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Faqqu´a,( also Faqqua, Faqqu´ah) is a village on the West Bank, known for it’s delicious cactus fruits, but also for the so-called separation barrier surrounding it. The village has about 3200 inhabitants, exclusively a Muslim population. The name Faqqu´a stems from the Arabic word `Fuqqu´, meaning mushroom. The village belongs to the Jenin district, which has been under the administration of the Palestinian Authority since 1995.
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[edit] Location/Geography:
The village is located in the most northern part of the West bank, 11 km north east of the city of Jenin, adjacent to the green line (Israel). Faqqu´a lies just beside a small hill chain overlooking the fertile plain of Marj Ibn Amer (Jezreel Valley), the city of Jenin and other Palestinian villages. Locals call the ridge Jbel Faqqu´a, although, the hills are better known as Gilboa or mt. Gilboa, by the rest of the world. According to the Old Testament Mt Gilboa was the site where King Saul and his sons died fighting the Philistines.
The higher part of the range, which is located on the Israeli side, is now an area where people come to hike or to enjoy the blooming of wild flowers during springtime. The scenic view from the top is spectacular, rising to a height of 508 m above the sea level, overlooking both Marj Ibn Amer in the west and the town of Beisan and the Jordan valley in the East. Much of the land, around Jebel Faqqu´a and down the slopes to the east, belonged to villagers but was confiscated by Israel in 1948. The villages itself lies on a hill about 450 m above sea level. The area around Faqqu´a is largely rocky but there are terraces, which make it suitable for a number of trees, such as olive and almond. Olive trees do however dominate the habitat. There are also patches of small plains scattered around the area, which makes it an ideal place to grow different products such as wheat, lentils in the winter and vegetables during the summer period.
[edit] History:
[edit] Early history
The village ancient history is rather unknown, although there are numerous findings that reveals of an earlier Roman or Byzantine presence. Roman coins have been found in the area and there are several sites that are believed to be burial grounds and remains of olive oil production. It’s even likely to find fragments of ancient pottery when wondering around surrounding olive orchards. There is a common belief, in local folklore, that a roman settlement once thrived nearby the current village.
[edit] 1948:
The modern history of the village, however, is still remembered by the older generation. Stories of the 1948-war are sometimes told during family gatherings, so that the coming generations would be reminded of the so-called `Nakba`, the great catastrophe. In 1948, hostilities increased when the British declared that their mandate in Palestine would come to an end. A large number of Palestinians had already fled the country, fearing attacks from underground Jewish forces and terrorist groups, and many more would be forced to leave their homes in the coming months. The population in Faqqu´a began to prepare for the approaching war........more text will follow…
[edit] People:
[edit] Family structure
The villages 3200 inhabitants are exclusively Muslim, even if some neighbouring villages have a mixed population of both Muslim and Christian families. The social structure in the village is somewhat different from a typical western community. A traditional Palestinian village is built up by a so-called family-clan structure of a `Hamula` (clan); where social and gender relations were organised around a system of production and re-production. Even if the importance of the `Hamula` has declined immensely, the clan-structure still exists. Every ´Hamula` can be sub-divided into an ´Ayle`, an extended family. Within each ´Ayle´ there are individual families. The most important group today is, however, the ´Ayle`. There at least 15 extended families (´Ayle) in Faqqu´a today. The ten largest families are; Abu-Salameh, 'Al-Khateeb, Al-Massad', Abu-Farha, Zeidat, Jaludi, Sharafi, Abu-Nassar, Abu-Assaf and finally Abu-Hussein.
[edit] Income
Agriculture war earlier the prime source of income, but times have changed and most families survive by earning their livelihood from other sectors, and still work on their land on afternoons and weekends. Some people are involved in construction work, while other have businesses in Jenin, less than 11 kilometres from Faqqu´a. Academics, however, are more likely to find work in neighbouring cities such as Nablus or Ramallah where political and economical life is centred. Commuting between the regions has nevertheless become a risky endeavour due to the numerous Israeli checkpoints. Reaching your destination today should not be taken by granted.
[edit] Water
[edit] Background
Ever since the Israelis captured the West Bank in the 1967-war, they have has tried to control the water sources in the occupied territories. In order to meet their growing demands for water, the Israeli government introduced prohibitions in drilling new wells and restrictions on water usage on the Palestinians. The outcome of these policies lead to water shortage amongst the population, which in turn slowed down the economic development and created health problems. The Israeli policies, established in 1967, are still in effect today and the Palestinian Authority is unable to change the difficult situation. The gap between the Israeli and Palestinian water consumption in 2005 was enormous. The average per-person use in the Occupied Territories was 70 litres , while an Israeli consumed an average of 330 litres per person per day. An Israeli settler on the other hand use up to seven times more water than a Palestinian on the West Bank (B´T selem).
[edit] Village water
The water conditions in Faqqu´a are similar problems seen in other parts in the West Bank. The situation has become even worse since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, since high water price and the economic hardship have aggravated the water shortage even further. Faqqu´a´s only water source is the Abu ´Ahed well in the village of Deir Ghazala located about 5 kilometres away. Water is transported through tankers due to the lack of a water network. (The Water and Sanitation and Hygiene Monitoring Project, www.phg.org).
[edit] The separation barrier/wall
[edit] Wall or fence?
Security fence, apartheid wall, separation wall are some of the names for the illegal (according to the UN) construction built to separate Israel and the West Bank. Calling it a fence is however not an appropriate term when looking at the facts on the ground. The so-called fence is in some areas an eight-meter high concrete wall, while in most areas an advanced construction of a barrier system. The system usually includes, electrified fencing, two-meter deep trenches, roads for patrol vehicles, sniper towers and razor wire. So, except being constructed on land belonging to Palestinians, the barrier swallows agricultural land and has an average width of 60 meters. (B´T selem). The construction will, therefore, not be called a fence but a ´separation barrier` in the following text, a term used by the UN and other international organisations.
[edit] The Faqqua barrier
In 2003, the Israeli government informed the village citizens that a barrier, separating them from their farmland, would be built surrounding the village from three sides. The military order was put into action and a barrier was completed within two years. The village original land area was about 36 000 dunums ( 1 dunum:1000 m2), from which 28 000 dunum was confiscated by Israel in 1948. With the construction of the barrier another 245 dunum was expropriated.
[edit] Damages
The impact of the barrier is firstly economic. Approximately 350 olive trees were uprooted and as well as the bulldozing of dozens of dunums cultivated with clover and carob trees. The seized land, at least 245 dunum, is cultivated by olive trees, field crops, almond and other types of fruit trees and graze land. Secondly, there are social and psychological impacts, with an increase of fear, distress and stress among the village residents (www.poica.org).
[edit] Infrastructure
The village consist of several hundred private buildings, usually two storey, that are centred on the top of a hill. A paved road, from the foot of the hill, twists up the hillside to a intersection where residents stand in line to get to the city by taxi. A public transportation network does not exist, so the residents are dependent on the taxi-vans that runs between the village and Jenin. The ride that takes about 10 minutes, took up to 50 minutes when checkpoints and roadblocks forced village residents to take alternative roads to the city. Nowadays, the short trip has become easier since the two Jewish settlements nearby were dismantled some time ago. Nevertheless, incursions and checkpoints by the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) is still daily life for the Palestinians living in and around the Jenin district. The intersection in Faqqu´a has developed into a village centre where you find stores of different kinds, included a barber and an internet-café. There are two mosques in the village, the newest one built in 2003. Telephone lines are rare in the village, but most people are today owners of one or two cellular phones (Israeli and Palestinian line).
[edit] The Future
The future does not look bright for the village due to the economic and political situation in the West Bank. People are very affected by the ongoing international financial blockade of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Villagers, however, manage to cope better with the crisis than their fellow Palestinians living in the cities and refugee camps. The village is, although, in constant expansion and more and more houses are being built, by locals but also by Faqqu´ans living abroad. Businesses are emerging here and there and there is even a private recreation centre for the youth to play pool, table tennis or just hang out.
