Demolitions in the Jordan valley: Steadfastness in the face of destruction Credit: Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. Date: August 8th, 2007.
Occupation forces today went on a spree of demolitions in the Jordan Valley, destroying four homes and two water tanks in Bardala, Sahel Libqeya, Frush Beit Dajan and Jiftlik.
The photographs taken at the scene today, below, vividly illustrate how the Occupation is attacking Palestinian lives and land.
The images of Palestinians continuing to build homes and schools show the resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people in defiance of the wreckers.
The Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing will not succeed. The Palestinian people will continue to resist on their land.
Photo story
The wrecking crew began working in the morning in the village of Bardala, in the north of the Jordan Valley, where they destroyed a water tank.
Above: Before: The tank provided drinking and agricultural water to Bardala…
Above: After: … this morning the Occupation reduced it to rubble.
The systematic destruction of Palestinian water infrastructure in the hot and dry summers in the Jordan Valley is part of the Occupation’s policy to force the people to leave the Valley and to substitute them with Jewish settlers.
The Occupation forces then headed south towards the Sahel Libqeya area, where the threatened villages of al Hadidiya and Humsa are located, and demolished two homes.
They then drove to Frush Beit-Dajan where another water tank was reduced destroyed.
Above: A water tank in Frash Beit Dajan is destroyed under the protection of the Occupation forces and the eyes of one of the settlers that steal the Palestinian water.
Finally, they moved to the north to Jiftlik, where they demolished one Palestinian home and hoisted another onto a truck before driving it away.
Above: Before: The home destroyed today in Jiftlik received demolition orders two years ago. For all this time the house owner was living with the threat of being made homeless any time the occupation decided to move in.
Above: After: The home contained not much more than a room. Yet, it was the house prepared by the young house owner to be able to marry and host his family.
Above: In Jiftlik the Occupation forces carried away an entire Palestinian home….
Above: …while in the meantime at al Hamra checkpoint barns are carried unhindered to the Zionist settlements that colonize the Jordan Valley.
But still Palestinians continue to build in the Jordan Valley
Above: Kids in Ein al Beida school, close to Bardala, are drinking from a new fountain installed in the courtyard.
Above: In Bardala, the villagers and the Save the Jordan Valley initiative of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign have encouraged UNICEF and Ma’an development center to help restructuring the local school.
Above: In Fasa’il, a new school is built out of clay and hay to allow the children to go to school without exhausting walks through the countryside. The villagers are using the traditional way of building, inherited since the Canaanites. The building is part of the Education Not Occupation initiative, launched by the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and its local committee as part of the "Save the Jordan Valley" campaign.
