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In an orange grove, new seeds of hope MITCH POTTER Toronto Star BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - As Palestinian security forces begin their daunting deployment to hold back the militants of Gaza, Ahmed Ismail Zanin stands waiting with muted applause. Zanin and his family of orange growers have had it worse than most these past few years, watching in ominous silence as homemade Palestinian Qassam rockets soared over their heads toward Israel, only to hunker down as Israel's military response uprooted nearly every tree in their plantation. It didn't happen all at once, but over time the Qassam-triggered army incursions, led by the overpowering blades of Israel's armoured D-9 bulldozers, managed to squeeze the juice out of Beit Hanoun. Once this rural corner of northern Gaza was proud to call itself the citrus basket of Palestine. Now it is just another basket case, and a bitter one at that. Israel had its reasons for laying waste to the groves of Beit Hanoun: this bare-dirt expanse nearest the Israeli border fence now offers scant cover for the holdouts of Hamas and their ever more effective Qassam rockets. But there is little solace in this for Zanin, who yesterday looked upon his 50 barren dunams (five hectares) of sandy soil and described what once was there, and what it meant to him. "We had 1,250 orange trees, mostly Valencia. They were the finest," said Zanin, 67, a father of seven. "I grew up with those trees. And my father before me. And his father before him. I was married under those trees." He concedes there was a time when he thought the militant strategy of lobbing Qassams at Israel was the only choice left to Gaza's destitute hordes. But as his groves came down tree by tree — an experience common to the 38,000 people of Beit Hanoun — he began to realize the price of Palestinian national aspirations could kill his community altogether. "This area is for our families, not for Qassams. We forbid it. But the ones who send these rockets do not ask permission," he says. "We should change this weapon. There are many ways to fight the Israelis. You can fight for your rights, fight with public relations, fight without weapons. They already destroyed my trees. I don't want them to destroy my house." Zanin was in charge of the Beit Hanoun Citrus Co-operative before the four-year Palestinian uprising, helping organize the annual export of 24,000 tonnes of sweet, succulent produce to the Persian Gulf and Europe. Now that annual $15-million income is gone. But the family hasn't given up. Hope lies in the hundreds of seedlings the Zanins showed a visiting journalist yesterday. You could still see one D-9 bulldozer and an Israeli tank from his upper balcony yesterday, but if the Palestinian troops take their place today as promised by President Mahmoud Abbas, the Zanins are ready to replant. It will take seven years before the first oranges ripen and many more before these seedlings match the bounty of the mature groves that once were. These future groves will be for his children, all but one of whom remain in Beit Hanoun. The one that got away — the eldest son, Nabil, 48 — happened to resettle in Toronto, and now runs a thriving computer retail shop in North York. Ahmed Zanin made one journey to see his transplanted Canadian son seven years ago, stretching the visit from September through February. He was astonished by two things: Ontario's fruit harvest and Ontario's winter. "You have farms where people come and pay the growers so they can pick the fruit themselves," he said, smiling mischievously at so outrageous a concept. He simply loved his first taste of snow. And his first glimpse out the CN Tower, which soars more than 20 times higher than Gaza's tallest building. But back on the farm, such as it is, another of Zanin's sons, Khalil, 40, has doubts that life is likely to improve with the arrival of Palestinian guardsmen tasked with stopping the Qassams. Under enormous outside pressure to bear down on militants, Abbas has mobilized more than 1,000 of his security officers to stand guard against Qassams throughout northern Gaza, part of a larger mobilization of as many as 8,000 men to restore law and order to this troubled territory. "I remember two years ago, there were 70 Israeli tanks in Beit Hanoun and at the same time, 20 Qassams were launched from Gaza, landing in Israel," said Khalil. "Israel tried everything and could not stop these rockets. So how can the Palestinian soldiers stop them? "We want peace. But this situation cuts my heart. I feel that either way, we will lose." Additional articles by Mitch Potter http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer? pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid= 1106261411175&call_pageid=970599119419 Fair Use Notice
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