Amin Abu Warda, from the Palestine news Network, headed to Dier Al Hatab village, near Nablus and interviewed Abu Fadi, a resident who, over the last two decades, saw his land being taken away from him, becoming engulfed by the neighboring Alon Moreh settlement.
His anguish was evident as he described the pain of watching more and more structures being built on his land, which has now been transformed into a settlement industrial zone.
In 1982, the first house was built in the Israeli Alon Moreh settlement and since then, all of the land Abu Fadi and his family used to cultivate has been confiscated.
In order to support his family, Abu Fadi was forced to find another job as a bodyguard at a local trading company.
Today, he can still see his land from his hometown and he yearns for the day he and his family can return to it.
Abu Fadi spoke of the toll the confiscation of his land has taken on his family and on the land itself.
His brother, he said, used to be a shepherd and the land used to thrive with olive trees and other crops. Now, he said, it is filled with cranes and concrete.
Abu Fadi recounted the intimidation tactics the settlers use against Palestinian farmers. He said settlers would arrive during the day and attack the farmers, stealing and destroying their crops.
I also spoke with another Deir Al Hatab resident, a 19-year-old man who described similar challenges his family has had to face as a result of the growing Israeli settlement.
The residents and his family are not allowed to enter their 20 Dunams of land near the settlement’s industrial zone.
In order to harvest their crops, the family must make arrangements through the Palestinian-Israeli DCO (District Coordination Office).
Last season, the family was horrified to find that settlers had stolen a significant portion of their yearly olive harvest.
These stories have become all too common in Deir Al Hatab. Still, residents such as Abu Fadi continue to have hope – hope that soon they will be able to return to their land.
