Wadi Auja - Access to land
Despite the storm which it seems to be falling, Mariam undaunted takes her flock and leaves her four children to their bigger sister. She really needs a breather from the screams of her spitfire and barefoot children. She walks toward Wadi ‘Auja with her little girl of few months in her arms. She has a beautiful smile.
She arrives in the valley where the shepherds of the area are going with their flocks. Not a kilometre further there is Omar Farm, the illegal outpost from where all the problems are coming.
The sky becomes clearer. Other shepherds are arriving, assembling to drink a tea.
Then something come to spoils the bucolic atmosphere.
The soldiers are coming.
The women exchange a look, almost to give each other strength, while the soldiers are coming down from the jeep. They don’t seem worried, indeed it’s seems that they want to remain.
Mariam doesn’t think about to go away if the soldiers didn’t show an order to close the area. Why she should go away? Without a document, the closure should be illegal, as already unreasonable itself. Which problems could create them with their flocks? She waits that the soldiers reach her, while she proudly holds the stick used to guide her sheep, and on the other arm the small Intisar who is sleeping.
At the end, the soldiers show the order to close the area. The shepherds have to leave the area. The women decide to grazing a little bit further. “Swayy sway”. Slowly slowly, they say. It’s a way to take back their freedom and dignity that the soldiers are taking away from them.
Another time, they have win. It’s disgusting. But the smile stays on the face of these women, while they are being moved away from their land. Nobody can’t take away this smile from them.
They watched each other with satisfaction. Tomorrow they will return. Swayy swayy they will re-appropriate of their land.
Wadi ‘Auja is a valley non too far from Jericho, in the Jordan Valley. The economy of the Palestinian community in the area relies on the grazing activity, and Wadi ‘Auja is the area of grazing of the Palestinian villages of Ras al-Auja, al-Auja and Nuweima.
In 2004, in the centre of the valley has arisen the outpost of Einot Kedem, some kilometre near the Israeli settlement of Yitav. The outpost, also called as “Omar Farm”, receives all the service, like the running water or the electricity, despite its illegality also for the Israeli law.
The presence of the outpost has an important impact on the life of Palestinians. The shepherds received threatening and intimidations from the settlers. Ever more frequently, in the last years, the Palestinians are being taken away from the Israeli Army, who preventing them to grazing in the area near Omar Farm. The connivance between settlers and soldiers, here as in other areas of the West Bank, is strong and very clear. Common are the cases where the Army, before driving away the shepherds, goes in the outpost. The most part of time the expulsion is illegal, which means without the presence of a official document of closing area that has to be shown to the Palestinian.
The continuous hindrance of the grazing activity caused by settlers and soldiers is a serious threat to the survival of communities in the area.
OPERAZIONE COLOMBA
