Jordan Valley: Half the Sabbath is resting and the other half is spent harassing the Palestinian shepherds
6:15am Al-Farisiya – May 3, 2025, Saturday
The group split into teams of shepherd accompaniers and protective presence. Shepherd accompaniment in Al–Farisiya and Ein al-Hilwe Spring went unhampered, the settlers rested at home and enjoyed their own Sabbath.
Protective presence, too, in both Palestinian localities passed peacefully wandering among families and drinking tea and coffee. The men grazed their flocks near home and between being hostesses the women made cheese from goat and sheep milk produced before we got there.
Bardala: Teams of shepherd accompaniers have already accompanied M. for two weeks now. He is a farmer with 300 dunams of vegetables. They accompany him in order to prevent the settlers from harassing him and his workers and disrupt their harvesting. The accompaniers spent about 8 hours with the workers and finished the potato harvest that day. Note that these vegetables are worth about 250,000 shekels, and we try to keep our promise and have protective presence there nearly every single day.
There was only a single complaint, of shepherd F. from Ein Al-Hilwe. The settlers keep him from grazing his flock even next to his home, although the entire area is owned by him officially. Today grazing went unhampered, but there is hardly any dry grass for the cattle to eat. The farmer cannot graze elsewhere because the army prevents this and he is afraid.
In the afternoon the settlers, still in their white Sabbath shirts, come out on their Saturday hikes and their climax is harassment of Palestinians. The accompaniers with F. as he grazed ran into Benzi, a 22-years-old guy who has recently settled in the new outpost near Ein al-Hilwe. He toured with his young sister and familiarized her with the area, so perhaps that was why he wasn’t to harass F. this time.
Shepherdess F. who grazed her goats near F.’s flock was visited by the army. Three male and female soldiers warned her politely not to wander faraway and left.
The children from Maskiyot colony (ages 10-16) on the opposite hill also come out in their Saturday best to harass shepherd S. As young as they are, they already declare the whole area is theirs, try to penetrate the encampment and provoke the women (a mother and her two daughters) who tried to keep them out. Accompaniers in the next house were called and buffered between the family members and the Maskiyot children. Finally the mother who could no longer stand the pressure agreed to give the boys a little month-old puppy who was running joyously around if they would leave her in peace. They took the puppy and went back to the settlement.
Seemingly everything went well, but distress and tension were there as always. Two shepherds were hospitalized in Tubas that night as their hearts were troubling them. Luckily, examinations didn’t show any serious worsening and they returned the next day to continue their grazing.
We went back to Al-Farisiya, and 6 of us remained for protective presence at night.
Sunday, May 4, 2025 Ein al-Hilwe
We stayed for the morning shift with F.’s women in Ein al-Hilwe, as they went to graze near home instead of F. The grass there is meager but the cattle and goats enjoyed even this bit.
Towards 7:30 am the security official of Maskiyot colony made rounds in his pickup truck and chased the cattle back to their corral.
One could only cry with rage at the cruelty of the ‘chosen people’ who believe this is all theirs. Do they recall the not-so-distant history – pogroms in Poland and Ukraine – when they themselves were victims of such crimes?
Location Description
'Ein al-Hilwe
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Ein al-Hilwe is a natural spring and a Palestinian grazing area in the Jordan Valley that was used by the Palestinian shepherd communities for watering their flocks and for daily use. As of 2021, settlers from the Maskyot settlement took control of the spring: they fenced it off, built a wading pool and a mikveh, and installed flags and recreational facilities.
Palestinians are effectively denied access to the spring, and are forced to make do with running water in a remote wadi or, when the road is blocked, buy water from vendors at high prices.
The spring is located in the heart of an area where illegal outposts are being established, as part of a broader trend of pushing Palestinian communities away by denying them access to essential resources. Neighboring communities such as Umm Jamal and Khirbet Samra have already left due to the pressure.
Over the years, MachsomWatch members have reported arrests on false claims by settlers, harassment and violence, including damage to herds, intrusion into homes, and the intimidation of children. MachsomWatch volunteers participate in a protective presence in areas around the spring to prevent harassment of shepherds due to the presence of settlers.
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Al-Farisiya / 'Ein a-sakut
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Al-Farisiya / 'Ein a-sakutA community of shepherds in the Jordan Valley opposite the settlement of "Rotem". Making a living from grazing sheep, the residents are exposed to harassment, abuse and theft from settlers who come to them from outposts and settlements in the area, and their grazing area is shrinking due to settler takeovers, fire zones and declared nature reserves.Machsom Watch companies participate in shepherd escort activities and provide a 24/7 protective presence, and there is continuous and warm contact with the community.
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Bardala
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A relatively large township in Area B in the northern part of the Valley, home to about 300 families of farmers and other families. The villages of Bardala and Kardala, located nearby, sit on a very large reservoir of groundwater. In 1968, an "agreement" was signed between the occupier (represented by the Mekorot water company) and three villages (including Ein al-Bida), stipulating that in exchange for their agreement to stop pumping water their wells, Mekorot would establish its own pumping stations on their land and allocate them a "generous" quota of waterinfo-iconfor at the cost of pumping only (a few cents per cubic meter). Over the years, Mekorot violated the agreement, decreased the quotas drastically (from 240 cubic meters per hour to 100 and sometimes 40 cubic meters), and quadrupled the price. The residents refused to pay, and the PA paid for them. In late 2024, the army began paving a new road around Karbala and Bardala. According to the plan, the road will surround and Karbala from the south and Bardala from north and west, and finally turn east to Highway 90. The road will completely surround Bardala on all sides, cutting off the village from all its lands and imprisoning the village within its boundaries. The residents will no longer be able to come and work their lands freely. Our friends were unable to see the roadworks because the army had set up a checkpoint on the road to the new route.
Nurit PopperJul-7-2025Olive trees, many of them ancient, are dumped along the road to the Ma'ale Levona settlement
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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.Nurit PopperJul-7-2025Olive trees, many of them ancient, are dumped along the road to the Ma'ale Levona settlement
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