Palestine Monitor

13 April 2010

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1356

Nobody can deny it: the Jordan Valley is one of the most beautiful places of the West Bank, except for the people who live in it. Classified as Area C, Israeli occupation forces have imposed harsh restrictions on building and movement. Inhabitants, like the Bedouins of Al-Hadidiyeh, have become hunted on their own lands, spooked like wild animals.

For generations, long before the 1967 war that led to the occupation of the West Bank, the Bedouins of Al-Hadidiyya let their sheep graze on their land, in the north of the Jordan Valley. These shepherds are very poor and have almost no food. But they do not complain, since this has always been the nature of their lives as shepherds in the Jordan Valley. They only want one thing: to be left alone. This desire was a reality for many decades. Under the British mandate in the 1940s, their fields were designated as an agricultural zone. According to these orders, residents are permitted to remain in the area, and expulsion orders cannot change their status. But since the area fell under the occupation of Israel, the inhabitants of the Jordan Valley have been frightened away.

The difficulties for the inhabitants began in the 1970s, when the village was declared a closed Israeli military zone. Some years later the Jewish settlements of Ro’i and Beka’ot were founded in the east of their land. Since then, Israel and the settlers have pressured the residents to abandon their land. Harassment and house demolitions have become part of the Bedouins’ lives. “With their cars they destroy our farms, with their guns they kill our animals and with their bulldozers they demolish our houses”, explains Abu Sakri of the struggling life in the once peaceful village of Al-Hadidiyya. Abu’s ancestors lived for centuries on the fields. “To tease us, the settlers call whenever they prefer the Israeli army or the police. Then, they take our tractors away, transport our sons to the checkpoints, confiscate our water tanks and give us fines.”

Before the settlers came, the shepherds of Al-Hadidiyya were adapted to the hard nature in the desert of the Jordan Valley. Although the soil and the pools are very salty because of the nearby Dead Sea, the shepherds and their animals could live from the water, given to them by nature. “For generations, we used to dig holes in the land where we collected sufficient water for six months to feed people, animals and crops”, says Abu. “Now, settlements put their sewage water in the supply deliberately polluting the supply. Because of that, we have to bring water with tanks pulled by tractors from a village 35 kilometer away. You can imagine what a cost it is for us, to pay about 37 NIS for each cubic litre of water and 110 NIS for a tanker fuel each journey. You don’t need guns to kill people. Not letting us use our wells is another way that is just as effective.”

Because of these bad water conditions, one of the biggest problems the Bedouins of Al-Hadidiyya have to deal with is disease. For medical treatment, they need to go to Nablus or Tubas, a challenge with many obstacles. The Israeli army has blocked their routes to the towns of Tammun and Tubas by erecting dirt piles and fences. Other roads are blocked up by the settlements. “These roads used to work since the Ottoman period and through English and Jordanian rules”, stresses Abu. “We used to have a gate coordinating with the Red Cross and OCHA, but Israel closed it. Nobody from the outside world helps us. Because this is Area C, OCHA ignore us.”

And even, when they succeed in passing the blocked roads, the steeplechase for the Bedouins isn’t over yet. “The police prevent us from crossing the checkpoints without permission. Before it was a closed zone for three years and no-one was allowed to leave. People were forced to travel through the mountains which was very dangerous. To go to school, children stay in houses in Tammun and Tubas, alone without their parents”, explains Abu. Indicating a small child, he notes, “He’s eleven, and has become a thief because there are no parents or adults living with him. Last Thursday he was in court for stealing mobile phones.”

In addition to the harassment pushing them to leave the Jordan Valley, three years ago, the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered that the residents of al-Hadidiyeh have to be removed from their homes, following the Israeli Civil Administration’s decision that the Bedouins were living on land classified as “agricultural”. The High Court accepted also the state’s position that the shepherds are a security threat because of their proximity to the Ro’i settlement.

To strengthen the orders of the High Court of Justice, the Civil Administration immediately demolished the shacks of the different families and threatened to demolish the remainder. Shepherd Maleb Anawi recently received a demolition order, again. His home has been demolished four times here and on the other side of the mountain twice. To fight for their case is pointless. “The court finds all the time imaginable reasons to delay our case”, he explains. But also the Israeli police do not allow them to have cases against their demolitions. “I’ve been arrested many times. The guard of the settlement recently put a knife to my brothers’ neck. We tried to make a court case, but it was rejected.”

Abu Sakri has asked the police many times desperately “where should we go?”. The perpetual, senseless response of the police is always: “It’s not our matter”. As a result, many people have left the village, just what Israel wants. “Before the occupation, 8800 people lived here”, says Abu. “Now, we count about 130 villagers.”

Written and photographed for Palestine Monitor by Florian Vande Walle.