This week in the Jordan Valley

We received a phone call from a contact in the Jordan Valley that the
Israeli army were demolishing a Bedouin village near Jiftlik called
Abu Alajaj.The soldiers from the Israeli Army came in 20 jeeps and 2
bulldozers around 6 in the morning and bulldozed three sheep sheds and
one living unit housing a family of 11 members. 3 people who were
trying to get the animals out of the shed before the demolition, were
arrested. Most of the sheep escaped; however, the villagers were
still pulling out wounded lambs from the remains of the sheds when the
team arrived. We were told that altogether 200 lambs were in the
sheds and that some may still be stuck under the residue. The
villagers were still looking for the sheep that managed to escape
before the shed fell over them.
The village's crime is that they are 25 metres from vineyards of
illegal Israeli settlement of Massu'a – and the settlers want to take
over all the land from the settlement to the road on the other side of
the village. Massu'a is on the site of a refugee camp that housed
Palestinians fleeing from Israel after 1948.
The team spoke with, Sadie Adnan, the mother of the family, that had
their house bulldozed. She has a husband and 9 children. She told us
that when the soldiers came they just said that they are coming to
demolish their house and commanded them to get outside. The soldiers
did not let their neighbours help them carry out their belongings so
the family just managed to save some of their personal belongings
before they bulldozed the house. The neighbours who tried to help were
beaten and arrested. The electricity was cut and several of their
water barrels were also run over.
“And now we do not have any water. We told the soldiers that this is
water for us and our animals, but they did not care”, she said. Around
50 sheep and 60 – 70 lambs were in their shelter when it was
demolished.
They got the demolition order a month ago. Her family has lived here
for many years; all her 9 children were born here. “I will stay here,
I will die here”, she said and added that they will immediately start
to rebuild their units and stay with neighbours in the meantime.
Around 150 people live in this village and altogether they own around
10,000 sheep. On the question why the houses of exactly these two
families were demolished, the mayor of Jiftlik said that these
families were just picked at random, next time some other families’
units will be demolished, and they do not give them any warning, they
are just turning up with their bulldozers. The soldiers had said this
is Israeli land and that the Palestinians must leave.
“The Palestinians who live here have no documentation of their
ownership of the land. The land belongs to Jiftlik. All the people in
this community belong to the same family, the Idaes family. The family
is originally from Hebron, but moved here in 1979 as it is not
possible to live in Hebron with 10,000 sheep.” The mayor said that
“before 1980 we were in good terms with the settlers living in Massu'a
settlement, we were good neighbours and were visiting each other.
However, with the new generation of settlers everything has changed –
now they are not friendly anymore, they want to take our land in order
to expand their settlement. They took this land only 7 years ago”, he
said as he pointed at the vineyard only a few meters away. He further
explained that not many settlers are actually living in the
settlement; “it is just that they want our land as if to prepare for
more Israelis to come and live here.” The Israelis claim that this is
their land and that the villagers have built their units without
permission. “In this village the imam is not calling out for prayers
for fear that the Israeli Army will destroy their mosque”, he said.
And the next day, this is exactly what happened in neighbouring
community of Khirbet Yarza. When we arrived men were praying in what was left of their small mosque, just a carpet and prayer mats spread out between the mangled piles of stone and iron work. Eleven families live there now, whereas 10 years ago there were 50 families. Many people moved to larger villages of Jiftlik and Berdala. We spoke to Khaled Mohamed Darawma. He told us that at 6.30 the mosque, 7 animal shelters and one house were demolished. People have been living here for generations. Shots were fired by the soldiers and some people were sheltering in nearby caves.

These are not isolated incidents. There has been a concerted week of
demolitions around the West Bank, raids by soldiers on Nablus during
the night and even soldiers entering Ramallah during the day.

Nobody is very sure why this is happening, but my friend Saleh, who teaches
political science at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah thinks that the
Israelis are trying to provoke a reaction from Palestinians so that
they can take moral highground whilst demanding more from the "Peace"
talks or perhaps walking away from them. The Jordan Valley is a
particularly vulnerable area for Palestinians, being close to the
border with Jordan and of strategic importance to Israel, being where
the main water resources for Israel are located, and housing many
illegal Israeli settlements with valuabe, productive agriculture. Our
team is sending three people to stay overnight tomorrow in Abu Alajaj
in case of further incursions after the sabbath.

So it goes.