Jordan valley: The shepherds go out to pasture early and return early because of the heat.
A normal day, hot, yellow, no special events. The shepherds go out to pasture early and return early because of the heat. Many communities have left their dwelling in the Valley for a few months to weather the heat out in the villages on the hills.
Accompanying shepherds to the grocery store at En Al Beida I happened to talk with hired farm hands from Toubas and they told me – “What is this human rights thing? We have no rights.” They said soldiers enter their homes at night. Arrest people suspected of throwing stones, and sentence them to years in jail. “Every stone – a year in prison”, they laughed. They sounded desperate. They say there are many youngsters from the Toubas area doing jail time.
I also learned that the grocery store serving dwellers of the Palestinian Jordan Valley including En Al Beida holds very few products – especially sweets and cold drinks. The people provide their own green grown produce or buy it in Toubas. In order to buy any food or other commodities they have to get to Toubas, and since most of them do not own private cars they pay for cabs for this purpose.
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.
May-10-2025A Shabbat treat for settlers: evicting Palestinian shepherds from their homes
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