Paradise Lost -Al Lubban Ash Sharqiya

 “I consider myself to be living in the desert, because I have no other land and nowhere to go. If I can I will make this a paradise.”

We are in the village of Al Lubban Ash Sharqiya, and Khalid Daraghmeh is taking us around the property very promptly. We stand outside this beautiful stone house, with arches looking down on a pile of burnt fabric.

“They broke into the house, took a lot of things and burned it. This was four days ago when seven people attacked and ruined our front door. They did not leave anything inside of the room, and this door has been destroyed a lot of times, so now I have shut it. It cannot be opened. Now we are living in the small building further down, but they have said they want us out of there too.”

The situation started to deteriorate five years ago. After Khalid’s house was demolished, they burnt the next house where the family was living. These houses mark the home of Khalid, standing as landmarks of the struggle to remain on the land, on either side of the road, one burnt and one shattered into pieces. A little bit further up is an old, beautiful building from the Ottoman time, which belonged to Khalid’s grandfather. The family has been living there for several years, and only moved out four days ago when the situation became unbearable. Now they are living next to the demolished house, in a one room dark house, which likely appears to have been previously used for animals or storage as it is next to the fields.

“Before I had the possibility to fix what they destroyed, but because they have made it a thousand times now I cannot buy more. I am thinking of selling land. I would sell anything to keep this land. The last weapon I have is just to stay here with my family, and remain on this land. But with all of this trouble, now my children they have started to be afraid.”

The children go to schools one to two kilometers away, and they confess to being afraid of walking to school. Cars stop as they walk on the road, and they are harassed by settlers. Mohammed, 14 says “They get out of their cars and beat us. Also they cut our backpacks and throw them on the road. I don’t feel well. I am worried someone will die, that my father or brothers will be hurt. I would feel better if the settlers did not come to our land, our house, or home.”

“The children want to return to Venezuela. Their mind is not like mine, I am like my grandfather. Me and my wife, we want to stay here on the land, and live in peace. I speak to my children about this, it is good to stay in the land, to make the land our own. But they all want to leave.”

“They try to make me go to Venezuela. I like any good solution and to stay in the country, but my wife she says I cannot suffer anymore. No one takes care of me or the family. First of all I feel myself alone here, nobody is helping. Really sometimes the money I save for my children, I cannot use to buythem clothes because the money must go to replacing what is ruined by the settlers. Just the pipes here in the field where we are sitting, and the cucumbers they took, you see how they destroy it directly. You can put yourselves in my shoes. If you would see your children beaten by your eyes, really if I had guns I would make them stop. When the army came to search my house, they took everything even the things only similar to knives. Why did they take these things? Really the soldiers start thinking I will do something, because they know what I am suffering…I do not need the violence, I need to work my land. I need to feel safe.”

“My grandfather was living here, my father. I own 8 dunams of land, and the family we own 65 dunams of land. Nobody else from the family is living here anymore, and everyone in the village they are too afraid of the settlers to come and visit. But the land is my main source of income, and I need to stay here and support my family. Before I had a permission to work in Israel, but now when I tried to get a permission they refuse. I am blacklisted. I have been arrested four times, sometimes for ten days, sometimes for twenty days. Ten days ago a settler came, and we defended ourselves. He was injured. They then came to arrest my son, but he had fled. Twenty soldier jeeps came, but really before there has been no soldiers for us. It is Area C, but we have the Tabu. We have the Ottoman Papers. This is proof that we own the land. If they need to take the land, my land, they have the power. We need an answer. Why do they need to take this land? I have the ownership. I have everything. The power, it does not work with me. I will stay.”

“My most urgent need is that I desperately need pipes and a fence, for irrigation of plants and to protect the fields. A water pump, like the small one that they stole is also important. Then I need plants, they took them all; grapes, lemon, orange, figs and cucumbers. Last year they uprooted 250-270 olive trees and took them away. They do not leave anything for me to work with, and I have to start over. Again and again.”

Earlier this morning the settlers came for another visit. They beat up Khalid and his son, Jallad seventeen years old. Then they ruined an entire field of cucumbers, and the irrigation system of pipes used to water the plants. Then they left with all of the vegetables, leaving nothing for the family. 

Before we leave with a full bag of lemons that Khalid picks from the trees, and a bag of newly baked bread from his wife, he says: “Just for you to visit us, it is really very good for us .It gives us energy. I am so sorry for my lack of hospitality, but I have nothing more than this. Now after all the visits by the settlers, after all that they have done, now I have nothing left. My wife has not even got her kitchen appliances anymore, but I am very sorry that I could not give you more.”

If the family in Al Lubban Ash Sharqiya does not receive assistance it will soon be a paradise lost, because there is no light at the end of the tunnel.