There is hope for Palestine

We turned off the main highway that was taking us from the Sea of Galilee South through the Jordan Valley toward Jericho and Bethlehem. The road became a dirt track strewn with bits of refuse left by a heavy rain the day before. The homes we drove past looked very like the temporary shelters we had seen bedouin living in, and likewise there were large herds of sheep and goats among the shelters. But our guide, Mohammed, said these were not bedouin. What we were seeing was poverty and homelessness caused by State policy. Israel has been trying to drive the Palestinian farmers and villagers out of the Jordan Valley since 1967 when Israel's army occupied the whole of the West Bank, including this area of rich agricultural land and abundant water. We had arrived at the village of Fasayil.
We stopped our van in front of a crumbling adobe building, and Rashid came to meet us. He is one of the organizers of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign (www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org). Rashid explained that the community is renovating this building, which looked like the back side of it had been ripped off. Although they are in Area C where Israel does not grant permits to build or renovate anything, they are able to do it to this house because it was orginally constructed befoe 1967. And, since permanent structures are very few in the village, they are determined to hold onto this one. They will use the original materials - mud and straw bricks sealed with plaster - and be able to house income-producing guests and international volunteers.


I thought to myself, "Volunteer here? There isn't a single comfort of modern living in sight." But I kept listening to Rashid and then follwed him toward the school. We had to pick our way over rough and littered ground, skirtiing the muddy places left by the rainstorm. The school was painted a bright pink, had a mural on one wall and a small playground. In 2007 the Solidarity Campaign had built the school where there had been none, in defiance of the above mentioned prohibition on building. When Israel said it would be demolished, the community mobilized enough support including from a university in England to ward off the demolition order. Of course, everyone knows that there are no guarantees for the survival of the school structure, but the Palestinian Ministry of Education has recognized the school and assigned teachers to it. It now provides an education to 150-200 children.

Before the Solidarity Campaign, homes here were routinely destroyed, and there was no electricity in this village and no access to the underground water. Palestinians in Area C are allowed to drill only 200 feet for water, but at that depth there is no longer any water because the nearby Jewish settlements drill 500 feet and take the water. (Settlements are all built on stolen Palestinian land, illegal by international law.)

Rashid supplied us with these vital statistics: The Jordan Valley is 30% of the entire West Bank. Prior to the Israeli military occupation in 1967 300,000 Palestinians lived here. Of these only 56,000 are left. Ninety percent of the Valley is in Area C where no permits are granted for construction, wells, irrigation, etc. in order to force people to leave. There are 6400 Jewish settlers who control 98% of the water. Where Area C meets Area B (larger towns where Palestinian civil authority supplies services and granst permits) Israel drew the lines so as to put the water sources in Area C, i.e. under Israeli control.

On the second floor of the other half of the adobe house which is being renovated, we met Rashid's sister, Muna. She was well dressed in a black outfit and head scarf. Earlier this year she had been arrested at a demonstration and put in solitary confinement for 22 days, in a cell 4' by 5' with no windows and with one place in the ceiling for air to come in, and one for exhaust. She was denied access to a lawyer or anyone else. It is unusual for women to be arrested, so it spoke volumes about her degree of activism. Muna continued educating us about this grassroots effort to defy the Israeli occupation with its infrastructures of permits and restrictions. She said that many inernational NGOs do not invest in Area C for fear their contributions will be demolished, but in this way, they are actually supporting the occupation by going along with its artificial and segregationist policies.

The Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign's primary purpose is to help the indigenous population of Palestinian farmers to stay on their land. They enlist the support of international volunteers like the young woman from Australia who sat with us. She was living on the premises and will stay for 3 months, but many others come on a daily basis to help with the construction tasks and to join protests such as is planned for this coming Saturday. International volunteer labor is needed because the village men and boys have to go to jobs outside the village. (Sadly, the only jobs available are inside the Jewish settlements.)

We left Fasayil at dusk, driving back along the imperceptable "road", past the boys playing soccer in an open space, past the penned goats and sheep, and onto the smooth asphalt of the highway built for settlers. (We could drive on it because Mohammed has Israeli license plates, but that is another story.)

In spite of the desolation of the physical space in Fasayil, I felt an energy and fearlessness in the people that gave me hope for Palestine. Their willingness to stay put and defy the odds by putting facts on the ground is inspiring. And, by the way, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign supports the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS), giving us in the States a way to connect with the spirit of the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign.