As I approached Azam's house he came out to greet me. "I heard you were in
jail," I said. He had been that morning, but the army wasn't really
interested in holding him, they only arrested him to make a point. Azam
brought me to his fields to show me how they drove the point home. The
soldiers that arrested him confiscated 6 kilometers ($7000.00 worth) of
irrigation piping, and uprooted more than a 1/4 acre of his tomato plants.
They also presented him with a demolition order for his greenhouses that
gives him 14 days to dismantle them or they will be bulldozed.

When I asked what he was going to do, Azam replied, "What else can I do?
Take them down." His sons were already harvesting what they could before
the plants were ruined.

So, while agreements are being signed, hands are being shaken,
while the pictures of "important" people are being sent across the wires,
peace does seem to be breaking out all over the pages of Newsweek and the
New York Times. But the wall still towers above Abdel Jawad's mountain and
Azam's tomato plants are still rotting on the ground. And I'm left
wondering if this "peace" will take the farmers of the Beqa'a out of harm's
way.