So work sent me on a mission with a couple of my colleagues to carry out what they call an ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ basically it looks at the impact of measures such as the wall and checkpoints on the 172 barrier / Apartheid Wall effected communities in Palestine – you see the wall cuts through land that splits families, farmers from their land, children from their schools whilst taking up valuable land illegally that Palestinians have been working and living off for years.
This whole experience of going out to villages and carrying out these assessments was eye opening to say the least – we went to two villages; Izbat Salman and Azun Atmeh both in Qalqilya District with a population of less than 3000 between them. They were both mainly farming communities. Qalqilya is a district surrounded by the wall with only one way in and one way out – 100,000 people in total – the biggest open prison on earth...... after Gaza perhaps.
The visit and assessment explored a number of things with the farmers and measured the effect of a number of measures that were forced upon these communities; the barrier cutting through farming land, the checkpoints and access gates where only certain items can be carried through, the number of olive and citrus trees removed to construct the wall, sewage and waste disposal implications with sewage flooding land from settlements, if any legal action had been taken and what was the result.
One thing that I could not understand personally was that all the people we visited in the village councils were happy. They smiled, they welcomed us and they talked about their stories and experiences with laughter; perhaps partially because they feel powerless to do anything and partially because they cannot believe what is actually happening. I never drink coffee and these guys everywhere we went drowned us in the strongest Arabic coffee in the world which was like Redbull on crack – typically, like all Palestinians, they were very hospitable.
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