Accompanying Palestinian Shepherds
Khirbet En A Rashash is a group of Bedouin encampments on the hills south of Duma village. Among them passes Wadi Rashash descending steeply to the Fasail springs and continuing from there towards the Jewish settler-colony of Fatzael that enjoys the spring water.
We descend from Allon Road eastward for about 3 km. To the right the road ascends to a deserted Israeli army camp. A turn left leads to the encampments. The Bedouins live on sheep and goat herding. Luscious pasture lies along the hills. All of this calm has been upset lately. An illegal settler-colonist outpost called “Angels of Peace” was put up about two years ago in the deserted army base close to these pastures. Settler-colonists backed up by the army have been harassing the shepherds and chasing them away with their flocks.
Volunteer accompaniers have organized and help these shepherds reach their grazing grounds. Volunteers from Israel and abroad have been mobilized especially for this purpose.
We left at dawn on Friday towards Khirbet En A Rashash. We came in time to leave for the grazing grounds. The area was covered densely with dry thorny vegetation – attesting to the generous rains of last winter. We walked the goat trails to avoid the thorns. After over an hour’s walk we placed ourselves along with the herd that was peacefully eating the dry vegetation. There were no disruptions and time passed calmly. The animals fed and M., a local shepherd for over 20 years, prepared the traditional tea.
Today, luckily, the violent settler-colonist Elhanan and his young son and accompanying soldiers did not show up. M. told us that yesterday his son, who went in his stead with the herd, was sprayed by a settler-colonist with strong gas while out grazing, and had to get back to their encampment. Volunteer women from abroad who have been in the country for about a month have run into settler-colonists and soldiers several times. Once they were also required by soldiers to hand over their IDs for inspection. In the encampment itself things are usually quiet, but once about a month ago a settler-colonist arrived on his mini-tractor to disrupt the night’s rest. Remind them who’s in charge here.
The link to Ilana Hammerman’s writeup “Ethnic Cleansing Continues” of August 29, 2019:
A-Rashash
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A-Rashash was founded by the patriarch of the family, Haj Suleiman, who fled in 1948 from Tel Amal near Tivon. He leased land around the valley from one of the Palestinian residents and raised a glorious family that today consists of three family heads numbering about 100 people, with electricity from solar panels and water that they bring in trailer tanks from Ein Samia. There is no school there and the children attend an elementary school in the village of Duma, which is over the mountain at a distance of about 5 kilometers, and leave when they reach high school.
The daily life of the residents of the place consists of trying to avoid the machinations and damage of the settlers of the settlements and outposts that surround their village, and to protect the grazing lands of the sheep that remain in their possession. At the same time there is the constant threat of the orders of the civil government carried out by the army. About 3 years ago the residents decided to give up the extensive grazing areas and the access to the Ein Rashash spring and they graze around the encampment and buy feed for the sheep for a lot of money.
After the outpost hooligans managed to drive out the residents of Ras a Tin, Ein Samia and Kaboun, hence began the severe day-and-night harassment of of A Rashash. Since August 2023, the Jordan Valley activists have been holding 24/7 vigils in the pastoral communities to protect them and encourage them to stay on their land. There are refreshing responses, but not enough to provide the residents with long-term protection. You are Welcome to join.
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Jordan Valley
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Jordan Valley The Jordan Valley is the eastern strip of the West Bank. Its area consists of almost a third of the West Bank area. About 10,000 settlers live there, about 65,000 Palestinian residents in the villages and towns. In addition, about 15,000 are scattered in small shepherd communities. These communities are living in severe distress because of two types of harassment: the military declaring some of their living areas, as fire zones, evicting them for long hours from their residence to the scorching heat of the summer and the bitter cold of the winter. The other type is abuse by rioters who cling to the grazing areas of the shepherd communities, and the declared fire areas (without being deported). The many groundwaters in the Jordan Valley belong to Mekorot and are not available to Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley. The Palestinians bring water to their needs in high-cost followers.
Bosmat HetzroniApr-16-2026Samra. Water Cistern
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