Turning off the taps in Bardala, Jordan valley

Until 15 years ago the people of Bardala used to collect water from the river. Since then a pumping station has been installed, paid for by the Palestinians but controlled by the Israelis. Palestinians are allowed to use the water from the pump 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. Meanwhile the settlers have unrestricted access to water from their own pumps. On the top of Bardala village there is a large water storage tank that used to be used for the whole village. Since Israel restricted their water use, the tank has fallen into disuse for lack of water. The Israelis are continually building more pumping stations. They are building another one a few hundred meters away.

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The river running through Bardala is now dry, lined with refuse. Sadly, we could see Hebrew writing on most of the plastic consumer products. The boycott is not a priority for most Bardalans. As the settlements in the Jordan Valley grow and ‘normalise’, some Palestinians build relationships with their uninvited neighbours. Some act as middlemen, selling Palestinian produce to the settlers for sale in Israel and elsewhere, others buy second-rate produce from the settlers to sell to Palestinians.

The soil is brown in this area not red, a sign of it’s fertility. But how long will this fertility last while the groundwater is being continuously drained then pumped far away from the area? The closest settlement, Mahola is lined with lush vegetation, seemingly an oasis in the desertesque landscape of the Jordan valley. When the aquifers of Bardala are drained, the Israelis can simply move on, create pumping stations all over the Jordan valley and suck it into their fattening settlement oases.

Being a (perhaps naïve) believer in resistance, when I first saw the pump surrounded by barbed wire and unguarded, not a watch tower in sight I said ‘why don’t the people of Bardala simply cut through the wire and trash the pumping station?’ They replied, there are many forms of collective punishment.The Israelis can cut the water allocated to the Palestinians. They can occupy the village, roll tanks through the town any time they like. They can keep the children awake with sound bombs. They can destroy houses that do not have permits. They can arrest any Palestinian they suspect of resistance, or they can kill people, armed to the teeth with weapons from America. The Palestinians have resisted. They have had 2 intifadas now, together they have defied Israel with any tactics available to them. But the majority of the population of Palestine has been born under occupation. They have not experienced life without the occupation, but they have experienced resistance, and the punishment and suffering that has followed that resistance. One Palestinian said that it was good that the Israelis built the water pump, as before Palestinians used to have to collect water by hand. He claimed to be ‘realistic’. What choice does he have, but to accept that the Israelis are here in the West Bank? Even admire their superior technology and aspire to getting along, taking on the role of the ‘happy slave’? Another Bardalan said that they would prefer no pumping stations if it meant no occupation, but how can she resist this facet of Israel’s colonisation? She knows the price of resistance. The opinion that Palestinians should continue to resist in any way they can whatever punishment the Israelis mete out is a rare and dwindling, yet inspiring viewpoint in the face of control. But what can actually be done,what actions can be ’successful’ under these conditions? It’s a very troubling question. An Israeli controlled water pump in Bardala Israeli controlled water pump inside Bardala village This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under 2007, Jordan Valley.