migration in Palestine

Name: Aya Abdullah Abassi
Urban studies
Prof: Alessandro Petti


Migration in Palestine
Out of place from the villages of tormosaya and selwan

Seems that migration is the feature of this age, we had been hearing about it , from
the days of our ancestors until today, and we always quick the judgments, with or
without known about the reasons that sites behind it.

migrations are different kinds, and they vary a lot from each others.

Some are
forced on us, some are with all of our will, but despite the will or not, it's considered
immigration, because they fit in the concept of the introduction of new people into a
habitat or population , which sites on a biological concept , and its importance in
population ecology , from emigrate or any other concept .

So in order to understand the migration , we need to understand its different kinds
, in order to have the right to judge or don't .

The types of migration:
Forced migration
This type is mostly connected to the idea of occupation, because no one forces you to
abandon what you love, unless he has the control over you, just like what happened
in the Palestinian villages in the years between 1948-1967, when most of the
Palestinian were forced to immigrate from their villages to go to another place in the
same country or abroad, such as those people who had left their homes in " ramleh "
and " led " to live in Ramallah , with their heart full of hope to get back to their
homes , and nothing proved it more than that – if not all of them – most of them are
carrying their home's keys until these days , which means and shows that most
Palestinian – despite the place they are living in – they still see their villages in the
place they are living in.

It is the same condition raja shehadeh the Palestinian writer, lived in when he lived
His whole life in the hills of Ramallah, and been separated from his village Jaffa
" I saw Ramallah and its hills not for what they were , but as the observation point from which to view what lay beyond , at the Jaffa I had never known ." (shehadeh, stranger in the house, 4 ) .

The willingly migration:
This type is when no one have the power over the migrants, and they do it by their
own will, this kind of migration is very rare in this country we lives in, because
every Palestinian have his reasons to leave his country and most of the reasons are
because he is forced, either from the Israeli government, or by the condition of his
life.

The moderation migration:
This kind of migration sites between the both previous types, and it is the most
common in the country we live in as well , due to two main reasons , from the 1948
until now , we are living under the occupation , and the opportunity to find job is very
rare.

The migrants who choose this kind of migration migrate to near and far
place in order where they could find any kind of job , some went to the countries of
the Arabian gulf, mostly to " Kuwait " and " al – emarat ", thinking that he can easily
take his car and drive back to his home crossing Jordan , or take a plane , land in "
kalandia " airport , and in couple of hours he will be with his friends and family, but
theses dreams and others were lost after the first and second intifada , because it's
abandon for Palestinian to live and easy life , so this place was no more a place
for Palestinian to migrate to .

Palestinian decided to get on with their own easy ways , when they had decided to
immigrate to the united stated and Canada .

**************************************************************

According to the international organization for migration , the (iom), there are 300
million migrates in the world , half of them are in Europe and America, and since
everybody in the world are migrates there, then what's the harm if we Palestinian take
the same walk as the rest , as they say , the binging needs someone to lead , and therest will follow .

In this piece I'm writing I'm presenting facts , thoughts and feelings about different
walks in four villages in Palestine , three in the west bank , near to Ramallah , and
one in Jerusalem , but focusing on main two of them , which are my favorite places in
Palestine , selwan and tormosaya .

Names; " deer debwan " , a'ain yabrood " , and " tormosaya " , many times I have
heard of these names, from my dad , when he used to talk to me about the
amazing houses , the great nature , he used to see on his way to Nablus , that made
me want to have a visit to them, to have the scene in my own eye , as they say , the
most thing that sites in your mind is the thing you see .

I got the chance to visit them in the year 2007, after I heard of the new equestrian club
opening in the village tormosaya, I thought I will visit the first two, and continue my
trip to my main direction tormosaya.

I went with the company of my dad , to catch a look at those villages he had been
talking about all these previous years .

After having this small walk, I noticed that these three villages are very alike as each
other in the way buildings , roads and traditions are held , the reason might be
because of the effect of being raised in the same place , America.

between theses three close villages, from how the building were made ,as the same
structure as each other , as if it was made by one artist hand , they were very similar ,
even the color of the roofs were the same , it was very odd to see the same houses in
three different villages , but I always came back to the same explanation , that all of
the people of the three villages were raised at the same standards, so I thought that no
wonder that when they build they will have the same standard, as well .

Despite that all of the three of them looked the same , and I liked all of the three the
most one that pulled my eye very quickly , the one that I was waiting to see mostly
,was tormosaya , it might be because of the equestrian club and my love to horses is
indiscernible but it's the place , the entry and the first villa in the village that attracted
me the most , the entry itself shows me how much tormosaya people care about their
village , because it was rare in our country to find a small village that have this kind
of entry , which was sit up very nicely , and what made me believe my thoughts
was the sign at the beginning of the entry which held some of the names of
tormosaya families that supported in the structure of the entry , by funding it .

The
place where this village sites was amazing itself , it was on the high way between
Ramallah and Nablus , great location , and it's hard not to see it , if you are going
either ways.

The village, is away from the city Ramallah about 22 kilo meters , it's population is
around 8,000 people , half of them are immigrants in the state , in brazil and other
places around the world .

Tormosaya people's condition is the same as many villages people who have travelled
abroad to build themselves , and sit the grounds for a better future , when they have
decide to leave to the united states and brazil in order to have jobs , that can open the
doors for more money so that they can invested in order to build the future they had
been dreaming about for themselves and for their children as well .

Tormosaya people, have developed their town very well, by the money they had from spending years in the states , but never forgot that they are Palestinian and if they
want to invest their money it's better to invested in the place where they were born
raised , and will die in , one day ,as well in the place they build it , because life is
tricky for all .

In the village there is two olive oil presses, three schools, hospital, one legal court .

They had made this village very independence, that despite the problem of the fact
that it sites in a lonely area , far from the two cites Ramallah and Nablus, they
succeeded in making it very independence that no one would have to go outside of it
in order to get what he wants , from shops, courts , sports , schools and hospitals , that
it's literary turning to be very close to a city not a village .

That is the greatest thing I had noticed threw my several visits to this village , that the
people of the town never forget their origins , and where they came from , and this
connection is very clear through the village .

nothing can make the story I'm telling , stronger than the story of ( haj ashraf rab'e ) , one of
this village most important people, this man had lived his life in the both sides , until
the age of 27 years old , he was living in palestine , but after that the air of
development took him away to the states as the same as the rest people of his village ,
aftere the big amount of money he had in the states from working in different kinds of
jobs , he have managed to change his dream into a reality .

From his childhood , he
had been a horse lover, so the first thing he did was making his equestrian club in the
state of new jersey , but never forgot that his back is to the land he was born in ,
Palestine , so he came back to palestina , and made another equestrian club on his
mother land , and took his village all the way up .

So even if Israeli might have succeeded in taking some of the land, but "we
Turmosayweye" make sure to keep the rest of it and take a very good care of what's
left from the land as best as we can " ( ashraf rab'e)

But the facts must be said , half of tormosaya population is spread out in the states and
brazil , and other places in the Arab world and abroad , which means that most of
these huge houses are lived by very small amount of people , and that is a bad side
that the immigration is giving to tormosaya .

which makes me really think about wither this whole building of the houses , and the
magnificent structure are really build to not to forget , or is it made in order for the
people to major their successes in the states by the amount of stones they put in their hometown .

Is it a compete between this village people in order to show each other how much
they have succeeded , or is the true connection between the mother and son , between
the village and its sons .

and the question still stands ?????????

But, the truth also must be said that the things , those people are doing for their village
are hard to find in any other village .

after seeing the great tormosaya , and how much its people get far away , their heart
stays in the first place .

by taking this walk in this village my mind couldn't stop knocking the door of my village
selwan , I could not stop thinking of how much could my village people have done to
it , could it be the same as tormosaya people have done to their village .

The village I come from is named selwan, this village which sites in the best area in jerusalem which is the closest to
Jerusalem and the old city, that had made it through the years the main fish Israel is trying to catch .

from destroying houses and building settlements , that it technically changed from
different sides, and it became really hard to develop it .

but even though that my village
people sites on the same side with tormosaya people , that there is a lot of us ,
immigrate to the states and other Arab countries .

and despite all of the previous still , the condition we are living in selwan and the condition tormosaya is living is vary a lot from each other .

on the first hand , we from selwan are in Jerusalem , which is facing a very big issue
of Israeli immigration much more than the west bank where tormosaya lays , and
selwan area , since it is the closest village to al-quads and the old city , and a l- aqsa
as well , that even part of the aqsa lays on the land of selwan , so the difference between the both are very clear .

selwan throught the ten previous years had been facing the hardest times of all villages in
Jerusalem , it's the perfect catch for Israel
But as saying before , that the truth must be said , we can't always blame everything
we face in our lives , on the occupation despite that it is the main reason behind
most of our problems , but the problem is also in the people of the land as well .

selwan is very important village in Jerusalem and Palestine as well , it had the most
water springs in the whole Palestine , eight water spring that is a very big number to a
village of 5421 donom , it is the only village in palestine that had been lived by the biggest amout of people through the history .

so it's clear that The qualities about this village were very hard to count, because they were a lot,
but not anymore , my village is technically changing to become like a camp , instead
of becoming a city .

it's true that half of my village people are immigrants to the state and other place as will , and despite that they do have money from also spending years in the state , i'm really sorry to say that they do not come back to build even a house in their village , or to do something to benefit the village with , they only do that in the state , and that is really sad .
"Since dear kind reader" (Robert walser, the walk, 59), you are the one who is
integrating with these lines , it might seems to you that I'm in relationship with my
second home , not my first, since listing the bright side of the second home was clear
more than the first yet.

But according to what I have seen in these two villages, and despite the great
development in the second home of mine, my heart will always stay with the first home .

Move your heart were love is first love is the real it is
How much home man loves in this space and his love always with the first place?" ( a'imro , alqays )

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refrences
personality theories - barbara engler
mix of arabic poetry - a'mro' al - qays

turmusaya montada - and the honors college visite to turmusaya

http://www.turmusaya.com/main.php
veru nice montada

http://www.panet.co.il/online/articles/110/111/S-287798,110,111.html
honor's college visite to to my favorite place - turmusaya

photos of the old city of turmusaya

walk in turmusaya - between 2007- 2010- between the dream and reality

Walk in Turmusaya
Between 2007 – 2010- between the dream and reality

If you had the chance to go to turmosayya in the year 2007, your legs must take you –especially if you are one of horse's lovers - to " turmusaya equestrian club ", that great sport club of all, that had developed itself in very soon time to become one of the greatest equestrian club in Palestine, and had become one of the most important places you must visit if you go to turmosayya.

At that time this was my true entry to the great village "turmusaya".
In this place I'm not trying to talk about the club itself, even though I can't deny the fact that this club had the best roll in the fame of this village, but I ask you to come with me to this place, so everyone of us can ride his horse, and take a tour in this wonderful village to get to know it closely.
You have " watan " zina " "sezer " " shams " " hedaya " and " "altayeb " , and it's your choice to make of which one you want to ride , even though I don't recommend you to take the last two , they are Arabian , so it's hard to ride .
We are very lucky , this is " Mr. ahraf rabie'e , and this is " trainer kaled al –franje" , one of them will take hedaya , and the other will take tayeb , and we don't have to worry about which horse of them you want to ride " , so you will take zina , and I will take watan , so our journey can begin .
Now look, we are crossing the club, this is the line that separate the two close villages, " Abu flah" and "turmosayya", look at the beauty of nature in front of you, our luck is great because we are in spring time, it's a green smile, have you seen this kind of smile before, look it's expanding, to cover all what we can see, the footsteps of the horse is kind of music, isn't that right.
Take a look at " tayeb " and " hedaya" , they seems as if they want to run , but " kaled " and " ashraf " are very good at keeping them stable as they are .
The more we get to the east, the difference in building we see , the significant building more to be , I don't think it's only houses , it's very close to be a palace .
Mr. Ashraf, you are our Gide, talk to us about this village.
The name of this village " turmus , aya " , turmos was the name of the man who was in charge of this village , at the time Palestinian were asked to pay the taxes , in the time Palestine was under the ottoman rule , turmos refused to pay , so people said in Arabic that " turmos ayya , " ayya means that he refused , from that time until now people started to call this village " turmosayya" .
The village, is away from the city Ramallah about 22 kilo meters , it's population is around 8,000 people , half of them are immigrants in the state , in brazil and other places around the world .
These are the olive fields, and it's one of the most important trees in the village, the honors of the fields take a very good care of them, its production from the olive, a lot of it is turned into oil.
In the village there is two olive oil presses, three schools, hospital, one legal court "for the marriage and divorce cases", people here get married a lot, we have around 80 marriages in the year.
The village sets on a field called "field aid" and raises 270 meters above sea level, and as all can see it's surrounded by a lot of villages such as: "julad, singil, eastern farm, and abu falah.
The sad part of the story of turmosayya is that the Israeli occupation have succeeded in taking one of the best areas on this land and located to the settlement " shilo ", such as , (Khirbat Abu bored) (and Khirbat Kafr Stona) (Khirbat al Amoria) (Khirbat al-Rashid), and much more , that I can't even count.
Israeli might have succeeded in taking some of the land , but we " turmosayweye" make sure to keep the rest of it and take a very good care of what's left from the land as best as we can .
I can see a woman wearing the traditional Palestinian dress, "thoub.
This is a very traditional thing in this village, that people develop themselves, but in the same way they connect to the tradition very closely, in this place I'm not only talking about how the women dress themselves, but also in the way we developed everything we have in this village.
It's very true what you are saying Mr. Ashraf, I couldn't stop noticing the way these wonderful buildings you have in this village are built , but though we can still smell the olive , as I noticed in this small walk we had , that every house have its own garden , which is full of plants , and the honor seems to take care of the land he have much more than he take of his house , as if the honor is getting back in time , in the time his grandfather and father used to be farmers , he felt he was doing something for his country .

Exactly why The townspeople and members of municipal are very proud of the children of the village here and abroad as they did not hesitate in one day to provide material support and moral support to their town Turmosayya until they reached what was already made and urban infrastructure. Turmusaya is the first town where two banks opened in the same period. In the village there is now quick Intranet service as well.
Mr. Ashraf, This village and its people have the whole right to be proud of themselves and their children as well, because this is the way the way our land should be treated like.
We will continue our walk, but first we have to get down from the horses, and go to a very important place that we must see.
We got into a small street all throw way up, until we reached some old houses, and I realized we were in the old city, amazing houses, the old city of turmosayya was only seven houses, and one of them was " mukhtar " house, and that as the whole village, the village people used to live with their own animals, horses goats and cows.
We got the chance to go up to the roof of the mukhtar's house, from there we could see the difference in time, turmusaya before and turmosayya now, it was indescribable seen and feeling.
It's such an amazing thing how these people have managed to take themselves all the way up, how they could develop themselves, but at the same time keep their hearts the way they were before.

I must say Mr.ashraf. It's very rare especially in this time, to find people like those, that no matter how much they developed, they will never forget how they begin, and not just that they'll be proud when talking about their beginning, from being farmers, to buisness men.

you know what Mr, ashraf , from the first time i had put my leg in this village , i felt as i was one of its people .

the people here really give this kind of welcome , as if they had known you for years , it's such an amazing felling , to feel that you have two homes , as warm as each other .

Aya Abdullah mosa guzlan abassi
Intro to urban studies
Prof: Alessandro petti
Walking away
I used to listen to Craig David song walking away, thinking of this song the same as I would think about any other song, just lyrics with some music, but this time it was different.
The great thing about songs is that everyone can hear, feel and listen to it differently than the other depending on the situation he is in.
I'm walking away from the troubles in my life"I'm walking away oh to find a better dayI'm walking away from the troubles in my lifeI'm walking away oh to find a better dayI'm walking away"
These were part of my feeling while having a walk from, beit jala, to bateer.
At that point, this song meant to me a lot than just a song.
In this walk I had the chance to discover places I've never been to , see my country , my people through different eye that I had never seen them in .
Starting from beit jala, until the end of the trip simple things would pull my eye, and move my feeling very easily starting from road itself to the great nature you see there , baloot bottom , olive trees , even thought that I have seen these trees before , this time is the first I think of how many years these trees were planted , who I s the person who planted them , is he still alive , or not , and even if these question doesn't matter ,and that they will do me no good nor bad they would still cross my mind.
Starting of the valley until its end we could see the agricultural building , which Palestinian have build to help them while they plant in the summer , which they were only staying in for summer time .
This trip was in a very sunny hot day, which reminded me a lot of the Palestinian who had to leave their homes in 1948, expect that our journey, our walk was for the pleasure of walking itself, and their walk was a walk full of fear.
Continuing our trip from beit jala until we reach down the valley, we didn't stop rocks, trees, ups and downs, all the way long.
This valley is considered as one of the most important valleys in this area, not just in bateer, but in beit jala as well, because it connect both of these areas together, it contains one of the most important trees flowers and other plants in Palestine, and these are two of the most important reasons that makes this valley very special on this landscape.
We were told about a project that was going on in this valley as well in bateer, and other places, it was basically a year's survey on different towns about the cultural elements, also they are mapping the buildup areas and the streets as well the human activities on this landscape.
This project aim to help in the future of finding ways to develop this area, which will allow considering this place as one of the greatest places on this landscape.



Continuing our trip all the way up, our last station: bateer
A few people in Palestine have managed and succeeded in keeping their homes, lands, villages the way they were before 1948; bateer's people are one of those few.
And that was one of the most important reasons that gave them the respect all people on this land have for them, because they had and always will represent the true honor of Palestinians.
sometimes you feel there is no funthat's why you turn and runbut now I truly realize some people don't want to compromisewell I saw them with my own eyes spreading those liesand well I don't want to live a lie,
Feelings on how people in different places on this landscape have done to it , people who were not willing to compromise anything to save this land from being lost , exactly the opposite of people in bateer had done.
Even though that nothing separate bateer of "jelo settlement" but the railway train station which connects Jerusalem with Tal Aviv, people have not compromise but they had give their freedom as long nothing of their land would be lost .

A view of bateer and the railway train station .

Bateer is one of the great examples of a Palestinians village because it still can show the true Palestinians, starting from simple homes, until the simple things they used years and years before to build these homes, such as the thing we saw on our journey which was called " laton ", which was a building that people use to make the concert they used to build houses.

Even though it was ignored, but still seeing it would give us _ Palestinians _ the hope, that our land is not totally lost, and that there is good left in some people.

walk in batier - enviromental

bateer - view of the village - botom tree - laton - ain bateer