We have just heard from Fatih, our friend from Toubas, that just over a week ago one of our taxi drivers was shot dead by the Israeli Army at a Raod Clusure near Toubas. (more…)
While football teams in the UK are signing sponsorship deals with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism a group called Sport Under Siege (www.jalla03.org) are touring the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We met them this week in Toubas.
(more…)
I was convinced by a friend to take a trip to the Jordan Valley this week. This is my fourth trip to Palestine but I have never visited the region and have heard relatively little about it. This is symptomatic of the condition of the valley, it is largely forgotten by the international community and is rarely visited. This isolation serves the Israeli state’s aim of annexation and ethnic cleansing of the valley.
(more…)
At Al Quds Open University Campus in Tubas we met Raed and Firas, aged 22 and 21 yrs old. They both work in the fields and packing houses of the Jordan Valley settlements to be able to survive and pay for their education. On the days that they work they get up at 3.00am, to be bussed through the mountains and checkpoints to the Jordan Velley settlements with about 500 settlement workers from the town. They are able to do this as they have a permit to enter the Jordan Valley supplied by the Israeli settler they are working for. They work from 6.00am - 2.00pm, and for this they receive less than 5 pounds per day.
(more…)
At the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Tubas we heard about the impact of the occupation, the checkpoints, and the road blocks on the ambulance staff. When we heard that ambulance staff had been made to walk on the bodies of dead people by the Israeli Army we didn’t want to believe it, but it was clearly true. (more…)
Al Jifflik is a small village in the northern Jordan Valley - see other blogs for information about this area. The villagers live largely in houses built of plastic and tin as they are barred in Israeli law from building or repairing their houses.
There is an UNWRA school for children up to 13 years old. Since 1967 the inhabitants have been asking for a school for the older children, but to no avail. So last year some people in the area decided to stop asking, and set up a school. They took an existing two room house in the area, with a couple of outhouses that are used as a sleeping room and shower room for the teachers. (more…)
I have just returned from the Jordan Valley - an area that takes up 30% of the West Bank but is almost entirely annexed by Israel. It is the most fertile land in the West Bank with massive underground water reserves, yet 98% of this water and 95% of the land is now controlled by the Israeli Army and settlements. Olmert has openly declared that he wants to annex the Jordan Valley and make it part of Israel. Once again I am using my ‘priviledge’ as an International. Palestinians are barred from going to this part of their country. To go there they have to fulfill one of three conditions: (more…)
Over 100 people were at the Britain/Palestine Twinning Conference on Thursday 13th April - the majority of them from towns, cities, villages and universities in Palestine who want to set up solidarity links with groups in Britain. The overwhelming message from the Palestinians present was:”You are our voices”. They spoke about how biased the western media is, and their need for people to come to Palestine, see the situation, and return to Britain and be a voice for Palestine. They said that they need people around the world to see them as a people who have a life and culture that must be defended. They need the world to know that their country is being stolen and they are being imprisoned by Israel’s illegal apartheid wall. Above all their human rights must defended. (more…)