Surrounded by enemies
“You are not getting in. This is a military area!” The soldier at the gate in the Wall is denying us access to the village Al-Nu’man between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We are going to visit a family and bring toys for the kids, but nobody apart from the residents of the village is allowed to enter Al-Nu’man.
The roots of Al-Nu’man’s problems go back to 1967. This tiny village with about 200 inhabitants was illegally annexed to Jerusalem and Israel, when Israel occupied the West Bank. Nevertheless, all the inhabitants were registered as inhabitants of a neighbouring village on the Palestinian side of the border when Israel carried out a census three months later. The village became a part of Israel, while its inhabitants became West Bank citizens.
Forgotten for 25 years
Until the beginning of the 90s it seemed as if Israel had completely forgotten the village. The villagers could move freely both in Israel and the West Bank, but they received public services from the West Bank, not from Israel. Most of them were not even aware that the village was regarded as being in Israel/Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. The problems started, as for so many other Palestinians, only with the Oslo Agreement.
Living illegally in their own homes
In 1992 the villagers received a visit from Israeli authorities, who told them that it was now forbidden to build new buildings in the village. Since 1993 Israel has demanded special permits from all Palestinians wishing to enter Israel. Hence, it became illegal for the Al-Nu’man villagers to reside in their own homes with special permits! From 1996 their children were no longer allowed to attend school in the neighbouring village (Al Nu’man does not have its own school) because they were not citizens of Jerusalem. Now the children have to pass through the Wall every day to go to school in a neighbouring village on the Palestinian side of it.
Closed off from the outside world
Two roads led into Al-Nu’man, one from Jerusalem and one from Bethlehem. The Israeli army started to close the one from Jerusalem in 1994. Today it is completely blocked. The one from Bethlehem was closed when the Wall was being built in 2003. Today the only access to the village is through a gate in the Wall which is guarded by Israeli soldiers and where only the villagers are allowed to pass. This is where we are denied entry. Entry is also being denied to the village’s lawyer, doctor, vet, family members and friends from the nearby villages.
Surrounded by enemies
The Wall took much land from the villagers, on two sides of the village. On the third side, a road for use only by Israeli settlers has taken even more land. In addition to this, a military camp and a commercial transport terminal have been built on land confiscated from them. The latest news is that the Israeli settlement Har Homa plans a large expansion, right up to the border of the village on the fourth side. When this is implemented, the village will be completely surrounded, and almost all their land taken from them. This Thursday we have to return without reaching the village, but we feel lucky in spite of this, because we have homes to return to.
