This fundraiser will support Palestinian farming and shepherding communities in the Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank. Palestinian farmers and shepherds are facing increasingly violent settler attacks and restrictions on their movement from the Israeli military which has made it very hard for them to tend to their crops or graze their sheep. This has had a huge impact on their livelihoods and ability to remain on their land. Many shepherds are taking on debt simply to feed their sheep because they are scared of settlers attacking them when they take their herd out to graze.

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A recurring donation will help Palestinian communities to resist settler violence and stay on their land. 

With a single or recurring donation, you will allow Palestinian shepherds in the Jordan Valley to purchase the mix of chopped straw and grain they need to feed their sheep and goats. This is the first step that makes resisting and staying on their land possible; it is not a mere act of charity but a significant statement of solidarity and a defence of the right of a people to their land.

In practice, what will your donation pay for?

* With £5 / €6 / $7, you’ll feed one sheep for one month;

* With £25 / €30 / $35, you’ll feed 5 sheep for one month;

* With £500 / €600 / $700, you’ll help purchasing 1,5 tons of food, which will feed one herd (100 sheep on average) for one month.

Our goal is to collect £5,000 / €6,000 / $7,000 per month, to feed a total of 1,000 sheep and support around 10 Palestinian shepherding families. 

Donations may also be used for agricultural projects that support both farmers and shepherds.

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What goes out must first have gone in and hungry sheep and goats produce pitiful quantities of milk. Their flocks are families’ livelihoods: the fewer animals they have, the less milk (and thus cheese, yoghurt, butter) they can produce and sell. But instead of spending very little – other than time! – on feeding their flocks, every month people are now forced to pay an average of £5,20 per sheep for the mix of chopped straw and grain that is the unfortunate animals’ current diet.

Every single sheep needs about 15kg of cereals per month to produce a sufficient amount of milk (which will then become yoghurt, cheese, butter…). Every family (with their average herd of 100 sheep) needs 1.5 tons of food, sold at 1,500 shekels per ton.

These families have been showing an incredible steadfastness and determination to stay despite the constant (and, especially lately, increasing) violent acts of theft, physical injury, humiliation, detention, degradation, demolition, displacement performed by settlers and occupation forces with systematic repetition and cruelty.

Resilience in occupied territory comes with huge risks and sacrifices: the lives and physical integrity of Palestinians is threatened constantly by settlers attacks, violence, arrests and detention by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Furthermore, resisting causes an inevitable financial burden: when prevented from grazing their animals on their land, these farmers are obliged to feed them with this mix of chopped straw and grain, a cost that is becoming less and less sustainable. 

Now, with the the settlers and occupation forces closing off more and more Palestinian grazing areas and farmland, de facto cutting off the families’ capacity to properly graze their animals or plant and harvest their crop, they urgently need our help.

This campaign will be managed by a grassroots Palestinian organization in the Jordan Valley that will distribute funds towards the most urgent community needs for farmers and shepherds in the region.