Rechercher

Haj Kanaan Shaina: A Voice from Ein Qinya

Tareq Khalef & Haifa Zalatimo

[Original Text]

This piece was commissioned for ZAT to illustrate the Sakiya Academy methodology through collective local narratives, knowledge and oral histories. Tarek Khalef represented Sakiya Academy during the Turn 2 Lab#3 in May 2023 at L'Art Rue.




Located in the green hilltops of the agricultural village of Ein Qinya, Sakiya is an experimental academy that aims to graft cultural life and production with the rich agrarian and local knowledge found in rural Palestine. Responding to multiple forces that coalesce in the erosion of our agrarian livelihoods and collective connection to land, our site - the Zalatimo family estate - provides a brilliant archive through which visiting researchers, artists and educators can step out of  the normalcy of everyday life in an act of personal and collective revival. Being cradled within Palestine’s rural life while in close proximity to the encroachment of Israeli settlements and the effects of rapid urbanization and climate change, our site offers our visitors a rich portal to negotiate Palestine’s complex political geography and the transformations we all feel. Key to our work are the personal relationships that develop between our visitors and the residents of the village, who at times join the research and artistic projects that sprout on site. As a cultural space in rural Palestine, we strive to document and share the oral  accouns, rich local knowledge, and social histories of the local residents with those who work and visit Sakiya.   

  

In the shadow of land dispossession and a set of transformations that are seeing the disappearance of our agrarian landscape and ways of life, our ongoing documentation of people's stories is essential to counter the forces of erasure while also providing a very localized and fertile foundation from which our visiting researchers, artists and educators can start to think, remember and forge new meanings. Below is a small excerpt from an Interview with Haj Kanaan, an 80-year-old farmer from Ein Qinya and friend of Sakiya who facilitated several grafting workshops with us. Haj Kanaan has lived his entire life in Ein Qinya and has witnessed the steady decline in the area's agricultural production as well as the dramatic transformations of the natural landscape. The following video interview, conducted by researcher Saad Amira will share some of Haj Kanaan’s insights and some reflections on his words.   

 

  

On Water

— 04:58 Question: Uncle, about the water springs of this area and valleys, can you speak to us about them in detail?   

— Haj Kanaan: The water springs in the valleys are interconnected, beginning with Ein Al Okda in Ramallah. From there, the water flows downstream to Ein Al Balad (Spring of the Town), then connects to Ein Kaab, followed by Ein Asfoor (The Spring of the Birds), and finally reaches Ein Abu Al Einien (Spring of the Father of Eyes) — where Sakiya is located. Beneath it lies Ein Al Majoor (Spring of Neighborliness), and further down is Ein Um Al Roman (The Mother of Pomegranates Spring), where the surrounding land is entirely cultivated with citrus trees.Now, in this valley here, the valley of the Dilb, which was named after the Dilb tree that you can still see today — now the Israeli’s came and named it the Dolev settlement, based on the valley. This valley has several springs, starting from the upper areas near the water treatment point, Ein Al Dilb, to Ein Al Kos, Ein Al Maker, Ein Abu Danfoor and the valley continues with many springs...    

In the Dilb valley, there used to be watermills on the sides, the water stream rotated the wheel, grinding wheat, so you could feel the cool grounded wheat coldness due to the water. Their ruins are still there today. Through these day to day details you can notice the small differences that we miss today.  

— 06:45 Question: So, Ein Qinya mainly relied on water from the springs and valley? There was no water coming in from pipes, yes?

— Haj Kanaan: Yes we depended on water springs and valleys, no no there was no water networks.  

— 06:56 Question: When were the water networks installed here in Ein Qinniya?  

— Haj Kanaan: The water networks were installed in 2008, before that we had wells, filling them with water we brought from the springs by carrying the water in tanks (tinkers) on donkeys.   

— 07:22 Question: o, uncle, historically, were there no water shortage issues back in the day? Even the village's name is Ein Qinya, and (Ein is Spring in arabic). 

— Haj Kanaan: A problem! No there was no water shortage problem. Even Ramallah used to source its water from Ein Qinniya’s springs. There was a man named Suliman Tannos, who had a truck. He used to fill it with water and selling the water in Ramallah. He would give the village some of the profit, which helped us build a school here in Ein Qinniya.  

— 08:19 Question: around what year?  

— Haj Kanaan: In the sixties.  





Throughout the interview, Haj Kanaan, reminded us of Ein Qinya’s important role as a fruit basket and historical source of water for Ramallah. This image of a thriving and abundant place sharply contrasts with the current neglect and marginalization the village experiences today. Recalling the names of the springs in their original language, each flowing downstream to the next, illustrate Haj Kanaan's deep knowledge of the geography and helps us preserve the indigenous place-names and an intimate sense of place, which are constantly under threat from colonial erasure.    

  

On Agriculture

— 00:25 Question: What did your father’s main job used to be?  

— Haj Kanaan: He was a farmer.  

— Question: What did he farm?   

— Haj Kanaan: Farming now differs from what they used to farm back in the day. They used to plant wheat, lentils and barley. They used to plant everything, not like today. Today, when I crave local barley stew, I barely find it, and when I do, I buy it for at least 100 shekels. I once asked people coming from Tubas. They told me they could only sell me one 25-kilogram bag. So we buy foreign products nowadays.  




— 22:48 Question: When we look back to the fifties and sixties, was agriculture sufficient for people to make a living? For you, as wealthy landowners, was it a viable livelihood? And what about the small farmer who plowed the land — was it enough for them?  

— Haj Kanaan: For instance, for someone who didn’t own land, the arrangement was that they would plow the land, and we would split the harvest equally — half for me, half for them. From that, they could make a living. We used to harvest 40 to 50 quintals of dried figs.   

— 24:34 Question: You as a family? Or as a village?  

— Haj Kanaan: As a family.   

— Question: How heavy is a quintal?  

— Haj Kanaan: 300Kilograms   

— Question: Who used to buy them from you?  

— Haj Kanaan: Abu Dahduh used to buy them. Have you heard of Abu Dahduh? Jameel Abu Dahduh? His wife's name is Haron Abu Dihu, they used to buy them and transport them to Jorden, to the Al-Aqaba port and then from there to Gaza!   

— Question: Interesting, that's what my aunt told me. That merchants from Gaza would come to this area and buy the dried figs.   

— Haj Kanaan: Yes, the Gazans used to come here to buy, after the occupations in 1967.   

— 25:15 Question: Were they able to come to the West-Bank before the war of the 1967 war?    

— Haj Kanaan: No.  

— Question: before the 67th?  

— Haj Kanaan: Before (during the Jordanian rule between 1948 – 1967) they could not enter the West-Bank, directly; they used to come around through Jordan through the Al-Akaba port. After the 1967 war, they came directly through Palestine.  

— Question: My Aunt Aziza says that they also used to come through Palestine before 1948?  

—  Haj Kanaan: Yes, before 1948. She was old, she would know.   




Throughout the interview, Haj Kanaan’s recalls Ein Qinya as a thriving hub of agricultural activity for the surrounding villages and notes the changes in agricultural production observed throughout the years. His memory sheds light on the social and labor relationships that organized agricultural activity and leads us to question how the different waves of refugees from 1948 adapted to their new circumstances, as they were forced to find work at the lowest ranks of the agricultural hierarchy.    

His recollection of the once-abundant fig production, now a thing of the past, brings to light the historic trade relationships that once connected Palestine’s diverse geographies and reveals how various political moments disrupted the movement of people and goods. The memories of Gazan merchants coming to the West Bank to buy figs are insightful and inspiring, opening new avenues for research and imagination that challenge the current state of fragmentation we find ourselves in.    

    

Changing Landscape  

— 15:36 Question: Ok uncle, if a person wanted to go to Ramallah at night back then, was it possible to walk or was there a fear of hyenas?  

Haj Kanaan: Of course there was fear from hyenas.   

15:46 Question: Until when did people stop feeling this fear?  

Haj Kanaan: Until just a few years ago. When I was young, about sixteen years old, during Jordanian rule, I used to sleep on the roof of the house. There was a dog following me around, and one night, as I was climbing up the ladder, the dog started barking. I knew it was a hyena, so I kneeled down to make sure and saw it with its ears held low. I rushed inside to get my rifle, but by the time I returned, it was gone.  

— 16:40 Question: We are talking about what year exactly?  

— Haj Kanaan: Around 1965/64, something like that.  

— 16:40 Question: Was there a lot of Hyenas back in those days?    

— Haj Kanaan: Yes, they were all over, between houses. 

— Question: Were there any wild boars in this area?  

— Haj Kanaan:  No, the Israelis brought the wild boars, they destroyed our crops and a lot of our plants went extinct.   

 

 

— Question: What about other wild animals?   

— Haj Kanaan: Deers.   

— Question: Did they use to destroy agricultural crops?    

— Haj Kanaan: Deers destroy agricultural crops and trees, one time I planted 54 fig trees, about two years old seedlings. The Deers rub their horns to the stems, peeling the tree bark, which dries the tree. All the fifty trees I planted dried up.      

— Question: What about the Rock hyrax?   

— Haj Kanaan: The Israelis brought the rock hyrax. They would bring a few so they would procreate. And they don’t leave any Leafs on any tree! They released some in the area just across from us. If anybody tries to catch them, they alert each other and hide underground. The rock hyrax is destructive.     

IIn a later part of the interview, Haj Kanaan reflects on the changes in the natural world around him and the disappearance of hyenas. Beyond the loss of habitat due to Israeli settlement expansion, Haj Kanaan confirmed that after the Palestinian authorities returned in the early '90s, they deliberately shot and killed many hyenas. He also provides crucial testimony about the colonial introduction of species, such as the wild boar and the rock hyrax, intended to disrupt Palestinian agriculture.        

Throughout the interview, Haj Kanaan sheds light on the massive transformations that have gripped Ein Qinya and the surrounding villages, from changes in everyday food practices to the disappearance of certain animals and plants. His oral account highlights the entanglement of colonial land dispossession, the growth of Israeli settlements, and modernizing social transformations — all of which further alienate people from their land and place. Although Ein Qinya is far from its glory days as a hub of agricultural production for the area, its inhabitants continue to resist these forces and hold on to agrarian ways of life. Haj Kanaan reminds us that while people may buy flour from the market today, the village still does not have a bakery — residents continue to bake their own bread at home. Our ongoing practice of documenting such accounts helps surface local knowledge and stories that inspire us to preserve our traditional ways of living and form a fertile bedrock from which to create and imagine.    

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