Visiting the shepherd communities threatened

by the Israeli authorities’ demolition orders in the Palestinian Jordan Valley

Checkpoints:

10:30 – Maale Efrayim Checkpoint on the south side of Road 60.

 Army vehicles and soldiers seen at the junction. Palestinian cars were delayed.

11:00 – Hamra Checkpoint – quiet.

16:00 – Hamra Checkpoint

Soldiers manning the checkpoint, and a waiting line of Palestinian cars at the entrance coming from the northern West Bank into the Palestinian Jordan Valley. At Ariel Junction, on the roundabout, a police car, policeman and soldier with drawn weapons carefully observe the passing cars.

The visit to the shepherd communities in the Jordan Valley:

Aqaba Village 11;30

Planned meeting with Haj Sami (village council chairman).  Upon our arrival he was busy with a group of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniers) volunteers and sent us to witness a charming activity taking place with the village children. It was facilitated by Israeli youngsters who told a story in Hebrew, translated into Arabic, with illustrations. The children, about 20 of them, sat mesmerized. From there we proceeded to the library, that contains both children and adult books.

After taking leave of the EAPPI group, Sami received us in his office. At the entrance to Aqaba we had seen some large homes under construction.  Asking him whether he had received construction permits (from the occupation authorities), he answered assertively that the Aqaba village council – namely himself, Haj Sami – gave the construction go-ahead and notified the Israeli authorities about it. The purpose is to enable villagers who had left to return to the community. At present, Aqaba numbers 300 inhabitants. 700 Aqaba residents had to leave because of the Occupation’s refusal to allow new construction. Youngsters who married had nowhere to live and left for Tyassir or other communities. Now he is active in order to have them return to their home village. Throughout his conversation with us he stressed his desire for peace.

While we were in his office, a group from Yesh Din organization arrived to discuss the ongoing nightly incursions by the army in the area. The subject is still being examined.

We took leave of Haj Sami, not before he led us to the handsome building that contains the cheese plant – various forms of labaneh (balls of salty white cheese in olive oil), hard salty goat cheese, thick sheep’s-milk yogurt and more. The products are sold to various countries in Latin America, the Persian Gulf states and naturally to the cities in the West Bank – Nablus and Ramallah.

11:00 visit with Qadri and his family

Nerves are on edge; they too have received demolition orders. Today he says there are no problems with the grazing, for the shepherds are accompanied by Dharma activists.

The boy from Umm Jammal is a member of the family we visit from time to time. He was released after 3 hours. Perhaps the phone calls we had made to the DCO war-room speeded things up.

14:30 Driving towards Thabat Mar’i:

We entered Road 57 on the track north of Masuah settler-colony, meaning to use our GPS. However we took a wrong track and stopped by a house the door of which was open. A father and son who live there welcomed us with a smile. We explained the point of our journey and the young man told us that demolition orders for his home and all the houses around have also been issued. In strange coincidence, the young man claimed that the house that was demolished (the one from the photograph we had before it had been demolished) is his cousin’s, and offered to lead us to it, driving his own car in front of us.

We sat on the porch of the father’s home near the rubble from the demolished home of the son and heard once more about the Jewish lawyer from settler-colony Maale Efrayim who had exploited them and did not deliver the work… A week prior to the demolitions the lawyer told them everything was taken care of, no need to worry, and a day later his phone went silent. There was no more answer to their calls. The group of houses there is called Khirbet Foule.

We proceeded to visit a nearby group of houses: Thabat Mar’i. The owner of the house that was demolished is trying to get help and wishes to contact the lawyer working with Yesh Din (the Israeli organization that helps Palestinians harassed by Israelis). He asked about a lawyer named Mohammad, a tall fellow, and we assumed he was talking about Mohammad of Yesh Din. The elderly father arrived and received us warmly, but responding to the sorrow we expressed, he expressed precisely what we feel: “You’re here now, but you’ll leave and we remain with our troubles…”