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Others left to Jordan, where they remained. Most of the land belonging to the old
village became off limits to residents after 1948, as it fell on the Israeli side of the
armistice demarcation known as the Green Line.
When Israel illegally annexed Jerusalem following its occupation of the West Bank
in 1967, half of the land of the new village of al-Walaja was subsumed within
Israel’s expanded Jerusalem municipal boundaries.
Al-Walaja’s residents were never informed of this, and with few exceptions were
not issued Jerusalem ID cards, only West Bank IDs, according to UNRWA.
Palestinians who hold West Bank IDs are forbidden from entering Jerusalem
without a permit from the Israeli military.
This means that for some of al-Walaja residents, their presence in their own
homes is deemed illegal by Israel. It also prevents them from building “legally”
without a rarely granted Israeli permit.
When completed, the wall will totally surround al-Walaja, and will likely force
many residents to leave so that they can access their workplaces and services like
healthcare and education outside the village.
When Israel built the new fenced section of its barrier last year, the home of
Omar Hajajleh and his family was cut off from the rest of al-Walaja. The home is
connected to the village by a tunnel with a metal gate.
The settlement of Gilo continues to encroach on al-Walaja’s land while village
residents are effectively banned by Israel from building.
In the foreground is a new road built by Israel on al-Walaja land and used by the
military as an access road along the route of the wall.
A photo from July 2007 shows one of the old pools at Ein Haniya Spring.
Israeli forces have destroyed four homes belonging to al-Walaja’s Abu Khaira
family in five years.
This photo shows the aftermath of one such demolition in 2017; graffiti on the
ruins is an image of Bassel al-Araj, a prominent activist and writer from the village
who was killed by Israeli forces last year.
“My daughter, who is 15, was pushed by a female soldier and I pushed her back.
She was very angry and shouted, ‘If you hadn’t seen Ahed Tamimi do it, you
wouldn’t do that!’ They beat my husband and brother with their guns and used
pepper spray and tear gas.”
The family had spent approximately $20,000 on the home that was demolished
last month.
A photo from April 2010 shows Bassel al-Araj being arrested by Israeli forces
during a direct action to stop the building of the wall on al-Walaja land. He was
slain by Israeli forces during a raid on a home in al-Bireh, near the West Bank city
of Ramallah, in early 2017. Israel claimed that there was a firefight before al-Araj
was killed.
For Land Day, which Palestinians commemorate each year on 30 March, villagers,
joined by residents from neighboring areas, planted olive trees in al-Walaja.
Israel has uprooted or damaged hundreds of almond, olive, fig, apricot and grape
trees to make way for its wall that it is building on village land, according
to UNRWA, “depriving families of an important source of food and income.”
Some 4,000 to 5,000 years old, al-Walaja’s celebrated al-Badawi tree, seen in the
foreground here in front of Israel’s wall and a military access road, is among the
oldest living olive trees in the world, if not the oldest.
“This is our land. We will stay here and we are going to defend it. We are going to
stay and die here,” said villager Ali Khalil al-Araj, 50, on Land Day.
Posted by Thavam