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New
interview series: Our roots are here
By
Nina Koevoets
Antoinette Kinesevich lives quite isolated.
She has to drive around the Wall at Rachel’s
Tomb that is about 20 meter from her house
in order to reach what once was the main
street, the Hebron Road.
If you want to know about the wall you have
to know what happened previously. Before
1948 we had good relations: Jews and
Palestinian Muslims and Christians. We all
lived together, sharing love, happiness and
sadness. The Hagana that came in 1948 threw
the Palestinians out of their country, out
of their villages. I remember the massacre
in Deir Yassin. When it happened all
Palestinians got scared. Many decided to
leave their homes and they came to this
area. So you can find here many refugees.
They thought they would come only for a
short period, for a few weeks. And now they
still are here: 60 years after the ‘Nakba’,
waiting and waiting to return to their
homes. In 1967 the Israelis also came here.
And since that time we were under the
occupation of Israel and the refugees could
not return. Before the first intifada (at
the end of the 1980s and beginning 19902) I
could go to Rachel’s Tomb by foot and enter
it from here. But then they put one wall,
two walls, three around it. And then the big
Wall came after the second intifada started,
around 2005 they began to build it. And it
caused many problems. Before the
checkpoints and the Wall we could go back
and forth to Jerusalem without any
permissions; it was open for us. Now we have
to cross checkpoints. And many people who
had their jobs in Jerusalem are now
forbidden to go there. We have no freedom of
movement. And do you see this road in front
of us? Empty! Before it was full of people.
This was the best area before the uprising
and all the Jews and Palestinians came to
buy their things from this area. And now,
you see, it is a dead area.
We were surprised when they came and started
to build the Wall. There were people on our
roof who took care of the builders. You
cannot imagine how it was for our children.
One of my grandchildren was 3 years then.
She had fever and was vomiting, so we had to
go to the hospital. She was in shock; we
thought it was due to fear. Sometimes
children see things on the TV and they are
afraid. You see the fear in their eyes. And
they could hear the bombs falling in the
area. My other two grandchildren, twins,
came too early because the mother had
smelled tear gas. We had to put them in the
catheter. One had to stay one month, the
other two months. Now they are nervous; for
example they move too much in class. It was
hard for the mother to have the two babies.
We live a hard life, under oppression,
occupation. But the Palestinians care for
each other: the young adults take care of
the older people. So we do not really have
to suffer economically. For example
personally, I am alone so I live with my
brother. His son is working and we eat with
the family all together. We do not let the
elder people live alone.
And then I want to tell you about myself. I
belonged to the Anglican Church and was a
volunteer there. I arranged the flowers and
was active with the women. Now I cannot go
to Jerusalem; the Wall separates me from my
church, from my life. All my life was in
Jerusalem! I was there daily: I worked there
at a school as a volunteer and all my
friends lived there. I rented a flat but I
was not allowed to stay because I do not
have the Jerusalem ID card. Now we are
retired and have no pension from the
government.
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“They took our land and with
that they took our lives. …
but our roots are here. The
Palestinians will stay.” |
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I feel as if the Wall is built on my heart.
I feel very, very sad. Of course I feel sad:
they took our land and because of that they
took our lives. We were free and living in
peace. What happened with us? Why is this
Wall there? The Jewish people do not like
the Wall either. They say that it is
security. Do you see my brother on this
picture here? We had land with many olive
trees near the checkpoint. The land was
in front of the Har Homa hill in the
valley there. We inherited it from our great
grandfather. This land belonged to us for
many, many years, maybe thousand years! And
now we cannot go there; they closed it. And
it was precious for us; we were living from
the land. Palestinians did not put their
money on the bank; they invested it in their
land. But the Israeli army does not allow us
to enter the land anymore. There was a siege
and now there is the Wall. It cuts us from
our lands. This makes me very sad; we loved
our land. We did not sell anything, and we
would not have liked that; we wanted to stay
on it. My brother saw how they came and took
all the olive trees from the land. His face
became blue. I put vinegar on it. There was
no doctor as it was curfew and no doctor
could come here. We were very sad… And angry
of course. We are sad in our heart; there is
no joy.
Some people immigrated to America. Their
children go to the university. Also young
people from here now go there. They like it
there because there are no checkpoints, no
problems. Many parents now are crying as
their children who study there do not want
to return because of all this. That is
difficult.
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“If you want to have peace
you can find it; you have to
begin with yourself.” |
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I do not know if we can change… but with
this Wall there will be no peace. Not for us
and not for them. We can go and live
somewhere else. But it is not possible for
Palestinians to go everywhere. And our life
is here. I belong to this country and want
to stay in my country! Not all persons can
leave their country. Maybe letting us leave
is the policy of the Israelis, but our roots
are here. The Palestinians will stay here.
If peace will not come in my life time it
will come in the future. Now there are four
generations since 1948, and more and more
are asking for their land; they are still
thinking about it. It has been sixty years
since the Nakba and you can see that people
are more active now. In the future they will
succeed. No one likes it as it is now. No
one in the world would. They make us live
without liberty. But the day will come where
we will all be free. I hope that it will
come in my life time. I am seventy-four and
I had problems all my life. I am not a
refugee, but my land was stolen. The
refugees can get something from the UNRWA,
but we cannot. Still, the problems are for
all Palestinians. Where is the peace? We
want to have peace. Also the Israelis want
to have peace. Everyone on earth does! At
home you want to live in peace, with your
husband, your family, your friends and so
on. The peace comes from the inside. If you
want to have peace you can find it; you have
to begin with yourself. Deep inside you can
find a small light and this light is the
word of God. He has put it into everybody.
Even in times of darkness we can find this
small candle, this light. It is this light
that gives us our hope.
The interview was conducted in June 200888
Nina Koevoets (24) lived in the West Bank
for 3 months doing volunteering work for a
non-violence organization in East Jerusalem
and conducting interviews for AEI-Open
Windows on the impact of the Separation Wall
on people’s lives in Bethlehem. The personal
stories reflect different thoughts, hopes,
despair and ways of coping. |
