This is life in the Jordan Valley

We are now in Tubas which is a largish town in the north of the Jordan valley. We are staying with a delightful family, the father(quite young) is a journalist for the Palestinian news and writes all sorts of articles on what is happening here with the occupation etc. He told us that he met Tony Blair at a school in the Jordan valley which had just been set up bythe Palestinian authority. He was not very impressed. Tony was a bit surpised to realise that some of the children did not know who he was. He was surrounded by body guards. By all accounts he was told by the children about the awful hassle they experience every day going through the checkpoints.They explained that they are regularly made to raise their t -shirts to check they have no weapons-No reaction whatsoever.

We went to a school in one of the villages surrounded on all sides by the settlements and asked the headmaster if we could go into the classrooms. We asked the kids if they wanted to ask us questions. Two asked us if we had an occupation in London. We thought they meant whether we had a job or not. Then we realised. One also asked if we had a wall in Brighton. Another asked us why we exported arms to Israel and the teacher asked if we were a democracy how come we had started the war in Iraq! They asked why we voted for the govt if we were against the Israeli occupation.One of the staff was very agitated about the part we have played in allowing this present situation to arise.

We have been to a few Palestine farms wedged in on all sides by the settlments. Their wells have been confiscated and they have to buy water from the Israeli water authority.They only get their water at night and therefore have to irrigate in the evenings. There are three types of area in the Jordan valley. We stayed in area C where the houses are regularly demolished, because without a permit from the Israeli authorities you are not allowed to build.This permission is very hard to get . We saw three houses which were rubble. No-one is allowed to build or restore their houses so they are often like shacks.

We stayed in a village with the poorest people imaginable. They have just built a school with international help. The Israelis have now imposed a demolition order on it becuase it did not have permission. This is another way of getting people to leave the area - ethnic cleansing. The nearest school is now a very long way away.A son of our hosts in the village only attended school for two days as the walk was too far for him. He is six and obviously bored at home. The living conditions were very sparse but clean. We were made very welcome. The mother of the family is 35 , has 8 children and is seven months pregnant. They live in two rooms and have a ariases outsideplatform where they sleep when it is hot .In this area there is no work other than working in the settlements. The Palestinians work there and in the factories for about 45 shekels per day (about seven pounds).They are paid for 30 days work when they have worked 45 days. The payment is always 15 days behind. The workers are picked up in trucks and tractors from their villages at 5 in the morning and driven to the settlement farms. If they go to a farm in a different area they pay for their own transport. No holidays,no sick pay only casual work.They are only allowed to pray at the end of the workingday . During the holidays children from 12 work the same hours for less pay - eight hours day, a half an hour break for breakfast at 9 having started at 6. It is exceptionally hot. Thai workers are specially imported and given free housing on the settlements and are paid double as an incentive to work here.Amazingly there appears to be no animosity between the Thai and Palestinian workers. The women work mainly in the packing factories sorting and packing dates, raisins etc and the men work mainly in the fields in the horrendous heat on what was often their own land. The problem is that when Palestinians fled in fear in 1948 their land was confiscated and they were not allowd back. 90 per cent of the agricultural land in the Jordan valley is now in the hands of the Israeli settlers. In some areas there is no access to electricity and there is a curfew from 6 pm to 6 am. You can be shot if you break the curfew.

A few days ago a local worker was shot by a settler. The palestinian on horseback was grazing his sheep. The Israeli hospital where he was taken refused to treat him and he was taken to the palestinian hosptial in Jenin who were unable to give him appropriate treatment and he is now disabled. No charges have been brought against the settler.Children in these villages walk 5 kilometres to school through the settlement farms. If there are any problems the Palestinians are immediately blamed and punished. It is so reminiscent of bantustans in South Africa. The three villages that are surrounded by settlers are in this position. The settlers farms profess to be organic although pesticides are used and one farm is right next to a sewage pond which they have positioned next to one of the few Palestinian farms. To the east of this is the border fence- electrified - between Israel and Jordan. In front of the fence is a very deep trench to prevent Palestinians crossing. The most dangerous road called the gandi road- (nothing to do with Mahatma) is under complete military control. It runs from the north in Nazareth to Al-Nakab desert in the south and this is where the curfew is imposed.