Mohammed's Story

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Between the two villages Marj Najeh and Zubeidat lies a small community made up of three families. One of these families asked to speak to us to about the conditions in which they have been forced to live as a direct result of the occupation. We arrived to three bedraggled tents pitched up on arid land. Situated in area C, they are not able to build any more than this. The head of the family, Mohammed Mahmoud Latef, explained to us that 11 people live between these tents – which altogether gives them about as much space as they would have crammed into a 1 bedroom council flat.

In the past 3 years, they have had two of their homes demolished, each time without any warning, early in the morning and in the middle of winter, forcing them to take shelter in a cave a little way up the hill until they could make another home. It seems this is a common occurrence throughout the Jordan Valley – the soldiers wait until the weather is at its most extreme before house demolitions in order to cause as much discomfort as possible. He took us to see one of these homes – it is now a crumpled pile of metal that could not have been much bigger than one of the tents he lives in now.

Mohammed has in his lifetime been forced to leave 10 different areas due to house demolitions and harassment by soldiers. He remembers one period around 1976, while he was living in Baka Alsharkiah, when his family home was demolished 10 times. The land has not been developed or used by Israel since, so I cannot see a reason why his home was torn apart over and over other than out of spite.

Deprived of a living space, his family is also unable to make any sort of livelihood. Of the 500 sheep they owned in 1996, 95 remain. The rest have either been shot by soldiers (at least 200) or died due to lack of food or water. He explained that this is because they cannot graze their sheep because the surrounding areas are military training areas, and they cannot use the water station close to their home and must buy their water like so many others. However, he does not have the money to pay for it because their principal income is from their sheep, the produce of which he cannot sell because he is held up at Al Hamra checkpoint most days. By the time he reaches Nablus, much of the food is too spoilt to sell. Now, his 20 year old son supports the family by working in a settlement, having left his place at university to do so.

Mohammed is now considering moving yet again. Soldiers raid his home often, attacking him and his family and mixing their food into the dirt so that it is inedible. He has reached crisis point. He told us that his 27 year old son is so traumatized that he cannot leave the home or socialize with others. He has asked the Palestinian Authority for help, along with Jericho council, but to no avail. The Jordan Valley Solidarity project has provided him with water pipes but he needs council permission to install them. Even if he is successful, this does not solve the underlying problem causing their distress. It does not end the occupation.