It moved 20 kilometers from Nablus to the Jordan Valley, and settler harassment did not leave it

"The Sixties" Farida Shehadeh ... a tough business trip between two settlements

• Farida Shehadeh works in raising and caring for livestock to provide a living for her children.

  From the source

• Farida Shehadeh: "Settlement surrounded housing and work in Salem from all directions. My house is only 400 meters away from a bypassing settler road that encircles it on three sides."

• Farida Shihadeh's family lacks the most basic elements of life.

  Emirates today

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Before 2017, Farida Shehadeh (60 years old) was living a quiet life in the village of Salem, east of Nablus in the northern West Bank, spending her time working as a shepherd, in order to provide a livelihood for her liver and grandchildren, completing the 30-year journey of work, which It enabled her to support her seven children and start a small family.

However, this quiet life became impatient with her, after the escalation of settler attacks in the settlement of "Elon Moreh" against the Palestinians, forcing her to leave the village of Salem four years ago, to move to the Jordan Valley to work in raising and caring for livestock, the only income for her family.

The search for work and a livelihood extended more than 20 kilometers from the city of Nablus to the Jordan Valley on the borders of the Palestinian territories with Jordan, but it was no less dangerous than before, as it works and lives near the settlement of "Hamra", which is located on Palestinian lands. In her quest to find a livelihood, she is forced to endure settlers' attacks, and she and her family withstand their influence.

The blockade of work and housing

“Emirates Today” met Farida Shehadeh on her land, located in Khirbet Beit Hassan, in the village of Furush Beit Dajan, one of the Palestinian Jordan Valleys. This area lacks the minimum necessities of life, including road, water, electricity, and infrastructure networks. Sponsored.

She says, “The work in caring for cattle and sheep goes back to the end of the eighties, for it is the profession of grandparents and fathers. Our industrious family prefers to work in agriculture and herding sheep, and this profession connects me more to the land, to preserve it, and it is inherited by children and grandchildren, so that its path remains past throughout the ages, and since that time. Until 2017, I am working in this profession in my original village, Salem, in Nablus. ”

“Settlement surrounded housing and work in the village of Salem from all directions. My house is only 400 meters away from a bypassing settler street surrounding it on three sides, and I began to suffer great suffering in grazing sheep in pastoral lands where we are prevented from going out with livestock and entering those lands, in addition to our exposure. "For violent and aggressive practices, not even sheep, which are killed and robbed by the settlers, should not be spared."

And the matter does not stop there. The settlement of “Alon Moreh” deprived Salem of its pasture areas, due to the dispossession of Palestinian lands and annexation in the interest of expanding the settlement.

To leave is a choice!

Here, she has no choice but to leave, and go to the Jordan Valley, where she owns pastoral land, an area of ​​5 dunums, which she has resorted to to avoid the attacks and harassment of settlers in Salem village, to practice herding cattle and sheep.

“My family and I left the village of Salem, and we came to our land in the village of Frosh Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley, accompanied by the herd of sheep that we owned, to escape the tragedies we were subjected to, to meet the same harassment from the settlement (Alon Moreh). They confiscate them when we graze them in the lands near the Hamra settlement, and demolish the tents that shelter us and the sheep pens. ”

She points out that four months ago, a settler from Hamra put a caravan 700 meters away from her house in Khirbet Beit Hassan, and provided it with water and electricity lines, and the areas of land near this caravan are forbidden to them.

"As a result of these arbitrary harassment, we were not able to graze in this area, and we are forced to climb mountain tops to practice our profession, but this did not make us isolated from the settlers' attacks and the encroachment of the Hamra settlement, which is only 1,500 meters from our home and our land."

Resilience march

This shepherd had undergone surgery several months ago to remove a cancerous tumor in the brain, and as a result she suffers from difficulty in the sense of hearing, and needs daily medication and health care on a permanent basis, and despite this, she has a solid will, to work, care and raise the heads of sheep, which are considered The only source of income for her family, to provide the necessary treatment.

She says, “I live in this area and I am forgotten by the government agencies that do not reach this area due to settler attacks, and these authorities do not provide any assistance to me in terms of providing medicines or providing development projects, and therefore I insist on staying to protect the land that I own, and provide the necessary treatment. That costs 100 shekels per day. ''

She says from the center of her land, "I will stay inside our land, even if only two sheep remain with me, so that I do not leave the land prey to settlers, to seize it. My children and grandchildren work alongside me in herding cattle, and they till the land daily, and they protect it from confiscation and settlement expansion."

She added, “What I fear most is that the settlers will deprive me of my land, and I find it confiscated overnight, thus losing the land and the source of income together at the same time. Therefore, I left the village of Salem, where the rest of my family, my home and my land are located, and I came here with my children and grandchildren, to imbibe the love of the land and be satisfied. It remains for the generations that protect our property and preserve our rights that we inherited from our fathers and grandfathers over decades.

Farida Shehadeh:

• “Settlements surrounded the residence and work in Salem from all directions. My house is only 400 meters away from a bypassing settlement road that encircles it on three sides.”

• Four months ago, a settler from Hamra settlement put up a caravan about 700 meters from her home in Khirbet Beit Hassan in the Jordan Valley, and provided it with water and electricity lines, which Palestinian families are deprived of, and the areas of land near this caravan are now forbidden to them.

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