How a small Palestinian village is resisting occupation
Farkha is a small Palestinian village of around 1800 inhabitants, located a one hour drive to the south of Nablis, a city with a strong and deep history of militant resistance against the occupation forces. Since the 7th of October raids in the camps located at the outskirts of the city happen almost every day and the occupation army randomly targets and kills civilians in the process. In these camps there are several smaller groups who respond to the invaders with armed resistance as an answer to their colonial violence against the civilians in the camp. But as it’s almost impossible for smaller militant groups in such cities to get their hands on any type of arms, this type of resistance is very limited. Especially in the more rural areas of the West Bank armed resistance is almost non-existing and the people need to find other ways and methods to resist the occupation of their land.
After the actions of the 7th of October by several Palestinian groups, the economic situation worsened massively for the Palestinians in the West Bank. Since then the occupation forces increased their raids and killings in the cities but also tightened the economical dependency between the Israeli working places and the Palestinian labourers working in it. Many Palestinians lost their jobs either in the illegal settlements in the West Bank or the 48 areas (Israel) due to the worsening situation at the checkpoints, the dangerous situation on the streets caused by attacks of armed settlers and just simple dismissals of the workers causing them to lose their income. Not only does the occupation strengthen their military presence and attacks in the West Bank but they also want the Palestinians to become dependent on the Israeli economy, creating another way of strengthening their colonial grip on the Palestinian land.
The little village of Farkha found their own way of fighting the dependence on the Israeli manufacturers and their market. Even though the village is continuously being threatened by armed settlers, the severe economic situation and the collaboration of the Fatah (Palestinian Authority) with the colonialist Israeli State, they still manage to organize a festival almost every year since the 1980s where dozens of internationalists from Europe and other countries come to the village and work together with local youth on projects in and around the village, exchanging experiences, knowledge and culture. We as Lêgerîn had the opportunity to interview Mustafa Hammad, the communist mayor of the village and Maya Akhel, a local farmer working at an advocate office in Salfit. This is what they had to say about the situation in the village, the west bank and their ways of resisting.
Interview with Maya Akhel
What is your name and how old are you and what is your profession?
My name is Maya Akhel, I am 38 years old and I work as a lawyer who works inside the 48 areas and settlements and also as a farmer in this village.
How are you feeling today?
Personally I feel fine but deeply sad about the dramatic situation in Gaza and whole of palestine. All the time you see these terrible images on social media and the news and just feel hopeless. At some point you just want the days to pass and just be happy about it when you are able to experience the next morning.
What is your relation to this village and what is your work situation at the moment? Do you need to travel around a lot?
With the beginning of the offensive in October they needed to close their advocate office in Salfit, because the situation on the roads was too dangerous and too risky to always commute.
It has also gotten even more difficult and dangerous for their lawyers who live within «Israel» to travel to the office.
I also always needed to travel to cities like Nablis, Jenin, Tulkarem to visit workers and their families. This was risky even before but now is almost impossible. Everyday the IDF raids parts of this city and closes the whole city or streets leading to the city for hours or even days. They come in; destroy the streets, kill some people, and blow up a house. They come and leave as they wish.
But there is also the danger of the armed settlers who attack cars and taxis with stones or even shoot at them from the top of a hill where they claim their settlements from.
How is your family dealing with this situation?
It's hard. My little brother also works as a farmer in the village but now it’s really hard to get resources from outside of the village. We are really lucky that we are a village that is almost self sustainable but many others aren't.
My sister works at a hospital in Ramallah and its also really dangerous for her to always travel to her working place as the danger of attacks by settlers is extremely high. Also all the prices have gone up and so have the taxi prices. So it has gotten too expensive for her to commute to the hospital.
So my sister started to cultivate the land in her yard and grow vegetables, which she can sell on different occasions.
What aspect of the zionist occupation is most visible and makes you the most anxious in your daily life?
I don't fear anything! When I go to work or just anywhere, I leave the house with the consciousness that I might not come back. And that's not just me; that's every Palestinian. We live our days not knowing if we live to see the next.
When I go out, outside the village, travel on the roads, and go to other cities, I always feel like I won a small victory against the occupation. They want to make us fearful living and moving around in our own land but we will move around freely even when we know we might never return back to our family. I cross the borders they installed on our land and thus win over the fear inside of me that they try to install in all of us.
What aspect of the occupation do you feel you are affected by as a woman that men are not or less?
If we as women get controlled at checkpoints or even put into prisons because of some random reason our fates and what happens in these situations is more uncertain and random at times than with men.
How do you evaluate the situation in the west bank at the moment and how did it change since the 7th of october?
The economic situation in the west bank got worse, everything got more expensive, many people lost their jobs in the settlements or «Israel», we are also more than ever dependent on goods and the prices from Israeli resources. Thus, especially in rural areas, a lot of people were forced to think about how to grow their own foods and become self-sustainable to some extent. But for a lot of people this was nothing new. Cultivating their own land or garden was how we Palestinians lived since forever and since recent times we were forced to rediscover this lost tradition which in some way is also a form of resistance.
Thus also the demand for local products grew which made the local producers stronger. So there is a clear tendency to get less dependent on Israeli producers.
A lot of people feel frustrated, which has become a social phenomena because there is a lack of work and economic and general perspective regarding everything.
How do you evaluate the role of the Fatah (PA) in the occupation? Also regarding their relation to the zionist state and more militant groups?
After all the only groups that wage a form or forms of resistance that actually threatens and hurts the occupation are these small militant groups like Lions Den or PFLP. The Fatah is just a part of the occupations and the extension of the Israeli state within the palestinian nation. Unfortunately these forms of resistance are only happening in the camps and in the bigger cities but not in rural areas like here. We simply don't have the means to fight back. But we need to, we need to fight for our freedom.
What do you think methods could look like for smaller villages to defend themselves against these attacks?
For example here in the village we have group chats, where we can inform each other and gather some villagers in case of attacks by settlers or when they try to build illegal roads on the land near the village. So some will try to confront them armed only with sticks and rocks or not even that. Mostly the settlers are armed and protected by the military so there is not much we can do. But what other options do we have to defend ourselves? The only ones who have weapons are the PA but of course they are never going to use it against the settlers or the IDF. The PA at the higher level are people who don’t care about their own people only about how they can profit from their relations to the occupation. When the PA was established in the middle of the 1990s we slowly began to realize that they don’t act according to the will of the Palestinian people but according to the interests of Israel and the US.
So changing the topic a bit; We already talked a bit about the Kurdish movement and their struggle. Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founding members of the PKK, analysed; that without the liberation of women a society can’t be free. What would you say is the role of the Palestinian women within the broader anti colonial struggle in Palestine?
We as women are forced to work on every opportunity we have now, more than ever, to sustain our families and our lives. Like this women will be also forced and are willing to play a crucial part within the resistance and the fight against the occupation. We all would like to fight, we all would like to fight the occupation. One of the things that keeps us from waging a more militant struggle is that we simply don't have any weapons to fight. And the only Palestinians who own weapons on a large scale are the ones betraying their people.
What are your personal feelings about the future?
We must fight, we must continue the fight until we get free but unfortunately the ground to build up this struggle is really bad.
What would be the first thing you do if Palestine was free?
Aha, every Palestinian will tell you the same answer to this question. Go to one of the beautiful beaches and swim in the sea. It’s our sea, it's our land and our beaches but we can't swim in there nor go there.
Interview with Mustafa Hammad
What is your name and how old are you?
My name is Mustafa and I am 34 years old.
How are you doing today?
Fine, thanks
Can you describe to us a bit your current living situation in the village?
So my parents and the rest of my family live in Tulkarem and I stay here in the village.
What is your work/job in this village?
So I usually work on the construction sites in the village and with my brother I’m also in the iron business. And in addition to that I am the mayor of this village and in the council of the village representing the Palestinian People's Party and our beliefs as communists.
What can you tell us about Farkha?
So Farkha is a small village with around 1800 inhabitants near the city of Salfit, West Bank. The village is known for its yearly festival where hundreds of local youth and internationalists gather to do volunteer work inside and around the village. This sense of internationalism and to see the support from around the world for our small village and Palestine in general also heavily influenced the rest of the people in this village and led to a more political consciousness of the people in the village.
Another central aspect that defines this village is the self-sustainable and ecological farming not only on the lands around the village but also in almost every garden of every house in Farkha.
How would you assess the general situation of the village at the moment?
So we have had a lot of economical problems since after the 7th of October. Many villagers lost their jobs and are now struggling to survive. Luckily we managed to create a system where people who don’t have any work don’t need to pay for gas, water and so on or they can get loans. But this is only a temporary solution.
We are a village which has a very good communication among each other and we stand together. So the people that don't have much don't need to fear getting hungry or not having access to basic needs. We are helping each other out in every way possible and thus manage this severe crisis. Also the fact that each house has their own area for farming makes it easier for us to meet the basic needs of the people during this economic crisis and get less dependent on the economic factors of the occupation.
What are some of the concrete threats that the village faces by occupation army or the settlers?
Not only do the settlers from the nearby settlements occupy more and more land directly around the village, destroy material we leave on the working site where we try to build roads, threaten workers that work on their fields, build illegal roads near the village, destroy our excavators but like this they primarily try to install fear in our heads. The fear that on our own land we should not move around and just leave. The fear that on our own land we can be killed or hurt just when driving on the road. At some point this fear is deeply installed in us and they don't even have to threaten us any more directly when building their roads and settlements since they managed to deeply root this fear in us. That's what we need to fight and overcome.
For example sometimes they just spread fake news that they hit or punched some villagers working on the field and some people working together with them or some people of the PA in the village spread this misinformation among the people. Or once officials from the PA called me to say that settlers might steal some land with olive trees on them and like this they try to instill constant fear in us.
They want us to be afraid but it’s our land and we should fight for it. In our minds and with your hands we need to fight for our land. The fear in our head is what keeps us from fighting back.
What are some of the new projects the settlers have around the village?
They build new roads to connect themselves with other settlements and thus try to claim our land step by step more. Not even according to the official Israeli law these roads are legal but of course they align with the Zionist ideology.
These roads are crossing and destroying our farm lands and olive oil lands but we have no means to defend the lands from being taken as we would risk getting shot by the settlers or the IDF.
Regarding the festival: How did this Farkha Festival came into existence?
In the 1980s there was a similar festival in Nassrah (inside Israel) and they wanted to make the same idea in the village. We decided to do it in Farkha because o lot of people here sympathize with the PPP and generally with the communists here in the West Bank. So making a festival celebrating internationalism and international support for Palestine was something we wanted to do here as well.
What role does internationalism play in this festival?
We believe as people and communists of this village it’s important to have this exchange with other cultures and people so we can all learn from each other.
In Europe the Zionists and the media all present a wrong image of the Palestinian people and the situation in Palestine so it’s an important opportunity for us to show some people from Europe what the occupation really looks like, to talk and come in contact with people who live daily with the occupation. It’s more powerful to see it with your own eyes than on just some report. And we want the internationalists to go back and talk about it and create a better consciousness of what’s going on. It’s our land that gets stolen and we just try to defend it. The whole world says we are the terrorists but how can we be the terrorists when we just defend our land that gets stolen and fight the occupation?
How did this festival influence the local people?
Positively of course. In the first few festivals it was only men but with time and examples we managed to overcome this old way of thinking and more and more international and local women joined to work together. Things like the social role of women gets discussed not only on the festival but also daily among the people. And this has had a great influence on our villagers. And all the people of the village welcome the internationalists with open arms and admiration because they see what the internationalists managed to do in the village with all the projects in the last years.
Last year we saw some flags of the YPG, YPJ and also PKK that were being celebrated with and hung up during the festival. What do you think connects the struggle of the Kurdish people with the struggle of the Palestinian people?
Both people, both lands are occupied and it is our duty to fight the occupation as it is the duty of the Kurdish people to struggle against their oppressors. So this colonization deeply connects our people. Unfortunately many people don’t know anything about the Kurdish struggle, most even barely know about the factors leading to our own occupation, So there is a great need for more information and exchange between our people and struggles.
For me as a communist it’s my duty to speak out against every occupation of people in the world and to create consciousness about it. We don't believe in these borders between our countries, it's our lands and the struggle for it that connects us.
What would your wish be regarding the relations between the Kurdish struggle and the Palestinian struggle?
We need more exchange and need to get to know more about each other. We need to understand each other more and deeper and work together as our fights and lives under occupation connect us. We want to know how they fight, how they live and resist. We can learn a lot from them and they can learn from us.
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