The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) does not allow the village of Nuwaime which is a small in size but great in its resistance of the occupation and settlers to live in peace and harmony. Despite the village’s miserable poverty which made most of its inhabitants live in tin houses the Israeli occupation and settlers harass those inhabitants in their daily life.
Nuwaime is located to the north west of Jericho on the road from Jericho to al-Oja water-wells; largely dependent on agriculture and is famous for planting bananas. The village is located on a hill in the Jordan valley area and its population reached 1144 according to the 2004 statistics.
Planting Bananas
When reaching to the village’s surrounding areas the scenes of the beautiful banana farms attract the visitors. Farmer Suliman Alrashaiydeh Abu Faisal said “Planting bananas is suitable for the village’s farmers as the temperature is always hot here and despite the low price of bananas at the market (2 NIS per kilo) farmers continue to plant their crop as the price has reached much more in the past (7 NIS per kilo) and planting bananas support the steadfastness of farmers in the village at a time they complain of the lack of support”.
Abu Faisal like the rest of farmers here complains of the repeated assaults of Israeli settlers against the inhabitants of the village saying “I used to have 300 sheep and cows but now I only have 100” noting that “Land suitable for my sheep and cows to eat grass are located near Israeli military camps and they steal some of my sheep. And where grass is available the IOA always prevent us from feeding our sheep and cows.”
Abu Faisal believes that the Israeli occupation practices aim at displacing native inhabitants of the land by claiming that the land is theirs. The Jewish agricultural settlements are scattered all over the Jordan valley he added.
The anti-wall and settlements committees in the Jordan valley say that the Israeli occupation believes that Palestinian existence in the area forms an obstacle in the face of expansion of settlements towards the Dead Sea area which is considered a strategic depth for the Israeli occupation.
Destruction Bulldozers
Palestinian farmer Ahmed Alrashaiydeh complains of the many warnings he receives in the area. “We live in a state of fear. We are surrounded by bulldozers which destroy our houses and containers. They also want us to obtain a permit if we want to erect a mere tent. And when we apply for permits they delay us and we rarely get needed permits which don’t meet the natural growth of the inhabitants of the village.”
Palestinian shepherd Nasser Alrashaiydeh complains about the lack of grass for grazing adding “Pastures face a real decline. It is one of the main challenges facing the inhabitants of the village most of whom are shepherds in addition to those who plant bananas. Closing areas where grass is available by the Israeli occupation under the claim it is a nature-protected-area or an army camp or a potential camp for training all aim to restrict the access of shepherds and to turn areas around us into nature-protected-areas and military camps in addition to confiscating rare agricultural lands to build more settlements. At the same time they prevent us from having access to water and redirect water to their agricultural lands and military camps.”
Another suffering of the village is the lack of access to education. The village’s only school is facing the threat of demolition. Students walk for a long time to reach their school and many of them have already left the school and started working as farmers or shepherds to escape from the miserable poverty as jobs are not available in the village.
