Military training in 2011The occupation forces have been announcing their plans to once again carry out military training with live ammunition in the northern Jordan Valley around the homes and farms of Palestinian communities. The whole village of Humsa have been told to evacuate their homes and JVS activists are recording increased IOF activity and movements in the area.

One of the greatest fears of local Palestinians is that land in the area will be set fire to – many of them have fields of wheat that are just due to be harvested, and this could destroy their entire crops. If scrubland is burnt by the IOF it will devastate the grazing land of cow, sheep and goat farmers. These are very real fears, as it has been a regular feature of previous IOF training – on 28th April the IOF set fire to land on a hilltop near Hamra checkpoint, which illustrated how quickly any fire could spread in the very hot windy weather that the Jordan Valley is currently experiencing.

military training in 2011The military training puts thousands of of Palestinians at risk of injury or death, and mines are often left on the ground. Just 5 months ago Ahmed Sawafta from Bardala found a mine on his land. He was worried that it would be picked up by a child so tried to picked it up. But it exploded, killing him and leaving his four children without a father.

Rashid Sawafta, co-ordinator of Jordan Valley Solidarity has appealed for support, saying:

“One of the main ways we can resist the occupation is to stay with the farmers and communities in the area.
“They don’t have water, elecrticity or houses and live in simple tents because they aren’t allowed ot have this basic in frastructure. This is part of the occupations plan to transfer all the Palestinian communities out of the Jordan Valley.
@It is really important to be with the communities this week to protect the families, their homes and their agricultural livelihoods.”

Jordan Valley Solidarity urgently want to increase the presence of internationals in the Jordan Valley for the entire week, and call on anyone who is able to offer their support for one day, a few days or the entire week to get in touch.

Phone Rashid on +972592391208 to arrange to come to the Jordan Valley or for more information.
Those who are able to stay for more than one day can stay with local families. If you have a sleeping bag or torch please bring them with you.