Thursday, December 27, 2007

more walking

Here is that hill I climbed yesterday. I walked along the road on the other side of the highway today. From this side I could finally see East Jerusalem . That's Beit Hanina.There are a lot of walls all over the West Bank, not just the "Apartheid Wall" variety. There are walls around everyone's property, and retaining walls built to create terraces on the hill sides for farming. These walls were in an empty area. It didn't look like anyone had farmed this land in ages. I wonder how long ago they were built? It could have been 50 years, or a couple hundred. Think how much work was involved in carrying each one of those rocks and setting it in place. I kind of have a fascination for the rocks and the rock walls. Well, if you are going to live in Palestine, you may as well like rocks. There certainly are a lot of them!
I promised some prettier pictures yesterday, so I walked to a valley where another group of bedu have settled.
I did not alter the colors in these pictures, the grass is really that brilliant green. We don't have rain here all summer, and once it begins to rain in the fall, the dry land begins to spring to life.
There were 2 donkeys wandering around in the field.Can you see the bedu homes in the back? They sort of blend into the landscape.My other fascination is with the olive trees. I love it when they are old and gnarled. These aren't too old.
While I was looking for the best shot of the olive trees, I suddenly realized that there were camels! I have never seen anyone here actually use a camel for transportation, so I assume these were being raised for the meat. It is expensive. I couldn't get close to get a better picture, and unfortunately, it was also the last picture before my camera's memory was filled.
Obviously I am not working with a high quality camera, and it only holds 11 pictures at it's best resolution. Oh, well. Another day, inshaAllah.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

dear alajnabia . thank you for this photo . i see this wall every day . we have a web site for beit hanina
www.beithanina.org

or cantact me at

ramzisoliman@gmail.com

alajnabiya said...

Assalaamu 'alaikum,

Ahalan, Ramzi. Thank you for visiting my blog, and giving me the link for your site. I had seen hanini.org before, but not beithanina.org. You have done a wonderful job with it.

I have wondered for years why more attention couldn't be drawn to the situation of the people in Lower Beit Hanina. Have you tried to contact al-Jazeera or the BBC to do a story? Most of the stories they do on the wall around Jerusalem seem to be about Abu Dis, but the way the Israelis have built walls and restricted access roads all around the small communities here is shameful.

According to the map you have on the "our nakba" page, I think all of the pictures I took are within the old boarders of Beit Hanina, including the "Bir Nabala Welcomes You" sign. InshaAllah I hope to walk one day to old Beit Hanina and take some more pictures. I haven't been there in a couple years, but I remember it being very beautiful. Especially the old trees. I love old olive trees.