Jews destroy, steal, rob – unhampered
New demolition orders at Fasail
We returned for a visit here after a long time. Tahreer, whose home was demolished two years ago, gave birth by caesarian section a week ago and has a hard time recovering. We find her in bed, her baby
girl on her, and in complete misery. Two days ago they were visited by representatives of the military government (Civil Administration) and handed a birth ‘gift’ – a new demolition order, handed with the admonition that their home will be demolished shortly. Tahreer and her five small children are helpless. They have nowhere to go. They are the poorest of the poor, sitting and waiting for the hammer blow of the occupation that will take away the roof over their heads. And winter is practically around the corner.
A car race at the road 90 junction near Fasail
On our way alongside road 90 we saw a great crowd and approached to check what was happening. We discovered that in February 2017, the (Jewish) regional council of the Palestinian Jordan Valley built a rally cross race track inside firing zone 904 stretching over hundreds of dunams of Palestinian farmland north of Fasail, that were confiscated for military use in 1967. Tomorrow the race will take place and today numerous guests including children are invited to be seated inside the racing cars. The participants this time are only Israelis, according to one of the organizers. Unfortunately for the organizers, in 2017 an international race was planned here and the star of that race canceled his participation when he found out that the track crosses stolen Palestinian land. The organizers were forced to move the race to Arad. (More about this injustice in Facebook: Fasail race)
An impressive visit at En Al Bida
We came for a repeat visit with a family whose mother produces beautiful flower pots and other decorations. We were proudly shown decorations made of recycled plastic bottles. Too bad the garden we had seen so beautifully shaped and flowering about three months ago has dried up because of water shortage. The son told us that the pipe carrying water to En Al Bida from the water reservoir above Bardala has been shut down and supplies very little water and for the past two months they have been receiving water very meagerly, once every two days. He couldn’t cite numbers but his story matches what we heard in neighboring Bardala, about Mekorot (Israeli water company) taking over this very water-rich region in 1967, including all the water sources, and that in the 1970s Mekorot allotted very little water to the inhabitants, the legal and historical owners of this stolen water – an allotment that was agreed upon by the local elders and confirmed in the Oslo accords. However since then the population has grown and naturally the need for more water as well, but despite this Mekorot reduced its water allotment to the Palestinians to at least half the quantity originally settled. Thus, while the Jewish settler-colonies with their swimming pools and bright green lawns waste water that comes to them easily and free of charge, the Palestinian villages in the area can actually hear the water flowing beneath them underground while they go dry.
The family told us that the father works on a construction site in Beit Shean. The distance from En Al Bida to Beit Shean is a mere 10 kilometers. However, Bezeq Checkpoint is an apartheid barrier, serving strictly Israelis, and this family’s father leaves home at 4 a.m. in his car, drives to the Jalame Checkpoint which is for Paletinians only, leaves his car there – for Palestinian cars are not allowed inside Israel – waits in line for hours and then rides public transportation another two hours to Beit Shean. He makes the same tedious route back home in the evening. And he is yet one of the “fortunate” who hold an entry permit into Israel!