IN STEREO

Al-Walaja village is very beautiful, marked by its calm atmosphere, marked by olive trees. The olive tree here is a blessed tree, a tree that symbolises peace. Here, they mostly work in olive agriculture. It’s no longer a lot because the Jewish-Israelis confiscated most Al-Walaja lands. There is no longer very wide land space. Al-Walaja people suffer from homes being demolished. Al-Walaja people suffer from the absence of good transportation here. They also suffer from [the fact] that there’s no place, a park to which women go with their children. We had a park that was a comfort for us. Women brought their children to Cremisan, to take some fresh air. The Jewish-Israelis closed the wall on us; there’s no place for women to go. I mean, they’re targeting Al-Walaja. They confiscate; they confiscate. They confiscated the water springs. Like Al-Haniya spring. Al-Hadaf spring. Al-Jweiza spring. Al-Sweid spring, which is on the Cremisan side.

These are the water springs that are traditional from our grandparents’ times, in addition to the old Al-Walaja that has more than twenty water springs, too. It has a spring called Al-Balad. And Al Dalba. Plus the ones I forgot because I [was] young [when] I heard their names. When I was young, while my mom was picking olives and almonds and things like this, there was a small water spring nobody knows about except very few people. We would go into it and drink water and wash our hands. It was like a cave. Its water was cold! I don’t know if the Jewish-Israelis discovered it now or not. I know Al-Haniya spring the most. Now if we want to go to Al-Haniya to get some fresh air, to have fun, they don’t let us. They closed it. These are the problems we have in Al-Walaja. – Um Ala’a