Palestinian Jordan Valley
January 14, 2021
Nurit Popper, Nava Toledano, Daphne Banai (report), translation Tal H.

We began at Humsa. We brought A. a plastic sheet, larger than usual, for he is expecting many sheep to give birth and the sheep pen must be enlarged to contain many lambs with their mothers. He and his father waited for us impatiently, showed us the torn-up sheep pen that they have been using. Several family members were waiting for us with them, and within half-an-hour the construction they had put up earlier was already covered.

We then drove on to see Nidam, also in Humsa, where we met several activists of the Palestinian Jordan Valley coalition, who arrive nearly daily with 2 generators and a welder, and with the Palestinians are putting up dwelling tents and sheep pens.

We visit Burhan. Nava and Nurit immediately began helping him taking out barley to the troughs to feed the hungry sheep, who had just come back from grazing. In the meantime, I sat and talked with old Abu Halaf.  Burhan owns a 6-month old foal who was infatuated with me and constantly crowded from behind to place his head on my shoulder… While we talked, Burhan’s wife, Samar, baked fresh flat bread in the outdoor oven, and offered them to us still fresh and fragrant.

Yusuf at Makhoul suffered a fire a few days ago, and all the barley that feeds the sheep and goats has gone up in flames. He suspects the settler-colonists of the illegal outpost erected not far from his home. Yusuf has been hard-hit lately and will have a hard time recovering – his tractor has been confiscated by the Civil Administration a week ago while he was plowing a field. He is allowed to free it in return for a 2,200 shekel fine, and now this burning of the feed.

Fasail – we visited the elderly couple whose home was demolished in August, and their caravan and sheep pen, donated by the PA after the demolition, were confiscated as well. We brought them tarpaulins and metal arches in order to put up a new tent, but they have lay there for a long time without being used. The son is afraid to build since the representatives of the Civil Administration (we prefer to call it the Evil Administration) visited the couple every few days and warned them not to build, or else everything left after the recent demolitions will be demolished as well. The son and his wife Dalal dwell in a small pup tent donated by the Red Cross, but it is not water-proof so they sleep in an abandoned car parked near the tent.

The son says that he had put up a tent with the arches and tarpaulins we brought them about 500 meters south of the site, but two days later the army came and confiscated that tent as well.

The elderly couple’s situation is dire. They are both serious diabetics, the old man shows us a wound that has already gangrened in his foot. He goes to the clinic every day to get shots so as not to lose his foot. The old woman is almost totally blind, and has no money to get shots to improve her sight. We deliberate often whether a money donation would be right, even if symbolically – this arises naturally facing the people’s dire situation. It is heart rending to witness the inconceivable suffering of the people facing us. On the other hand, we do not have enough to give them effectively, and if we do it will destroy our relations with those who have not received any or not enough. Some would say that there are poor people everywhere, but we say no!! The horrid poverty we see everywhere in the Palestinian Jordan Valley is a product of occupation, of expulsion from one place to another, of repeated demolitions of home and measly belongings, and an intended prevention of economic development. It is a kind of poverty we Jews in Israel are not at all familiar with.

When we got on our way home, rain began falling, Gitit Checkoint was manned and a line of Palestinian cars waited there (5:30 p.m.), as tired men were delayed after a long day’s work. As usual, Israeli cars easily bypassed the waiting cars.

בקעת הירדן 14.1.2021
נורית פופר, נאווה טולדנו, דפנה בנאי (מדווחת)