***image2***New expulsions have hit the people in Ein al Beida, northern Jordan Valley. Occupation forces have enforced a curfew for two days and expelled 26 people from their homes in the village. This adds to the continuing isolation of the Jordan Valley.
On Thursday, the Occupation army imposed a curfew on the whole village of Ein al Beida in retaliation against the people. Earlier, settlers had found the Jewish-only Road 90 blocked with stones. Soldiers randomly attacked the closest village on Friday and expelled 5 families from the village. The families were cultivating land and raising cattle in the area. Because their residency is not officially registered as Ein al Beida, soldiers claimed that they did not have permits and forced them to leave the village. After the families had been expelled, the Occupation forces lifted the curfew at 4 pm on Friday afternoon.
This attack was only one in a long series of assaults. Villagers are forced to face Occupation forces that regularly patrol the area looking for people without âpermitsâ. The whole population is placed under a daily curfew. All farmers and villagers are forced to leave their fields and stay within the built up areas of the village after 6 pm. The markets of farmers along the road are regularly demolished by the Occupation forces.
To increase the threat to the village, Israeli officers today placed signs at the entrance square of the village, which is near the Jewish-only Road 90, and have taken photos of the surroundings. Without any explanation from the Occupation, people suspect that these are preparations for a new watchtower to control life in the village. A similar watchtower has been built at the entrance to Bardala, the neighbouring village.
Nevertheless, the people in the area continue to resist by challenging the curfews, the settler freeways, and the colonization of their lands.
The dispossession of farmers in Ein al Beida started in 1948 when the Armistice Line placed parts of the village lands under Zionist control. Immediately after the occupation of the West Bank, Mahola settlement was built as the first Zionist colony in the West Bank in 1968. Since that time, some 2000 dunums of village lands have been stolen for the built up areas and agricultural plantations of the settlement.
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