In the run-up to Israeli elections last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a contentious statement that he would extend sovereignty to large West Bank Jewish settlements if elected. According to Reuters, after decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank (Israeli figures), among about 2.9 million Palestinians (Palestinian Statistics Bureau). What is at stake?
Raja Shehadeh’s 2007 book, Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape , gives us an idea of the changes that have taken place when “concrete was poured over the flora” and settlements came up. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in 1967.
Wail of horror
Of the three territories, Israel has annexed east Jerusalem, moved out from Gaza but enforces a blockade, and occupies the West Bank, which has limited Palestinian self-rule. A map shows how close the settlements are to Palestinian towns of Ramallah, Jericho, Deir ‘Ammar, Ras Karkar, Deir Ibzi and so forth. Shehadeh, a lawyer and writer who lives in Ramallah, began hill-walking in Palestine in the 1970s, little realising that he was travelling through a landscape that was about to disappear.
Through six walks and an Epilogue, Shehadeh, who has lived in houses overlooking the Ramallah hills, preserves this “nature’s reserve” in words. “As our Palestinian world shrinks, that of the Israelis expands, with more settlements being built, destroying forever the wadis and cliffs, flattening hills and transforming the precious land which many Palestinians will never know,” he writes.
On his way back from the hills, it would be twilight, magically transforming the stones along the path. He would see shapes of figures in individual stones and pick them up to take home. Shehadeh kept one for a long time, the grey stone resembling a face “with a large slit for a mouth open in a wail of horror,” as it appeared to mirror the harsh reality.
Still important
As he goes on a sarha — roaming freely, “at will, without restraint” — Shehadeh gives us a lesson in history. When was Ramallah established? Who were its first inhabitants? How did the hills look? When did things begin to change and how? Is there a chance of peace between Israel and Palestine?
As he walks in the Jerusalem wilderness, the hills of Ramallah and the ravines of the Dead Sea, two encounters stand out — one with a young Jewish settler when both profess love for the land, and the other with masked Palestinian guards. When Shehadeh tells them it’s important for Palestinians to learn about the beauty of the hills, one of them retorts: “You’re asking that we be concerned about beauty when so many are dying every day?” and he mutters, “It’s still important.”
The writer looks back at one classic each fortnight.
