WORLD VIEW, DECEMBER 8, 2024
Cassandra Dixon, a local and international peace activist, has just returned from the occupied West Bank with tales of increased hardship for Palestinian farmers.
The West Bank agriculturists have been trying to save their lands from being seized by Israeli settlers and converted into Israeli settlements. For decades they have struggled under threats from settlers and the military to maintain their way of life and culture but the threat has increased exponentially in the past year.
Settlers have been armed and at times designated as Israeli reservists by the Israeli government. The Israeli military has often collaborated with them to harass and threaten Palestinian farmers, to frighten them to abandon their farms and villages.
Flocks of sheep have been stolen, settlers graze flocks on Palestinian crops forcing farmers to buy feed for their animals, olive groves and gardens have been destroyed.
Cassandra talked of how Palestinians have been forced to move to more urban areas, leaving their communities, homes, flocks, groves and lifetimes of work behind. They also suffer in poverty, searching for a way to earn a living for their families in an alien environment.
Cassandra spoke about a Dutch non-profit that provides an opportunity to purchase olive trees to replace those destroyed and a scheme to help Palestinian farmers replace sheep and goats. You can find these on the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project website and then click on “Donate:”
Photo courtesy of Ali Awad
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.