Um Ramzi from Beit Hanina: "We Refuse this Division"
Community Voice, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, August 8th, 2004
Beit Hanina is located to the north of Jerusalem City. The original lands of the village are located to the northwest of Jerusalem, with lands extending to Qalandiya in the north, Hizma and Ram to the east, Shufat to the south, and Lifta and Nabi Semuel to the west. In 1980, Occupation Forces annexed Jerusalem and drew the Occupation's municipal borders for the city; Beit Hanina, as well many other cities in and around Jerusalem, was divided into two parts where one is considered to be in the West bank and the other within the municipal borders of Occupied Jerusalem.
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| Above: The Occupation bypass road, referred to as the Begin Road, which divides the community of Beit Hanina, has walls on both sides which are painted to disguise the Apartheid crimes of the Occupation. |
The part considered to be in the West Bank is called Beit Hanina Tahta (meaning lower) and the other is called Beit Hanina Foqa (upper); the people of the village live in both parts. The village's lands along with the main road which ran between the two parts maintained the connection between them. However, more than two years ago, the bypass road 443 was established on the village's lands and separated both parts, cutting them apart. The entrance to the village was closed with road blocs and the Apartheid Wall is projected to encircle Beit Hanina Tahta with Qalandiya, Jib Judeira and Bir Nabala, putting them in an enclave separated from Jerusalem and completely separating the two parts of the Beit Hanina.
Um Ramzi, from Beit Hanina, says:
"For us, our life is connected with the top of the road - the road that links the two parts - and for the ones who live in the upper part they will find themselves not able to reach their olives, all the olive trees of Beit Hanina are here. If one of us is sick he may die before reaching the hospital - how could Ramallah be closer to us than Beit Hanina or Jerusalem? My children's lives are dependant on Jerusalem and Beit Hanina Foqa and Ram. One of my sons studies in Quds University in Abu Dis with the Wall isolating it from Jerusalem he has now to stay all week there because of the length of the way. My other son works in one restaurant in Beit Hanina foqa and he may lose his job.
Last week my student son was bitten by a scorpion, the ambulance can't reach us because of the closure of the village's entrance so he had to walk to the entrance and then he was taken to hospital. We do not have a permanent doctor here; the doctor visits the village twice a week and he many times does not come.
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| Above: Abu Ramzi drives a school bus, however, if the Apartheid Wall is built, he will lose this source of income as he will be isolated from the school, as well as the other half of Beit Hanina, Ram, Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. |
My husband worked as teacher in Ram, then he bought a school bus, and works on it now; if the Wall is built then he won't reach his work. I was running a kindergarten the children used to come from Beit Hanina Foqa, then they closed the entrance three years ago – the Occupation Forces - and the children stopped coming and I closed the kindergarten.
This is a tragedy, what can we do, this house I built with my husband from our work as teachers this land is ours, if it weren't for that we would have left this place. We and the people in Foqa are one family how are we supposed to visit each other in feasts, the mother could be living in the Tahta while the son or daughter are in the Foqa: we refuse this division.
They say they want to open a road between us and Bir Nabala, why? There is nothing that connects us with Bir Nabala; they are not our families...The mayor of the village lives in the Foqa, how can the mayor be in one place and the people of the village in another separated place, this is a scattering of families. We do not want the Israeli identity cards but we want to be able to reach our families in Beit Hanina."
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| Above: Already, Palestinians from Beit Hanina are forced to travel under the Israeli bypass road to cross between the two sections of Beit Hanina, and even this road has been blocked by Occupation Forces who placed earthmounds in its path. |
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