jvs house in FasayilOn 3rd June 2012 Jordan Valley Solidarity opened our second meeting house, which will be a hub for the campaign and our visitors in jvs house in Fasayilthe south of the Jordan Valley. This old traditional house, represents how life could be for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley if there was no occupation. As Fathe Khdirat said: “This is the Friends Meeting House where national and international volunteers from all over the world will come together to support the existence of the Palestinian people in the valley”.

This marks 5 years of solidarity work with the Palestinian community of Fasayil Al Fouqu, which started in April 2007 with a joint meeting between the local community, Jordan Valley Solidarity and students from Sussex University, Brighton, UK. At that time this community sandwiched between the two Israeli settlements of Tomer and Pazael, had no infrastructure and no rights.

We challenged the Occupation’s attempts to control every aspect of live in the village, and laid plans to build our first mud brick school. We challenged the Occupation’s demolition order and won – and now have a 10 class primary school with a basketball court. In the interven9ing years the village have built their own health clinic, community centre and 13 new houses – all with the support of Jordan Valley Solidarity.

Yet, just 1 km down the road, the community of Fasayil Al Wusta are facing continuous aggression and demolitions. In the last year the army have been to the community to demolish homes and other buildings five times: June 2011, December 2011, twice in March 2012 and again in May 2012.

More photos of the meeting house are available on the Jordan Valley Solidarity Facebook page.