On Tuesday, 12 August, at least 25 market stalls owned by Palestinian farmers have been demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the Jordan Valley.
***image2***Occupation soldiers went on rampage along Road 90 in the Jordan Valley. At 6:30 a.m., troops began to raid Palestinian vegetable shops established close to the villages of Bardala, ‘Ein Al Beida, Marj Naje, Zubeidat and Jiftlik.
For many Palestinian farmers in the area, selling their produce on the road is one of the main sources of income in a region isolated from the areas inside the Green Line, the rest of the West Bank and Jordan by the Wall, checkpoints, trenches and closed military zones.
Palestinians were not allowed to remove tomatoes, peppers, egg plants and a variety of fruits from under the simple market stalls, put up to provide shelter from the burning mid-summer heat, before a bulldozer crushed them together with all the produce and equipment still inside. Later on, a crane loaded the wreckage onto a truck before heading for the next target.
Whatever remained of the market stalls was being confiscated and carried away by the army.
In Zubeidat a market booth was set on fire. The Palestinian stall owners suffered severe economical damages.
For more on the Jordan Valley and the grassroots activism to defend Palestinian land and existence in the Valley, see: www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org