EAPPI : Settlers squat on church-owned land, demand farmers leave
Israeli settlers have set up a tent next to a Palestinian family’s camp in the Jordan Valley and demanded that the family leave.
The settlers arrived in ‘Ein Al Hilwa in the north of the Jordan Valley at 11pm on Monday. They carried guns and threatened the family, then set up a tent with generators and large Israeli flags, a few metres from the Daraghmeh family’s tent.
Nabil Daraghmeh, who lives with his wife and four children on land he legally rents from the Catholic Patriarchate, told EAPPI that the police then came and told him to demolish his family’s tent or he would be arrested. He said he has lived and grazed his cattle here for around 15 years.
“Neither the kids nor the adults can sleep,” Nabil said. “We cannot sleep, and my children cannot go to school. They are very scared.”
Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley face systematic discrimination at the hands of occupying authorities. They can almost never obtain permission to build houses or water infrastructure, and the army frequently demolishes “illegal” buildings here. In addition, unlike the large agricultural settlements nearby, many Palestinian villages here are not connected to water supplies and are forced to buy in expensive tanked water.
Nabil said: “My message to the settlers is leave us in peace, we’ve had two nights with no sleep. But they are expanding their settlements and they don’t want to see anybody else here.”
