Jordan Valley: Settlers riot, beat and abuse
We drove out quite fearful. Both our families were very much against our going in the present circumstances. Fear of terrorist attacks. Indeed, because the way from Tel Aviv to Fasail, to Turmus Aya, back to Fasail, to the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley, and then Farisiya – is long, we too were anxious. Luckily the roads that had been empty two weeks ago were now filled with vehicles, and in spite of the many checkpoints – life has taken back some semblance of tense routine.
At Tapuach (Za’atara) Junction, bill boards say We have returned to the Gaza Strip and are calling upon Jewish Israelis to settle the area again. You might think these are illusionary margins, but I think that had we woken up earlier, when Israeli colonies had only begun to spring up (the Hadassah House in Hebron, Sebastia – remember?) we would be in an entirely different place today. The mainstream of Israeli public will sit in their living rooms and the religious Zionist factions would hand out their traditional white tassels and turn the nightmare of Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip into some even worse inferno. Smutrich and his partners are plotting to take over the entire land – from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea – and who will pay the blood-letting price? Whoever paid it in the ‘original’ Israeli catastrophe. As far as the messianic gang is concerned, October 2023 was a delightful month. They have said so, blatantly. “If only we put aside the fallen and the people taken hostage”. It is chilling to know that there are those who even think they can be put aside.
A-Sawiya village, where a Palestinian man was murdered on Saturday 10 days ago, is blocked by earthen dykes. This is the procedure – when Israelis injure Palestinians, the victims are punished (official excuse: fear that someone might want to take revenge). I read that the colonist who shot the Palestinian was a soldier on leave. He was let go and the file against him was closed. The official claim is that Palestinians threw stones. The judge never wondered what the murderer and his pals were doing in a Palestinian olive grove…
We brought Maryam to the eye hospital at Turmus Aya in order to get the regular injection that retains her eye sight. We were welcomed with unexpected warmth at this time – beginning with the people sitting in the café opposite the hospital, through the café owner who wouldn’t let us pay, through the pharmacist at the other end of the village. A young fellow approached us to tell that the people of the village (that 4 months ago had been cruelly ignited by colonists) got organized to defend themselves. With their empty hands, they managed to push away another pogrom two weeks ago. Chapeau!
After returning Maryam home to Fasail, we drove to the northern part of the Valley for a vigil of “Protective Presence”. The community of Al Farisiya, close to which the colony of Rotem was established, has been suffering greatly from the violence of the Rotem colonists (“the ecological village”). We try with our meager powers to shield the Palestinians there, especially since we photograph their assailants. The villagers tell us they suffer hunger because they cannot sell their cheeses nor their sheep for all the roads are now blocked and traders cannot reach them. Colonist violence in the grazing grounds has caused them to remain very close to the tents and finish off the poor grass remaining from the scant rains of last winter. Now they are forced to buy expensive feed for the sheep and their situation is dire.
Besides, since October 7th, the school at Ein Al Beida is closed for the teachers cannot reach it because of the checkpoints. Children are back to studying by zoom, but not everyone has a phone and they are not all the same age. How do three children, ages 7, 9 and 12, study with one single phone?
At 5 p.m. we were notified that colonists closed off the Ein Hilwa junction nearby, and are harassing Palestinians trying to get to Tubas or anywhere else. Half an hour later we drove to see for ourselves, and they were no longer there. But by every Bedouin encampment an Israeli flat was hoisted. To wave in ‘their’ faces. The colonists even hoisted a flag on a road sign.
Later our friends reported that Palestinian citizens of Israel got stuck with their car in that same junction, and while they were trying to fix it, colonists jumped them and beat them up hard. Only when our Israeli activists arrived did the colonists leave and our people accompanied the victims all the way to the checkpoint. Tomorrow a complaint will be lodged with the police. However, our experience tells us that the police will do absolutely nothing…
Location Description
'Anata / Al-'Isawiya
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'Anata / Al-'Isawiya
A checkpoint on the Eastern Ring Road (4370) opened to traffic at the end of 2018 and connects Route 437 to Route 1 inside Jerusalem. Passing of Palestinians is prohibited except for blue identity cards. Staffed by Border Police from 5:30 a.m. to evening.
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'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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Fasa'il
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An old community of shepherds in the Jordan Valley that is located between settlements and is exposed to the demolition of its residential buildings at times by the army and the abuses of the settlers. King Herod founded the city of Fatza'elis in 8 BC, and named it after his older brother, Petzal. The permanent settlement in the place began with Bedouins who migrated to the area as early as the 1950s after being expelled from the Tel Arad area. Over the years, additional Bedouin residents who were expelled from other places in the Jordan Valley joined. Areas that were declared as fire areas or state lands . As part of the Alon plan, a significant part of the lands in the area were expropriated and four Israeli settlements were established on them: Tomer, Gilgal, Fatza'el Netiv HaGdud. Illegal posts were erected over the years. Some of them were authorized during the 7th October War.
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Turmus Aya
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Turmus Aya is a beautiful and well-kept Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bira governorate, located in the Shiloh Valley, about 22 km north of Ramallah. Near Highway 60 at an altitude of about 732 m. In 2016, 4,781 residents lived in the town. After the 2nd intifada in 2001, hundreds immigrated to the US, but they come in the summer to visit their families and live in the nice houses they built.
Israel expropriated 752 dunams of the town's land for the establishment of the Shiloh settlement, in 1978, and another 372 dunams for the establishment of the Shebot Rachel settlement in 1992. According to the Oslo Agreement, the built-up area of TAos Aya was classified as area B. This area constitutes 64.7% of the town's land, and the rest, 35.3%, is area C.
Starting in 2015, the town's residents often suffer from harassment from the settlers of the Adi Ad outpost, which include the uprooting and cutting of olive trees, the burning of wheat fields and the spraying of anti-Netzka inscriptions.
On June 21, 2023, dozens of young people from outposts and surrounding settlements carried out a pogrom in broad daylight after the funeral of the victims of the attack that occurred two days earlier at the gas station in the settlement of Eli. The attack took place after the Israel Defense Forces' invasion of Jenin and the killing of innocents in the process - an invasion that took place after a previous event... and so on, deep into the non-stop blood equation that is always presented in Israel as terror attacks without context. They set fire to about 60 cars and about 30 houses with their occupants and threw stones, fire grenades and even shot from guns.The IDF soldiers watched the attack but didn't intervene. A villager was killed by soldier fire. Only 3 settlers were arrested after a few days, but charges have not yet been filed against them.
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