A wall and the family!
The wall has separated the family from the world. Members of the family are living in fear…..even purchasing necessary goods has become increasingly difficult for them, as they are surrounded by the Armed Forces all the time!
There is no anomaly in the wall built by Israel in the northern part of Ramallah in occupied West Bank. The Palestinians are living on one side of the wall and the Israeli settlement is there on the other side. There is an empty place, like a courtyard, near the wall that is basically a ‘no man’s land’. And the Jumaa family lives there. Although they are Palestinians, a part of the wall separated the family from the Palestinian city of El-Bireh. As a result, they are in deep crisis. The 25-member Jumaa family has to cross the Israeli checkpoint everyday to purchase bread and milk. Their children don’t have enough space to roam…..
Hossam Jumaa (54) – the father of eight – has said: “The wall separated us from the people and from Palestinians. I feel I am inside the settlement, even though I am a Palestinian. Now, we live alone.”

Members of the Jumaa family

Initially, the situation was not so complicated. Israel started building the wall mainly to protect its people from the Palestinian attackers. However, the Jumaa family realised (just a couple of years ago) that the wall would separate them from Palestine. They urged the concerned Israeli authorities not to set up the wall, but their appeal was rejected. The scenario changed on December 6, 2017 when US President Donald Trump announced that Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel. “The work used to be at night, but after the protests broke out in the Palestinian territories following the American decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the work was done in the day,” said Hossam’s brother Hakim (50).
According to Hakim, the Israeli Defence Ministry had made a different claim in the past. In a statement, the ministry had said that the wall was necessary “following a significant number of gunfire incidents from vehicles toward the Beit El community”. It stressed: “The barrier does not harm any private land, does not block access to houses and does not change anything on the ground. There is no harm to Palestinians or their land.”

The Jumaa house

Despite this assurance, everything has changed for the Jumaa family. The Palestinian leaders had advised the family to protest against Israel’s decision to erect the wall. However, the Israeli authorities ignored their protest and forced them to live on the Israeli side of the wall. “Now, after we became inside the wall, we are scared of attacks by settlers at any moment,” stressed Hossam. The UN recently confirmed that around 65% of the separation barrier has so far been built, with more than 80% inside the West Bank.
As the family has little hope to see anyone near their house any more, Hakim (jokingly) said: “Today, we are independent. We will call ourselves the Great Republic of Jumaa.”

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das