The hope of the farmers in Qalqilia is that their fruits and citrus will survive the season behind the Wall. Since 2002 farmers have been isolated from their lands, suffocated by the Wall and only sometimes being able to reach them for work.
This area of the northwestern West Bank had been one of the primary producers for Jordan and Gulf country markets.
Farmer Ahmed Mansour, with land behind the Wall and near an Israeli settlement, told PNN, “After they confiscated my land and put it into 1948 borders, it was transformed from fertile to dusty, but still able to produce several dunams guava, olives, and askadinia. My hope is they will all continue to survive the crash of the bulldozers teeth.”
Mansour continued, “After they finished imposing the Wall, we went through a battle with the Israeli administration to obtain permits to enter our lands. By the time we went through the process, the peach trees were ruined.”
He added, “We tried to revive the trees, hoping for the Wall to be removed when the International Court of Justice ruled it must be, but nothing changed. And despite the blockade and the Wall, we are still getting our fruits to the local markets at least. But we are still struggling and will never forget the disaster we are living.”
Qalqilia resident Ahmed Zaid, whose family owns tens of dunams of land, told PNN, “I can not add a thing because all there is, is pain.”
