Elham

“Elham” means “The aspiration from God”. 

Living in Al-Walajah is a great challenge from all sides. It all started when my husband initiated building a house on his land in Al-Walajah while we, his family, were living in a rented apartment in the nearby town, Bethlehem. It did not take long for the Israeli administration to reach out to him, notifying him to stop building it immediately. The land of my husband is located in Area C. That means that Israel holds the rights to rule that area in administration and security matters. In this regard all building permits have to be authorized by them, which Israel almost never issues. After a lot of fights, my husband decided to abandon the construction site for a while. But soon enough, we decided to move out and move to a rented house in Al-Walajah, in order to be close to our own house and to restart the construction all over again.

Back then, the checkpoint at the entrance of the village was closed, and the only way out was through the Cremisan valley street, which was blocked pretty often as well. My husband was working in Beersheba, a city in the Negev in Israel and he came back home once in a couple of weeks or even once a month because he did not have a work permit and he did not want to be caught. 

Soon after we started building again, we received a call saying that the Israeli military soldiers are at our house. When they left, I reached out to the house and found a final notification of demolition within 24 hours. I informed my husband, and I felt how hard the news hit him. He knew that all his efforts to finally build a house were in vain.

Two days later, we heard that the bulldozers are inside the village planning to demolish three houses. We were mentally destroyed. We were scared and sad and lost, on our nerves. The time paced very slowly until we received a call from our neighbors. I asked: “Are they done demolishing the house?” She answered: “They left without demolishing it”.

They did not demolish our house this time, but I knew it would happen soon. I could not stay in Al-Walajah and watch my house being demolished. So, we decided to move out again to the Bethlehem. On the other hand, my husband hired a lawyer to defend the house. But unfortunately, he was not very helpful. He procrastinated a lot, consumed a lot of money and did not lead us anywhere. My husband was fed up with all this and he decided to forget about the house. Every time I tried to convince him to continue constructing it, he said “I will not put all my efforts in a house that will be demolished”. He even thought of selling it. There was a customer with a Jerusalem ID who was ready to buy it. They agreed on everything but fortunately, the customer changed his mind in the last minute because it was too risky to buy a house that is warned to be demolished. 

Years passed, and I could not get used to the rented houses where everything is forbidden and controlled by the owner. We moved from a rented house to another, until we had been moving into seven different houses within few years. It was the worst period of my life. Twelve years passed and I was hearing the very same sentence from my husband every time I talked about the house: “I will not put all my efforts in a house that will be demolished”. 

I was done. I decided to challenge myself and continue constructing the house no matter what. My husband was broke and he could not fund the construction even if he had wanted to. So, my challenge was to find a source of money, a loan with easy conditions that I can take under my name. I heard that the UNRWA is giving such loans and I went for it. The money was too little for the construction cost, but I said we will start anyways. I brought the money home and my husband had no choice. I convinced him that this money is only the beginning and that we can pay by bank checks. I did not care whether we finish the house in a year or two. I only cared about taking the first step. 

After a lot of fights with my husband, he surrendered. He bought the stones and started the work. I would never forget the first day of construction when he came back home from work and I insisted on going to see the house. He said it is only the first day, you cannot see anything yet. But I insisted. We went there and I truly cannot describe my feeling back then. I will never forget it. It has been more than seven years already and I still remember it very well. The best feeling ever!!

Everyone around thought that I was the one who is going against constructing the house. They said that I am a “girl from the city” who is unable to live in a village. Little did they know that I love the land and the plants. I admire the agricultural life and calmness. I dote the fresh air and beautiful views. So I did not care about what they said. I was focusing on having a house for myself with some land around, even if it was in a besieged village. 

When the construction started, my husband was encouraged. The Israeli administration employees came around again, took pictures of the construction and notified us to stop the construction immediately but we did not care. We continued the construction until we ran out of money. My husband got lazy. He stopped working in the house, although we went through a lot already. Then I thought to myself: “I did not come so far to stop here”. I started thinking of what to do until one day I had an idea.

It was the first of August 2014. I waited for my husband to come back from work and I said: “Today, I went to our children´s school. I moved them to Al-Walajah´s school. You have 25 days to finish the house before the school starts so that we can move in there.” I did not do it. But I told him that I did. He got very mad and told me that he has no money to finish it within 25 days! I said: “Use the bank checks”. He had no choice but following me“!

Indeed! The heavy work at the house was finished and we moved in one day before the school started. It was still not ready from the outside and there was a lot to be done from the inside, but we moved in anyways. We are still working on it until today! It is still not completely ready. But thankfully we have come so far! The best thing in the world is to have a house for yourself, with some land round and some space and calmness. This is the ultimate stability!!