Imagine If Your House Was Demolished Nine Times !

[Eva Libre]

The Jordan Valley. One of the most beautiful places of the West Bank, except for the people who live in it. Israeli occupation forces have imposed harsh restrictions on building and movement. Inhabitants have become hunted and spooked on their own lands.

For generations, long before the 1967 war that led to the occupation of the West Bank, the Bedouins 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-Hadidiyeh. 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.”
For more information see;

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

Netanyahu divulged his dastardly plan: He told his hosts he would proclaim the entire Jordan Valley a "designated military site."

"The tents are one thing, but why the water tanks? Sometimes they empty them of water. What will the children drink? And why do they destroy the taboun ovens? Do they want us to die of hunger and thirst? Is that what they really want?” Basharat

Testimonies from the occupied Jordan Valley: Al-Hadidiya

- Qais Yousef -

A Palestinian from Al-Hadidiya in the occupied Jordan Valley. The Israeli government is making the lives of the Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley difficult, driving them out of their homes, with the aim of evacuating the valley of Israeli settlements.
Editing: Hadass Shuve

Twilight Zone / Gestures to the Palestinians

While the prime minister is dispensing promises about easing restrictions in the territories, Israel is expelling hundreds of shepherds from the Jordan Valley

Which is crueler? Expelling an urban family from its home in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, or bulldozing a meager tent encampment of shepherds living on private Jordan Valley land they leased, destroying their water tanks, their tents and their sheep pens, and expelling families with many children from the land on which they live? It's hard to say. But while the Sheikh Jarrah expulsions are attracting interest in Israel and elsewhere, hardly anyone notices or protests what's going on in the Jordan Valley.

	Shepherd Abdel Razeq Bani Awda (right) and one of his sons. In winter, they’ll have to leave here too.
	Photo by: Limor Edrey

There, far from view, Israel has been trying for several years to methodically remove Palestinian inhabitants from wide swaths of land. And in a week when the prime minister was making more promises about a "package of gestures" to the Palestinians, in order to curry favor in Washington, the Civil Administration bulldozers brutally destroyed several more encampments, leaving dozens of residents helpless and destitute under the open sky. But the Jordan Valley is far from the public eye and the public heart, and there Israel can do as it pleases.

One look at the landscape tells the whole story: The settlement of Beka'ot, with its lush greenery and plentiful electricity and water at one end of the magnificent valley, and the ruins of the meager shepherd encampments at the other end, with no electricity, no water, no nothing. One picture is worth a thousand words. It's a far cry from the words of the old propagandistic song once sung by the Central Command musical troupe, about the little settlement in the Valley that "guarded the line, called out for peace and served up hope in the form of colorful flowers." Calls for peace? Gestures of hope? Go ask the neighbors about that.

This week, Dafna Banai, an activist from Machsom Watch, described the most recent expulsions: 15 families were expelled from their encampments on July 1; the week before, another 16 families received demolition and evacuation orders. For more than a year, the entire valley has been strewn with dozens of cement blocks preventing entry and warning of "firing zones" wherever Palestinians live. Israel already has enclosed all the territory west of Highway 90 with impassable ditches, and residents can exit only twice a week, when Israel opens the locked gates on the roads.

Israel declares huge amounts of private Palestinian land as firing zones and expels the residents under the false and self-righteous guise of concern for their welfare, lest they be harmed by the military training; but these firing zones are always to be found solely on Palestinian land, and never on settlement land. Have you ever heard of any settlers being expelled from their homes because their settlement was declared part of a firing zone? But against these wretched shepherds in the Jordan Valley, anything goes. This is Israeli justice, this is equality as practiced by the Israel Defense Forces.

Perhaps the explanation for this appalling expulsion policy can be found in comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicized last Friday on Channel 10. During a condolence visit to the home of a settler family in 2001, Netanyahu divulged his dastardly plan: He told his hosts he would proclaim the entire Jordan Valley a "designated military site."

This is how the prime minister thought to mock the Americans at the time, so they would let Israel do as it pleases in the Jordan Valley. Now he is prime minister again, and his trick is working splendidly. A Jordan Valley cleansed of Palestinians will one day be more easily annexed to Israel.

The Civil Administration, naturally, attempts to deceive, dissemble and disregard all this. What connection could it possibly have with acts of systematic expulsion? After all, it is simply concerned with the welfare of the residents and the preservation of law and order. If an expulsion is taking place, the administration is not the one making the decisions; it's just acting as a contractor.

In any event, what's going on here is "self-evacuation," as the spokesman put it, and "abandoned structures."

"This is a matter of tin structures and tents, which were set up recently, without the necessary permits, in firing zones, endangering the inhabitants' lives," the spokesman said. "Most of the structures under discussion were abandoned independently by their residents, and a few were destroyed. Most of the people who built these structures own permanent homes in the valley, and most of the structures were already abandoned on the day they were destroyed."

Owners of permanent homes? Have you heard of settlers being evacuated because they have another house in Petah Tikva?

On second thought: The expulsion in the Jordan Valley is worse than that of Sheikh Jarrah. It is more systematic, more large-scale, and it's being committed against a weaker population. But the demonstrators won't come here. It's too far away.

The most closed open area

In an empty room that serves as the headquarters of a remote village council, local activists elaborate on their fears: Israel is seeking to expel all the area's shepherds to here. Two big spiders silently spin their web on the ceiling. In the past month, dozens of families have received demolition and evacuation orders, all in accordance with the law, of course, the law of the occupation.

The elderly Abdel Rahim Basharat says it's not a village, it's a prison.

"If you close off the shepherds from every direction, to them it's a jail, because their lives are tied to the land. If they are made to move to this village, they'll have to sell their flocks, their only source of income. Taking our lands from us is the same as taking our lives."

Basharat has a question: "Does Area C mean evacuation and expulsion?"

And what will you tell him? What can one tell him?

And he has another question: "Why don't you ask about the water problem?"

Ataf Abu al-Rub, the B'Tselem investigator in the area, explains: "Sometimes these shepherds hear water trickling through the pipes that pass through their fields on the way to settlements, but they are forbidden to use it. Sometimes they hear the crackle of electricity in the high-tension wires, but the electricity is meant only for the settlers."

Al-Rub says this is the most closed open area in the world. Four families have already left for the village, after the encampments were repeatedly destroyed and they tired of hopeless battle. The rest are persisting in a desperate fight for survival. We go out to see, driving past harvested wheat fields on our way to the sites of destruction.

Abdel Razeq Bani Awda's family already has erected a new encampment. On July 1, the previous one was destroyed, and its ruins lie on the opposite hillside. They'd lived there for 15 years, on private land that belongs to a resident of Tubas who leased it to them. They have documents to prove it. Now they are stuck in the middle of a wheat field; when winter and planting times comes around, they'll have to leave here, too. This is the fifth place they've moved to in the past few years, since Israel began implementing its policy of evacuation and expulsion. Two families - a father and son and their children, and 160 sheep, their only source of income. The sheep are now crowded into new pens, seeking shelter from the heat.

What will the children eat?

The road is too treacherous for our car, as we make our way up the hill from the ruins of their recently destroyed camp. Hardly anything is left of it. Strewn about the ground are some wrecked tent stakes, a spoon, a rusty kettle, a blackened coffee pot, a spilled container of tehina and a broken-down refrigerator. Remnants of a meager life. Basharat asks why Israel is also destroying the water tanks.

"The tents are one thing, but why the water tanks? Sometimes they empty them of water. What will the children drink? And why do they always come when times are the toughest, or in the middle of summer, when the heat is terrible, or during the rains, when there is no other shelter? It's not by coincidence. And why do they destroy the taboun ovens? They know it takes four to five days to build a new taboun, and in the meantime we have no bread. Do they want us to die of hunger and thirst? Is that what they really want? Our children know the Israeli army is the one doing this. And what do they expect them to remember when they grow up?"

Basharat's questions go unanswered, echoing through the valley. We sit beneath the remnants of a tin shack that wasn't thoroughly destroyed. An old refrigerator door serves as a bench, until it, too, collapses beneath us. The Bani Awda family will return here in the winter. They have no other choice. They have already re-erected one tent. Across the way, Beka'ot is blooming; there is a spa there.

On the western part of the hillside is another ruined encampment. This is where Hassan Bani Awda's family lived before they migrated eastward. Another encampment, closer to Beka'ot, is still standing. Nine times this family has had its home destroyed. We sit in silence and gaze out at the valley. It could be so beautiful, if not for the ugliness of the expulsion. We make our way to the next encampment.

An old wooden chair has an old sticker attached to it: "Israel is Strong with Shimon Peres." Israel is also strong with Benjamin Netanyahu, especially in dealing with the weak: Mohammed Bani Awda and his 11 children are also living under the threat of expulsion. He has 270 sheep and a combine that belongs to the landowner from Tubas. This family already has been forced to move four times. Now they've been instructed to tear down just the storehouse for the sheep's food. Is Mohammed afraid? He says: "They're going step-by-step. They started in the east and when they finish clearing out there they'll come here too. We'll be the next stage."

The two shepherds, Basharat and Bani Awda, consult with one another. What to do? Bani Awda suggests appealing to the High Court, and Basharat says there's no point.

"There's no point appealing to Israeli law and justice. They'll declare the whole Jordan Valley a military zone and that will be the end of the story."

Mohammed's son Jihad, a 19-year-old shepherd, wears a New York baseball cap. He says he dreams of going there one day, but all of us in the tent knew it will never happen. It's unlikely that he'll every get as far as Jerusalem.

[Qais M. Yousef]

Thanks Irit for your work for the peace, God Bless you.
Once I was thinking, We have only one life on this earth, why don't we enjoy it?!!

All the mankind share a very common thing, "the humanity" why don't they live together in peace and love.
Childhood, is a beautiful word, full of dreams and hopes, why don't we let the children live it, in peace and love? childhood happens one time only during the human life.

Those movements that you Erit talk about are so great job, because they concentrated on the children (the future of our world) and those movements will diffidently lead us to the peace.

Irit, while you join those peaceful and great movements. could I suggest to bring children from the Jordan Valley in the next time?

you know, the children there have a so sad life, no enough food, no clean water, no schools, no medicine, no warm homes, no salter, no nothing, threatened to lose their houses and lands every day.
could those children live the childhood, only one day?!!

I wish I could get there to clean their pale faces, to give them clean water, to give them a doll.
to tell them that the world is full playing areas, restaurants, warm houses, beautiful dresses, love.
That the world is different than what you see in your area.

I wish I can Hug them, hold them in my arms, because they suffer without knowing why!

Me too ba'chebak Irit, because you are different, you are pro-peace woman.

Qais

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

this is my little girl-friend who said she loves me....:):):)

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

During June and July and the beginning of August, we have here groups of children, accompanied by mothers and some fathers. They are taken for 4 hours on the beach (and in sea of course), having sandwiches, watermelon and ice-cream. Then - going to the Jewish-Arabic Cultural Center for dinner , an entertainment show and creating activity. This is the program, with light changing now and then.
There is one group a week, sometime two. There are always about 15 Israelis with them, watching,helping,taking care. I was one of them on July 15th. . I do not speak Arabic at all (well, except for 4 words hahaha) and most of the children did not speak any Hebrew, but we could understand each other by gestures and the similar words there are in the two languages, and with the help of the ones who new them both. Usually the men knew Hebrew, some of them had been working here in the past.

One girl whose face I was washing up, said to me : ana ba'chebak" I replied her the same.very special moment which I am going to remember and to treasure for ever.
I hope to go again on the 8th of August - the last visit, if I can take a leave from work.

t was a

[Qais M. Yousef]

No, that will be grateful.

Those movements, will lead us to the peace,

and sooner Irit, Sooner. and Me and You will go together to Jaffa.

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

I have signed the petition, Qais. Thanks for the link.

btw, talkin of children - have I told you about the summer project, of bringing children from the west bank to the beach in Israel for fun-days?

[Qais M. Yousef]

Thank you so much Eva for sharing "Bristol UK Endorses Sanctions Against Israel"

Irit, Hope I can join you in this Festival, especially in Jaffa, you don't know how much I live this city.

Dear friends,

Please sign this petition to help the childhood in the Jordan Valley - West Bank.

Visit this link and sign the petition please.
Let's give the children childhood, give them peace.


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http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-children-in-jordan-vall...


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At the beginning I would thank My friends Lisa and Zahra for their help in his petition.

Dear Friends, Peace is our goal, love is in our heart, one hand can not clap, two can, and the more the hands, the more the voice is loud, together we will make the change, we will see the peace spreading our world, we will see the peoples living together, respecting each other and loving each other.

We will see the children, living their childhood, playing, smiling, attending good schools, eating enough food, drinking clean water, loving the world and loving us, because we worked for them, because we gave them their childhood we gave them peace.

My friends, all over the world, there are many children suffer from injustice, oppression, and wars, suffering from famine, droughts, crying because of fear and hunger, suffering from disease and can not get treatment, do not have enough food, no clean water.

And now in the Jordan Valley - West Bank, (According to the Children Rights and Human Rights organisations) The lack of food is a major factor in the development of public health problems. Children are particularly affected. Younger children often suffer from diarrhea, causing many to die before the age of 5. Other children are physically underdeveloped, while more than 10 percent are underweight.

The availability of water is another problem for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley. The lack of drinking water often forces people to drink polluted water, which beyond any doubt adds to the health problems within their community.

The community has no school and the shortage of schools in the near villages, confronting children with the choice of either travelling for many hours every day to find an education or being separated from their families.

A complicating factor is that for Palestinians living in the West Bank’s pockets of poverty, it is even more difficult to find international humanitarian aid than for Gazans. In Area C almost 50 percent of households surveyed by Save the Children claim that external aid has not reached them in any way.

Depending mostly on the hospital in Jericho, 62 percent of the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley consider health services to be insufficient.

The area is only accessible through three checkpoints, making it difficult for inhabitants to visit family or do work in other parts of the West Bank. Thirty-eight percent of those asked consider the checkpoints one of the main obstacles to making a living.

Last Monday "The IDF demolished about 55 structures in the West Bank village of Farasiya, including tents, tin shacks, plastic and straw huts, clay ovens, sheep pens and bathrooms. These structures served the 120 farmers, hired workers and their families who lived in the Jordan Valley village." Haaretz

Please let's help to give those children a good life, to give them their childhood, to give them peace.

I contacted the UNRWA office in Amman-Jordan and they promised to help. I will send a hard copy of the signatures to the UNRWA in Amman in order to send it to the UNRWA in the Palestinian territories, UNRWA to use its peaceful and speedy communication channels with the Israeli government requesting that humanitarian aid be allowed in for the people stuck in the disputed area and work to ensure a safe and dignified life for their children.

When you sign this petition, you put a brick in the castle of peace.

Let's give them the childhood, give them peace.

We need more signatures and the time is not in our side.

If you forwarded this petition I will be courteous to you.

Best wishes,

Qais


See also;

"Imagen if your house demolished nine times" and the "Twilight Zone / Gestures to the Palestinians" that I posted last week.

http://www.care2.com/news/member/712575507/1792569

"IDF destroys West Bank village after declaring it military zone"

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-destroys-west-bank-vi...

"Al-Hadidiyeh, February 2010: Israel effectively pressuring Palestinian Bedouin community to leave the Jordan Valley"

http://www.btselem.org/English/Planning_and_Building/20100222_Al_Ha...

"The situation in the Jordan valley - West Bank according to the British-based organization Save the Children"

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-215229-situation-in-west-ban...


If you want to contact the UNRWA for more support;

Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi
Headquarters Gaza
Gamal Abdul Nasser Street, Gaza City
Postal Address: PO Box 61 Gaza City, or PO Box 338 Ashqelon
Telephone: (+ 972 8) 288 7333 or (+ 970 8) 288 7333
Fax: (+ 972 8) 288 7555 or (+ 970 8) 288 7555

Headquarters Amman
Bayader Wadi Seer
Postal address: PO Box 140157, Amman 11814, Jordan
Telephone: (+ 962 6) 580 8100
Fax: (+ 962 6) 580 8335

UNRWA Representative Office, New York
Director, UNRWA Representative Office - Andrew Whitley
One United Nations Plaza, Room DC1-1265, New York, NY 10017, USA
Telephone: (+ 1 212) 963 2255, (00 1 212) 963 1234
Fax: (+ 1 212) 935 7899

UNRWA Representative Office, Geneva
Head, Representative Office, Matthias Burchard
Palais des Nations, Annexe Le Bocage 1, R92
Avenue de la Paix, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone: (+ 41) 22 917 2057
Fax: (+ 41) 22 917 0656


UNRWA Representative Office to the European Union, Brussels
Head of Brussels Office, Matthias Burchard
UNRWA Liaison Office, Residence Palace – 8th floor, Elevator 23, Box 107
Rue de la Loi, 155, B-1040 Bruxelles
Telephone: [phone]
Fax. [phone]


UNRWA Office, Cairo
Head of Cairo Office, Rula Khalafawi
2 Dar el-Shifa Street, Garden City, Cairo
Postal address: PO Box 227, Cairo, Egypt
Telephone: (+ 20 2) 794 8502/4
Fax: (+ 20 2) 794 8504

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Christine,
I believe in a two-state solution. I believe an independent state of their own will give the Palestinians their due respect, and the possibility to live their lives according to the codes they want them. I speak with Palestinians friends frequently - they think the same as me. Of course, one state is preferred to nothing... Israel must be committed to help any way and anyway.- one state or two...


Have a beautiful peaceful weekend.
I shall be in Jaffa on Saturday, for Yafa Festival for Palestinian Folklore, at the Jewish-Arabic Theater.
You are all invited :):)

[Eva Libre]

Bristol UK Endorses Sanctions Against Israel

Bristol Sanctions from sartorius on Vimeo.

On 29th June 2010 Bristol City Council voted to endorse sanctions against Israel. This is a video of the debate.

The resolution can be found at:

tinyurl.com/38c54q2

An alternative view can be found at:

friendsofisraelinitiative.org/

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Dear Chrisitne,
If the page is longer than the article - it means that not enough has been written. I do not agree with your suggest that -"This is a sign that no one agrees on what is being claimed".- sorry. If my English was good enough, I would add some...:( I am sure you have noticed it is not.

I do agree with the other part of your comment. That is what we- peace activist in Israel - are working so hard for. That is what politicians here do NOT do for, which is only one of the problems..
.Collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians, of the people I mean, is the best thing to do now. The hard part is to convince the politician to join us.
But, we hope and we act . we are doing our best, and we shall do more, until peace comes.

[Irit Hakim-Keller]

Dear cousin Qais, ( :):) I like that...)
No need for apologize, Please. How could you know that? I was quite amused, but I had to make it clear - so that you now too. Being a secular, I can hardly bear the fact that my country is run by the religious code.
Thank you for your kind intention by showing the pic. I do appreciate that.

You may go to my page in FB to see some pictures of Israelis-Palestinians events.

Peace on you and on the whole world.