Environment

Today we were taken to visit the Zoba community in the Jordan Valley, a family who have suffered immeasurably since the start of the occupation. The community is located on the top of a small hill, at the West entrance of the Jordan Valley, 3 kilometres west of the Al Jiftlik community and a mere 400 metres from Al Hamra checkpoint. It is also very close to the old Jordan River Bridge which connected the occupied West Bank with the kingdom of Jordan. This bridge was closed by the Israelis in the early 1990’s, further isolating the people of the West Bank.

This week UK Customs and Excise have at last taken the first step in challenging the Israeli's illegal settlements by (a) recognising that they are mislabelling their produce to avoid paying tax to any European countries they export to and (b) proposing that the EU act to stop this practice. The news reports in the UK and Israeli press have spoken about illegal Israeli settlements, but have failed to explain the impact that these settlements have on the everyday lives of Palestinians and their hopes of establishing a viable state.

On Wednesday 22nd Oct the delegation had its first encounter with the Israeli Offence Force (IOF) on the edge of a village called Atoof in the north of the Jordan Valley. We were stopped, detained and told that we had entered ‘forbidden’ land. The soldiers asked us our reasons for being there, told us our Palestinian friends were ‘dangerous’ and that it was merely their duty to protect us.