Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign: Shops Demolished Again in Northern Jordan Valley

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Shops Demolished Again in Northern Jordan Valley
Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, May 14th, 2006

The continual harassment of the Palestinian population in the Jordan Valley has escalated with the destruction of 13 sheds used as shops by Palestinian farmers to sell their products. Occupation Forces attacked the people, took away their goods and demolished the shops.

On May 14th at 9 a.m., military bulldozers arrived to demolish the sheds between Bardala and 'Ein al-Beida along Road 90. They declared the area a closed military zone and blocked shop owners from reaching the area, under the pretext that the road was “closed for Palestinians”. Road 90, the road that leads from the north to the south of the Jordan Valley, has long since been usurped for settlers-only use and for cars from Palestine ’48. However, it remains a place for Palestinian farmers to sell their produce.

When Occupation Forces arrived, the group of people present defended the sheds and clashes erupted. The soldiers threatened to "break the arms" of the people – reminding them of Rabin’s orders during the first Intifada. All 13 shops were eventually destroyed, and approximately 150-200 boxes of vegetables stolen by the Occupation. The shops and vegetables belonged to farmers from the Sawafta and Fuqaha families.

It is the third time since the beginning of this year that the Occupation demolished these shops, as the farmers re-build their shops and defy the Occupation's orders and violence. Farmers in the area are seriously threatened by isolation of Jordan Valley and the continuous attacks of the Occupation. All connections with the outside world and their markets have been severed, and within the Valley house demolitions and fines under all sorts of pretexts challenge the determination of the people to resist Occupation of their land.