Jordan valley: The shepherds go out to pasture early and return early because of the heat.

A normal day, hot, yellow, no special events. The shepherds go out to pasture early and return early because of the heat. Many communities have left their dwelling in the Valley for a few months to weather the heat out in the villages on the hills.

Accompanying shepherds to the grocery store at En Al Beida I happened to talk with hired farm hands from Toubas and they told me – “What is this human rights thing? We have no rights.” They said soldiers enter their homes at night. Arrest people suspected of throwing stones, and sentence them to years in jail. “Every stone – a year in prison”, they laughed. They sounded desperate. They say there are many youngsters from the Toubas area doing jail time.

I also learned that the grocery store serving dwellers of the Palestinian Jordan Valley including En Al Beida holds very few products – especially sweets and cold drinks. The people provide their own green grown produce or buy it in Toubas. In order to buy any food or other commodities they have to get to Toubas, and since most of them do not own private cars they pay for cabs for this purpose.