Jordan Valley: In the shadow of the war, the occupation deepens its harsh hand

The plan was to take Mahmoud to the doctor at the En Al Beda clinic at the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley. Mahmoud was tortured in the Israeli prison and suffers pains. We wanted to spare him the drive to the central West Bank and crossing the checkpoints for nowadays these take hours. Today 3 p.m. there was a line of 10 cars waiting at Bequa’ot Checkpoint for at least half an hour in 30 degrees centigrade. But the clinic was closed because of the mourning of Haniye who had been eliminated by Israel. Si we changed our plan and drove first to En Al Sukut. As soon as we turned, we saw that the old sign had been replaced by a new one that reads Mitzpe Raz.

Two brothers from Al Farisiya, Ahmad and Barakat go over to En Al Sukut every year for that area is rich wish grass and less hot, as the altitude is higher and the area more open. It is also closer to the spring and in the past they - and all other shepherds - used to water their flocks there. Three years ago, the colonists of Shadmot Mekhola fenced the spring in, to prevent any Palestinian access to it. We wrote a letter of complaint about this to the Civil Administration through Attorney Itai Mack, complaining of unpermitted construction. The Administration’s laconic answer: “They will act at the proper time to arrange their priorities” - in fact declaring that they ignore our complaint, or at most postpone it until the higher echelons decide on the lawfulness of the place.

Borther Ahamad went to Tubas and his 12-year-old son remained to watch over the tent and the flock from violent colonist Gil’ad Amosi from Rotem colony who was grazing nearby. Amosi embodies the Palestinian shepherds’ fear as he often attacks them, breaks into their homes and throw to the ground all food he finds in the house. The boy suggested we bisit the other brother, Barakat, sitting under a tree about 300 meters away. A while after we got there, a tractor with three Palestinians came and brought him lunch. They are from Tubas, owners of the land on which Ahad and Barakat sat.

We continued to Al Farisiya. We visited the house of Ahmad and Iman who were not there and were received by their 12-year-old daughter. We refused her offer to share tea and continued to the community center, where we met two of the Jordan Valley activists who were sitting in the shady yard. They maintain protective presence in Al Farisiya 24/7, against colonist attacks and aiming to enable the Palestinians to live. The army and police do not protect them, of course. This week the two shifts will be split (night shift + day shift) and another shift will be added - from noon until the evening. Hopefully we shall have a sufficient number of activists.

We held a pleasant conversation with Azhar and her daughters and the present activists, and were not disturbed by colonists. Some of the activists were urgently summoned to En Al Hilwa, about 5 kilometers away. A Palestinian shepherd came to water his flock in a thin route crossing the Palestinian spring which the colonists have possessed and renovated for themselves and they prevent the many flocks from getting close to the water and the site.

Going south, we saw our activists surrounded by cattle, in discussion with a security official (probably from Maskiyot colony). We didn’t stop for we knew we couldn’t contribute anything and had other tasks.

We went to Khalat Makhoul to Burhan whom we hadn’t seen for some months. Two days ago, soldiers entered his place at 2 a.m., looking for a soldier who had gone AWOL from the nearby base. They didn’t throw the place into chaos but Burhan and his wife were very frightened. We heard that his twin daughters Wa’ad and Doaa did well on their matriculation exams and will go on to study at the university next year. Burhan encourages all his nine daughters to further their education. His eldest is working on her Ph.D. now, two other daughters have finished their BA, one is in medical school, and now the twins are joining. The costs are extremely high, tuition insane. Rachel Afek and

Hannah Safran are trying to raise the money to help.

We then visited Rima. We are trying to organize plastic surgery for her 20-year-old sister who was stung as a child by the Jericho fly and has a large, ugly scar on her cheek that distances potential suitors. We instructed Rima to bring her to a plastic surgeon at A-Najah Hospital in Nablus.

At 2:30 p.m. the gate at the Water Checkpoint is locked and unmanned. The checkpoint leads to Atuf which is under PA jurisdiction. This is where shepherds may purchase water for themselves and their flock and take it home in old, rusty water tankers. The army established (even before the war) 4 hours to open this checkpoint and cross over to Atuf and back. The Jordan Valley ground water are piped exclusively to the Israeli colonies and Palestinians are not even allowed to clean up their rainwater storage holes. They live without water where for 7 months temperatures run around 40 degrees centigrade.  Often the army does not come to open the gate on time, and the Palestinians wait and wait in the searing heat for hours on end. They call us requesting us to call the army, but it has been screening us lately…

Finally we went to see how Mahmoud and his family were recovering from last weeks fire that incinerated their fields, trees, and entire irrigation system and reached their house itself before the Palestinian fire fighters ended it. An Israeli fire engine stood next to the burning fields and refused to help. Mahmoud is extremely active. He has already bought and connected new pipes, built his lambs a new pen and brought new saplings and shade sheets to cover the strawberry greenhouse which, luckily, was not damaged by the fire.

A week ago, I brought some aloe vera plants and Mahmoud’s sister, who has Down Syndrome, asked me to bring her some too for her herb garden.  This week she showed me the well-tended aloe vera pot and the other plants she has nurtured.

The family prepared amazing rice Maklouba for us and delicious Muluhia soup. It’s a challenge to eat at 40 degrees heat, but it was still a delicious meal.

Gitit Checkpoint was unmanned when we crossed it at 4:30 p.m. The entrance to Qusra, as to many other villages, was locked with an orange gate.

Along the way, especially at Za’atara Junction (Tapuah) there are signs calling for the ceasefire to be blocked, for the fighting to continue until absolute victory. The idea that an entire public calls out to halt attempts made to bring home fellow citizens rotting away at the hands of Hamas - is chilling!