Reclaiming the land with prayer
“Allah O’Akkbar”, some two hundred men are chanting. “God is Great.” It is Friday and time for prayers in the village of Umm Salamone. But the venue is not the Mosque this time. Surrounded by women and children holding up Palestinian flags, the men are kneeling towards Mecca outside on the farm land. It is a beautiful day in the village, and the whole event has a peaceful feeling to it. If one did not know better, this could seem like a nice day out, a change of scenery for the weekly prayer. That however is not the case. Though the sun is shining today, ominous clouds have gathered in the horizon of the village in the last few weeks. Umm Salamone is the latest victim of the path of the wall in the south Bethlehem area. The soil beneath the feet of the praying men was until recently a grove of fruit trees. Now they are gone. The Israeli soldiers uprooted them in an action to prepare for the passage of the wall. Some hundred trees are gone and more will follow.
The operation started a few weeks ago. On the 26th of December the Israeli army came in a swift first strike. Bringing in bulldozers they uprooted about thirty almond and grape trees in a few hours. The farmers rushed to the field in an attempt to stop the destruction but were faced with fighting the overwhelming force of armed soldiers, jeeps and huge machinery. Little could be done and soon the army left anyways. It was just a preliminary strike, a first taste of what was to come. In a desperate attempt to keep the army out, the people from Umm Salamone made a makeshift stone wall on their land. But a few stones were not going to stop the army, and on the 15th of January they were back. This time the land was declared a closed military zone and massive operation of destruction started. Again the villagers rushed to the field but were firmly held back by the soldiers. A couple of young men were lightly wounded when pushed to the ground by the soldiers. Mostly the people could do nothing but shout at the soldiers while watching the bulldozers uprooted some hundred trees.
Then the situation took a different turn. All of a sudden the local people ran to the field in the closed military zone where the trees had been uprooted. They lined up facing southwest with the local Imam in front of them and started praying. The soldiers seemed baffled at first. Surely the people were trespassing in a military zone but could they really attack men peacefully praying? They let them be. Their mission was more or less accomplished anyways; this part of the land was cleared for the building of the wall.
But the praying seemed to be an effective way of resisting the destruction, or at least to make a statement against it. When everything else fails there is always God. The local community have tried their case in court and tried forcing the bulldozers to leave. All in vain. What is left is to pray.
Four days later the people of the village gather together again. On this day the prayer is organized by the local popular committee against the building of the wall. In an attempt to establish a movement against the wall in the area, this is the first in a series of non violent actions. Here some ten kilometers away from the green line people are stunned that they also will be affected by the building of the Israeli “security fence”. So far away from the state of Israel the building is another proof that the wall is not about security but stealing more land from the suffering Palestinian communities. The pattern of the wall in the Bethlehem area follows an intricate route that tries to include all the illegal settlements in the Gush Etzion block. No village or town is left unharmed by stealing of land, check points, road blocks etc. The popular committee in Umm Salamone says that tens of thousands of trees will either be uprooted or closed off from the farmers. As many as four hundred people will lose all or part of their income. It is truly a severe challenge for the village, but the popular committee will do anything in their power to fight the building of the wall.
So here they have gathered today, people from Umm Salamone and many other villages in the district, coming together in a time when it is more important than ever support each other. A few Israelis and internationals have also turned up. The praying on the field may not prevent the army from coming back and destroy more land but it might raise the awareness of what is going on in this little village and so many other areas in Palestine. The Wall has been judged illegal by the International Court of Justice but nothing is stopping it being built in a route that is more than twice the length of the 1967 boarders. The hope of the village is that somebody will take notice. Somebody that is strong enough to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop the atrocities inflicted on the Palestinian people. But until then they will keep on praying on their land. Praying on the destroyed field.
