In the Jordan Valley area in the West Bank a Palestinian village is resisting Israeli settlement construction all alone without any media coverage. Simple Palestinian farmers challenge Israeli settlers and their greed in their fertile land which is considered the food basket for the northern West Bank.
Profiling and categorization
The most alarming issue for the farmers of Zbidat village is the Israeli categorization of the land as area A B C which aims to confiscate Palestinian lands and give it to the Israeli settlers. The Palestinian local council of the village can’t identify which area is classified as such and the Israeli occupation changes the categorization to confiscate more lands and to kick farmers and people out of it.
The Palestinian area of the Jordan Valley is being targeted by the Israeli occupation through various means including Zbidat village as daily assaults continue on daily basis where the freedom of the residents of this calm village is restricted just 500 meters away from the Palestinian-Jordanian borders.
When human rights and media groups visit the village the head of the village’s local council Hassan Jermi rushes to explain the suffering of the village to them adding that his own house is located in areas A and C at the same time according to the Oslo Accords as his garden is located in area C and the actual building is located in area A.
Furthermore he explains “The village is surrounded by Israeli settlements and fences as well as farms and watchtowers which belong to the Israeli army and settlers.” Jermi just like the rest of villagers fears for his house to be harmed by the Israeli occupation practices.
Multi-layer suffering
Jermi spoke of the suffering of his village adding “We live a multi-layer suffering such as the non-stop Israeli military trainings and what it entails of explosions in addition to the eviction notices and warnings which target houses tents and caravans and the many Israeli checkpoints and settlements expansion incursions and the Israeli settlements’ products which compete with Palestinian local products in the market.”
He adds “Once I was planting trees in my own garden and Israeli soldiers arrived in and told me I can’t plant any tree 60 cm away from the actual house because it is classified as area C.”
Speaking of the beauty of the area and its agricultural fields Salam Aydea an employee from Nablus city says “During religious holidays and summer and winter vacations I come to Zbidat village due to the beauty of its green hills and its surrounding mountains and everything there is beautiful except for the scene of Israeli army and its military camps.”
Farmer Talal Mahmoud from the village complains about the lack of support provided to the villagers in addition to the lack of promotion of local products which nearby Israeli settlement products compete with.
“Israeli agricultural settlements compete with us and the Israeli occupation is waging a war against our own living weakening our steadfastness by not allowing us to export our agricultural produce” he said adding that they used to export their produce to Arab countries before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and now the Israeli occupation does not provide farmers with the needed amount of water in summer to water their crops.”
Jermi is part of the Jordan Valley’s Jericho Governorate and the majority of residents are Bedouins who were originally displaced from Bir Al-Sabaa city in 1948 Palestine and the village was named after the major family residing there.
The village is located 45 kilometers to the north of Jericho and 40 kilometers to the east and 40 kilometers to the south of Bisan. The village is near the Jordan River and it is located 500 meters to the west of the River. The villagers largely depend on agriculture and some 5000 dunums of the village’s lands are planted with various vegetables.
According to Palestinian statistics the Jordan Valley makes 30% of the total area of the West Bank where 60000 Palestinians reside and 87% of the Jordan Valley is classified as area C according to the Oslo Accords.
