IN STEREO

Well, when we’re talking about new agricultural methods and all that stuff, it’s kind of hard because we don’t have the electricity and we don’t have the water. Irrigation is the main thing for the new system of plantation. Luckily, thank God, I’ve got two wells on my land. I fill them up from the rain. But that’s not enough. I planted cucumbers; I planted tomatoes; I planted peppers, all kinds of stuff. And I used all the water in the wells, and I paid another 300 shekels [~US$85] for a tank of water, and it didn’t last me two weeks! Now it’s dying. Why? To be honest with you, I can’t afford 300 shekels every two weeks for a tank of water. Luckily, [with] my land, I don’t have to water [much]. I planted something like 400 trees – all kinds of trees – and luckily, I didn’t have to water any of them. Only those tomatoes.

Some people don’t even bother planting trees, because they don’t have enough water. Water is the main thing. Electricity comes after that. Lucky for me, I’ve got my own generator. Whenever I need electricity, I just pick up my generator and do whatever I need to do. But water is a necessity of life – not only for the land, for everybody. Even for humans. And that’s what we’re missing. We’re not allowed to run pipes through the area, because of the occupation. I mean, we started working on it, [but] Israel came down and dug out all the pipes. So it’s not easy. Israel doesn’t want that area to be developed, because if they do develop it, people are going to start building in there. And they don’t want that, right? They’re keeping it as a ‘security zone’ for their checkpoints. – Jamal