Israel/Palestine: qui cultive la terre ?
In the Middle East, land - who owns it, who cultivates it, who controls it, who conquers it - is the heart of the conflict.
In the village of Wadi Foukin, surrounded by the Green Line and the Israeli settlement of Betar Illit, the second largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Palestinian farmers are trying to save their last dunams (a unit of measurement of area) of land that the Israeli state is gradually taking over. The Israeli occupation hinders food production by limiting access to resources such as agricultural land and water. Palestinian farmers are forced to abandon their land to work on Israeli farms where wages are much higher. Farming is a true act of resistance for these farmers. This act is reminiscent of the Israeli pioneers who came to "make the desert bloom" and were forbidden to work the land in Europe for years. In Israel, the link to the land is being lost; fewer and fewer young people want to become farmers. The Hebrew state is currently lacking in new farmers and has to rely on a foreign workforce made up of Thais, Jordanians and Palestinians.
I want to show the diversity of this agricultural population by questioning their attachment to the land, which is imbued with religious, political and identity-related dimensions.
This work will explore both the loss of the link to the land in Israel and the resistance of Palestinian farmers to save it.
Kibbutz Nahal Oz (Israel), November 29, 2021.
Motasem (right) with two other farm workers install the tarps that will protect the banana trees. He is Jordanian. He has been working as an agricultural worker in the kibbutz of Nahal Oz for three years. His wife and two children live in Jordan. He visits them every four-five months.
Portrait of Azan, Palestinian, 45 years old. He has been working here for 4 years, for the farm of the kibbutz of Nahal Oz. For him, it is not dangerous to work here. He is from Jenin (West Bank).
The manager of Kibbutz Nahal Oz (left) and the team of Israeli farmers have coffee before the work day. In this kibbutz live 500 inhabitants and less and less young people want to become farmers.
A mother, a resident of the kibbutz, walks with her children near the farm. Kibbutz Sa'ad is still one of the few religious kibbutzes in Israel.
Kibbutz Sa'ad, Israel, November 22, 2021.
Som Yos, a Thai worker in the dairy farm is in charge of milking the cows. He works here to feed his family back home.
View of the fields in the Jordan Valley with a shelter for farmers on which hangs a Palestinian flag. In this place, they can store materials and change clothes.
Tulkarem (West Bank), December 03, 2021.
Between two milkings, Khalek, a farmer, runs home to cuddle his daughter, Maria. He and his wife waited years to have their first child. In Khalek's family, they are farmers from father to son.
Wadi Foukin (West Bank), March 29, 2022.
March 29, 2022. On the bus to the Israeli vineyard just across the village of Wadi Foukin, where the workers come from. Muhammad (center) owns 15 square meters of land in Wadi Foukin, but it does not allow him to live. That's why he has been working for 10 years in the Israeli farm.
Bassem, 62, is the owner of a farm since 2021. Before that, he was a governor in the presidential office in Ramallah. "I want to generate income for my children and spend my last days on this beautiful land. Here, we are prohibited by Israel to carry out certain activities such as growing roses, certain breeds of cows that have an economic value ... They want to sell their products and here and push us to work in Israel, "he said.
This water is polluted by settlement waste, and Palestinian farmers are not allowed to use the pure water source in Al-Auja.
Sumaya, 53 years old, farmer and her husband Nabil. Since 2008, they settled as farmers 500 meters from the Separation Wall. Nabil studied accounting but did not work in this field because the wages are not sufficient. He chose to work in the construction sector in Israel but because of back problems he had to stop. Therefore, together with his wife, they settled as farmers. They cultivate 5 dunams in rent with thyme, tomato and sage crops. Nabil adds: "Agriculture is the heart of the country, we can't live without it".
Al-Auja (West Bank), April 3, 2022.