IN STEREO

Well, let’s put it this way: I hate to say this, but a lot of people don’t appreciate land. And that’s the difference between us and the Israelis. For us Palestinians… It’s very bad to say it, and I’m really sorry to say it, but not a lot of people are taking care of their land. And I think that Israeli eyes are always looking at those properties that don’t see anybody working. So that gives them the chance to take over or buy them out. It’s miserable. There is some kind of organisation that’s looking out for these properties. It’s a Jewish-Israeli organisation that, whenever they find out that nobody’s taking care of that land, they take over. So there is that organisation that’s running after these abandoned properties. You know, the owners are probably overseas, so they forgot about their land. Some of them, they’ve got a few hundred metres [and] they come back, and they just sell it.

They don’t care who they sell it to – they just want to take the money and get the hell out of here. So that opens up the chance for Israel to take over. I mean, we’ve got cameras, you know. They’re all targeting our area to see what’s going on. I know that Israel is interested in the Makhrour area. UNESCO probably could do something about it, but I wouldn’t bet on it, to be honest with you. They might pressure, but it won’t help much. Israel is above international law. Even if the whole world decided to protect that area, they wouldn’t succeed. The one thing that I would say, to protect the land from the occupation, is just, “Take care of your land.” That’s about it. I would encourage everybody, if they want to keep their land, just [to] work on it. As long as they see that there’s someone who’s taking care of the land, they won’t dare to come down and take over. – Jamal