IN STEREO

When they [established] the Green Line [border], families who had lands in the old city [of] Al-Walaja sneaked at night to pick fruits. I mean, according to what my dad was telling me, because he was a young man during that period. They went picking the apricots, almonds, the seasonal fruit, on the donkey. They let the donkey go alone. Why? It knew the way, so the Israelis didn’t catch them. Because those who got caught were fined and imprisoned. Sometimes the woman used to go with her husband to pick, get back home, and then carry the harvest and sell it in Beit Jala, [or] they went into Jerusalem. They carried them on their heads in a basket. [Then] she used to come back to prepare food for her family and take care of them. Of course, with time it started to change. Work started in Jerusalem for labourers and whatever. I’m one of those types who like agriculture, because my dad cultivated.

[When] I came here to my husband’s family, it was my mother-in-law who cultivated and sold [so] her children could live. She raised them, because my father-in-law, may he rest in peace, fell and his back was damaged. Of course, at that time I was a young woman; I didn’t have such interests, except for having been a young girl in agriculture. But when I became responsible for a family and I was exposed to economic pressures, I started to feel [that] if I cultivate for my home, I [can] ensure a part of the expenses, pay for our needs. Of course, this idea came because my home is here in Area C. [There’s] harassment from the occupation and it’s threatened to be demolished. And job opportunities here are very few. So I thought about how I could stabilise our home here, without needing that my husband enters and works inside [Israel]. Now he’s working [there], but from time to time, they withdraw permission. – Lubna