoever, unless he touch its threads and approached them.
Over the years ago, many Arab countries, especially Palestine suffers from immigration of its youth and scientific cadres abroad. It appears that in the absence of opportunities, the deteriorating security situation and the paralysis of the economy immigration has become the ideal solution to many of the Palestinian youth, and i did not realize the size of this problem only after i went with my cousin to the central department for the issuance of passports in the Interior Ministry in Ramallah. In a small room that can accommodate only for three staff members in their offices; standing in front of them four young men overwhelmed with joy for obtaining a visa for immigration to Canada, America and Australia. We approached them after we put our papers in front of the employee and explained to him our request to renew our passports. We had a debate that did not exceed five minutes, I asked them about the causes of migration from home, the first who was working in the field of journalism, said "Here is no life... I graduated from the University since three years, i did not leave any institution's door without standing in front of it but to no avail, and I worked over the past year just a few days, so I thought of immigration as I think it is the only solution in such circumstances.” And then he threw the ball in my court, saying "Do you have another solution?!" I did not reply... But I liked to say "Try ... Try to stay here".
His colleague, who had a smile trying to amputate his lips, told me that he wanted to travel to the United States after having obtained a visa to study there, I asked for the name of the university, he laughed, saying "The fact that I do not know" and he continued "there is a Tourism Office helped me to be acceptable at this university in order to get a visa only, I want to travel for work and not for studying, moreover getting a visa to America is not easy, it must circumvent a bit, and fabricate a story to complete the study, but However, this issue is financially costly, you must provide close to 3 thousand dollars to be able to leave this country heading to America. The meeting ended with them in a hurry as it started after they told us of their intention to go for the renewal of the identity of one of them after the Israeli military had taken it on one of the barriers that effectively split the Palestinian cities and villages.
in my head was dozens of questions hover strongly researching for the answers, i asked an employee whom scattered pile of papers were on his desk, about the size of the young people who come to him to obtain or renew passports for immigration, he said, after he asked me not to be named: "hardly a month goes by without seeing more than 70 to 90 young people want to emigrate, "I said in my mind:" This is only one center for the issuance of passports .. How is it in the rest of the districts and centers? ".
According to the data of the Palestinian exterior Ministry; it has been progress with 45 requests for immigration since the mid-2006 for the foreign diplomatic representations in the Palestinian territories, the General Director of Population and Social Statistics in the PCBS (The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) Ms. Enaya Zeidan mentioned that the survey data for the years 2003 and 2004 indicated that 20% of young people wish to immigrate and this ratio distributed between 22% in the West Bank and 16% in the Gaza Strip and that young people in the age between 20 to 24 are the highest as representing 27% of those who wish to immigrate. Also in 2006 it reached 44%, therefore in which percent we will find it these days with these obstacles which its most important causes are the economic situation, the security strike, the dark horizon, political instability, and the death of hope for a fully sovereign independent state.
However Zmzm was different; she still believes in the return of Palestine. Zmzm was an old woman of about 75 years old, living in Turmusaya. She is the owner of a great old urbanized house. She was so kind to all of us; without even asking she started talking to us. How amazing I felt and how sad at the same time because in her eyes I saw the same tears which I saw before in sette (my grandma’s) eyes. But there is one difference between them, that Zmzm’s tears were full of happiness that she is in her own village, but sette’s tears were full of grief, she was expelled from her own village.
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!
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!
The land is a Palestinian land but the Israeli government put it in area C when they divided our Palestine to three areas A, B and C. so area C means that it is under the Israeli control. But despite this we went to Battir and we walked in its mountains and between its urban buildings.
Battir is one of the Palestinian villages but it differs from Turmusaya in one thing. Both have the old and new urbanized city, both have green olive trees and both are Palestinians but what characterized Battir from Turmusaya that is its people didn’t choose to immigrate. The People in Battir show an excellent example of the Palestinian patience. They live in very hard situations, but they still struggling for their land and they didn’t leave it.
In conclusion, we saw the two examples of the immigration. And we know that Palestinian brain drain phenomenon is a catastrophe. Since the outbreak of the Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the phenomenon of emigration started to fester and from different segments. Some citizens find work and some of them escape from a tragic reality caused by the Israel occupation. It was clearly evident in 2006; emigration has become the dream of many young people who hold advanced degrees and academics, this is because of the bad economic situation and the siege on the Palestinian territories. This embargo has led to the closure of many factories and companies and the migration of the capital and investors. Therefore this tragic and difficult situation that the Palestinian is living in diffuses only in the interest of the Zionist enemy.
But does the migration actually become the only solution to these problems?
Is it what is happening connected with the Zionists policy and the idea of displacement of the Palestinians from their homes?
How can we stop such a phenomenon?
What is to be on the citizen and the government in order to reduce this phenomenon?
These questions were in my head when I was sitting on the top of the mountains in Battir but I didn’t let them to disturb my soul from the enjoyment of this amazing urbanized land. So at the end it was a great feeling to plant even a small tree in my Palestine. I felt super happy to be in this teamwork to return the freedom to our Palestine. I was full of hope when I sang Fairouz’s words ….
Snarga’ yawman ela hayena (we will come back one day to our land)
W tan’a almsafato ma bainana (and the distances between us will decrease)
Fia Qalb mahlan…………...trn trn trn nnnn ( so my heart wait...)
References:
1-http://news.maktoob.com
2-http://www.walkablestreets.com/quote5.htm
3-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization
4-Book- Beladona Falastein (our country Palestine)
5-Book- Magazine of the PCBS/ 2008
