Palestinian shepherds have water tank, tractor confiscated

Amira Hass, Haaretz, 5/08/07. The Civil Administration confiscated a tractor and a water tank belonging to Palestinian shepherds living in the northern Jordan Valley. This was the only readily available water source for the approximately 60 members of the Basharat and Bani-Oudeh families and their 1,500 heads of sheep and goats. The Civil Administration is reportedly prepared to return the equipment if its owners agree to leave the area and pay transport costs. The shepherds have been living for decades in the area of Hadidiya, east of Beka’ot, on lands owned by their home villages of Tamun and Tubas. After the 1967 War, Israel declared large areas in the northern Jordan Valley closed military zones. Palestinians have been evacuated from these areas four times, including from privately owned lands. At the end of 2006, the High Court of Justice rejected a request from the residents to rezone their land as residential, even though the settlement of Ro’i is located a kilometer away. The High Court ordered the Palestinians to move to an area recommended by the Civil Administration in Area B, under Palestinian administrative control, which the residents rejected as unsuitable for farming and grazing. In April, the Civil Administration destroyed their corrals, and they moved to an area south of Hadidiya. In May, the residents were warned that their presence in the area would be considered illegal.

[Stop the Wall, 9/0//07. Since 1977, the Zionist settlement Ro’i has been expanding on Al Hadidiye’s land in the area. The expulsion orders are aimed at granting the settlement 20,000 dunums of the Palestinian Bedouins’ fertile lands in the northern Jordan Valley for colonization. Ro’i settlement is prospering on the ruins of yet another Palestinian community and their land. Signs publicly announce houses to be for rent and Zionist organizations such as the “Jordan Valley Development Fund” collect tax-free money for the ethnic cleansing of the Valley from its inhabitants. Companies such as Carmel Agrexco are selling the Zionist produce from the Jordan Valley – the fruits of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. ]