Jordan Valley Solidarity
April 2022

Summary

As a consequence of the apartheid policies imposed by the Israeli occupation, Palestinians living in Area C suffer from a severe lack of public services. Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley are rendered particularly vulnerable by this situation where they experience violations of their human rights to water, education and housing on a daily basis. The right to education of children is particularly under threat as the closed military area policy imposed by Israel forbids Palestinians from building much-needed education facilities. As a result, children must endure long journeys to reach schools in other villages, while the youngest children are at the charge of their parents who do not benefit from kindergartens. 

Jordan Valley Solidarity, within its Schools project that aims to support the creation of schools where communities need it the most, has undertaken the construction of educational facilities for the 60 children of Mak-hul, Al Hadidiya and Samra, three Bedouin communities where this service is direly needed. However, all the structures present in these communities, including the educational facilities created by Jordan Valley Solidarity, are still at risk of demolition by Israeli occupation forces.

Context: Jordan Valley Bedouin communities under occupation

Located in the North of the Jordan Valley, Mak-hul, Samra and Al Hadidiya are three Palestinian communities that gather 26 families in total. About 210 people live in this area for the whole year. The families rely on herding to meet their basic needs. 

The daily life in these communities is placed under dire constraints by Israeli apartheid policies and practices:

  • Denial of the right to water: As the majority of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, these communities are not allowed to be connected to any water grid, nor to dig, restore or use any water wells or rainwater collection pools. In consequence, families have to buy expensive water tanks from Area A to cover their drinking and herding needs.
  • Risk of home demolitions and confiscations: Mak-hul, Al Hadidiya and Samra families are constantly under the risk of home demolition, herding and educational structures destruction and material confiscation by the Israeli occupation forces. Indeed, the army regularly comes to these communities to practice apartheid policies aiming to forcibly displace people from their land. 
  • Denial of the possibility to build new structures: Israel has declared most of the Jordan Valley as closed military areas in order to prevent communities who live there from building critically needed structures. Families are not allowed to build anything on their own land. Over 38 communities in the area are prohibited from construction, including the erection of schools and kindergartens.