This is also Palestine

A trip to the village of Battir today. A beautiful fall day with our wonderful hosts and a chance to learn about traditional Palestinian terrace farming. Living only 10km away in the the densely urban Dheisheh Refugee Camp which pulses with the past and present of the occupation, it is easy for me to forget that most Palestinian's were and the few who can still are, subsistence farmers. Maintaining control of farm land has been one of the most difficult struggles for West Bank Palestinians. Israel controls most of the best agricultural land in the vast Zone C.

Battir, home to 4,000 Palestinians is designated by Israel as composed of both Zones B and C. Remember; A is area controlled by the Palestinian Authority (see my photo of this in action in the post Night Raids), B is controlled by both Israel and the PA (which means it is controlled by Israel) and C is Israeli controlled. Zone C is over 60% of the Occupied West Bank

Spending the day in Battir was a bitter learning experience for me of the beauty and control that Palestinians have lost.


Almost all of the hilly areas in historic Palestine bare the traces of thousands of years of terrace agriculture.


Terracing for olive trees is less precise as the trees, with their incredibly deep roots, do not need an irrigation system.


However, for vegetable gardens there is an amazing system of flat terraces and a roman era irrigation system.


Water from a spring is carefully guided down through the fields with a system of open aqueducts that can be opened and closed to allow just the right amount of water to flow through the channels in each plot of land.


Of course even here The Occupation's presence is felt. Battir is right on the border with 1948 Israel. The villagers have had to struggle to keep their land and for a time the village was split in two. See the top of the hill to the left in the picture above? That's where Israel plans for the Aparthied Wall to run through Battir.