The Lost Lands in the Lost Kingdom
The Palestinian land for us is not just an image idea it explains our story, its life itself. Our land is our past, our present and definitely bigger than our future. It’s the reason why we breathe. It’s the reason why we existed and why we will exist until the end. It’s the reason that makes us alive. This is not just any land it is the holy land, the beginning land and the ending land. Simply it is our land; the land that many great souls died just for the concept of the Palestinian land which is not any concept, because the land for the Palestinian is the fresh soul and the huge motivation that creates our small world, our peace and our smiles. The land for any simple man in Palestine is the light that leads him and everyone behind him in his dark path in life, the path of no end. Our grandfathers made the biggest mistake in life when they left their lands and their homes in the 1948 and they did it again when they left their new lands and new homes in refugee camps in the 1967. Even though it wasn’t by choice but it led us to where we are now, and the way that we lost many lands which had taken away as the 48 lands and the 67 land and depending on that they divined Palestine to A, B and C areas.
About A, B and C areas:
Israel had divided the Palestinian land into areas to divide the Palestinian and to take every little piece from the land they can take, also they did that to delete the Historic Palestine map from the people mind by divide it to areas: the West Bank, Gaza and Israel; or Area A, B and C.
• “In Areas A which include major Palestinian population centers in the OPT; the PA has full authority over civil affairs, and internal security and public order, while Israel retains responsibility over external security”.1995,interim agreement ,art.XI(2)(a)and(B)
• In Areas B which include other regions of the OPT, including a number of small towns, villages and hamlets, the PA exercises civil authority and maintains a police force to protect “public order for Palestinians” while Israel retains “overriding responsibility for security for the purpose of protecting Israelis and confronting the threat of terrorism” as well as responsibility over external security. Ibid
• In Area C which covers all remaining territory in the west bank, including all the Jewish settlements, areas that Israel considers to be of strategic importance, and unpopulated areas, Israel retains complete territorial jurisdiction, though the 1995 interim agreement provides that the PA has “functional jurisdiction” in Area C in matters “not related to territory” and personal jurisdiction over Palestine’s. Furthermore, the PA’s functional jurisdiction does not apply to issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations (Jerusalem, settlements and military locations). Moreover, “the transfer of powers and responsibilities in area C shall not affect Israel’s continued authority to exercise its powers and responsibilities with regard to internal security and public order, as well as with regard to other powers and responsibilities not transferred.”
• There is areas were not addressed in the Interim Agreements and are not part of the areas A, B and C administrative scheme. . In these areas, like the reminder of the OPT, the status quo ante which existed prior to the interim agreements, namely the status of the territory as occupied and the status of Israel as an occupying power, continues to apply. Like the city of Hebron, the city had divided into two parts: H-1 which consists of about 80% of the city, H-2 which comprises the remaining 20%.


Battir is an agricultural area because of that Israel trying to take its lands and include them to their lands. Battir was the center which connected the western with the northern it was the main region for the train station and because of that, the Palestinians would come to the train station and get there goods and sell it in the north. But all that was before the 1948 year. Before the 1948 battir was part of Jerusalem but after horods agreement which happened in the 1949, battir became part of bethlahim, its separation effected negatively its economics, because everyone who had the Palestinian ID was forbidden to use the train because it become part of the 48 land. After the oslo agreement between the Israeli agreement and the Palestinian liberation organization, It became a B area. And plantations became as a C area. After Israel decision which happened in the period of Ariel Sharon which was to build the separation wall , the Israeli’s confiscated Battir plantations, its became torn apart into different directions which made part of the villages houses the only part that is part of the B area , but the plantations will become behind the wall according to the outlines the Israel’s had planned years ago, so this became a C area .
My walk in Battir
Out of service
To live a happy life, while being aware of seeing it the way you see it, will make you happier. Simply, to see life in a beautiful way, full of happiness and fear, even if it was not like that for you or around you, you should see it like that to be able to feel satisfied and pleased.
To be really able become aware to life, by looking at the beauty, having a smile on your face and on the surface of all things around you, even you aren’t smiling, you can imagine. And the best way to do that it is by contemplating on everything beautiful around you, away from the negative thoughts and the bad things in life that occur around you and through you. Both of Raja Shehedeh and Jean-Jacques Rousseau did that by doing walks to contemplate, relax to filter thinking, to enjoy the beauty of nature and the landscape. At first when I was reading those books, I did not engage to the texts that much. But when I did those sarhat, I started to remember and to understand every word both of Raja Shehedeh and Jean-Jacques Rousseau had said, I felt every emotion they felt, and I touched their smiles, their thoughts that they felt in their own sarha, while I was walking in my sarha. I was out of service to all the bad and the negative things in life, and my phone as well was out of service and I was happy for it because of no one was able to depress me in my sarha.
We started our sarha in the early morning from Beit Jalla to Battir, everything was perfect the weather, it was a sunny day but there was a zephyr which kindness the air, everything around us was green and full of flowers. Green land dotted with roses and a zephyr touching your face, also the amazing feeling that the odors of the spring and the flowering trees will create in your heart when these odors submerged your lung, all of that will make you feel like you are walking through the hills of heaven, and it will make you wonder why you are not living in this heaven? Why it empty and no one is living in it? But when you think again of it, you will thank god that no one of you or them living in it, because if anyone did live in it, he will ruin it and he will pollute its beauty.
We walked in the valley for a long time, and we identified the types of plants that grow there, and our teachers helped us to do that, and we stopped many times to discuss about this land and their political status and many things ales linked to this land.
After that we split into two groups. The first group completed their way by walking through the valley, but our team took the other way which was through climbing the mountain. The way that our team took, was exhausting and very difficult, but it was enjoyable to no limits. While we were walking and climbing the mountain, our guides taught us about the trees and the plants. Also we picked some of the wild Sage and thyme, as well as we have learned a lot about the type of soil, the land and its nature and the nature of everything linked to it. They also taught us about the methods of cultivation, irrigation that they and the people who owned those lands use to implant this. And they taught us about the type of vegetable planted in this ground also they told us which seasons to do that to be sure that it will succeed. We climbed up a rock, a very large one, and one of our leaders told us that this rock it is actually a very old Roman tomb.
After we reached the summit of the mountain and got to the street we took one hour to rest and have lunch. Then we completed our sarha as groups, but this time our group went down on to the valley, through our way to the valley we drank from the water of the main spring of Battir, and we saw the water canals which distributed water from the spring to the land, in addition that some of this water is collected in a large pool for swimming, and all of these channels, and the pool found from the Roman era. These channels were used for the distribution of water between the lands of Battir also to transfer the water from Battir springs to Jerusalem, for us, it was difficult to imagine how it used to work and how they designed it. And these channels are distributed the water of Battir population, which they are seven families that owned all the lands of Battir. And those canals distributed the water which comes from the springs equally between those seven families lands. Which it open for half an hour every day for each families so in the end of the day all lands would be irrigated.
When we reached the bottom of the valley we got to the railway, we were very excited that we reached it, we laid down on the railway, and we were pleased that we did that, because we felt that we rebelled against the Israeli law, because it is forbidden for anyone who has the Palestinian identity to pass through this railway, which is located under the control of Israel. After that we started to climb the mountain again to catch the rest of the groups to implant an olive tree in someone land and that was the best thing in the sarha because we learned how to dig in the ground to make a hole to put the tree in it in the right way. Then after we finished implant the olive trees. We went back to our houses.
Everything we did in this sarha was special and different than anything we did before, and it was worth all the tired and the pain that we felt in the next two days. Many things we did in this sarha were childish and spontaneous but it seemed from our hearts, and that's what made it great, fun and unforgettable. The best thing that I remember from this sarha is how we felt pleased, childish and exited when we stole the almonds and lemon from the trees of someone’s land, because the taste of the almonds and the odor of the lemon that we stole was different than anything we smelled or tasted before, we felt like it held all the Palestinian pain also it held the Palestinian smiles, and that is what makes it special, and am sure that it will change our conceptions of life forever.

Our land is our identity we can’t escape and leave it alone, not just because we don’t have any place else to go to, but because the land is part of us and no one leaves his parts when he leaves. They are shocked because we didn’t accept what they had given us from the Palestinian land which is Gaza and small pieces from the West Bank; they are not convinced that all of Palestine is our land and the Palestinian won’t share it or accept anything else. We will live here and we want to die here, but because of what this land created in us, and what it makes us feel we don’t want to die anymore we want to stay on this land for ever because it deserve to live for. As Mahmud Darwish said “we have on this earth what makes life worth living”. Palestine is the reason that makes us deserves to live.