Rights activist: IOF restricts Palestinian shepherds’ access to open pastures

Robby Berman, an Israeli human rights fighters and activist, has shed the light on the double standards of the Israeli occupation army in its dealing with Palestinian and Israeli shepherds in the Jordan Valley region, east of the occupied West Bank.

He said while the Israeli army denies Palestinian shepherds access to much land and open pastures in the Jordan Valley under many pretenses, it allows Israeli settlers to graze their sheep and cattle there freely and without restrictions.

“Early this morning before dawn,” said Berman, “I traveled with two other volunteers to the Jordan Valley, to see Bedouin shepherds grazing, and who are often harassed by Israeli settlers and soldiers, and in need of help.”

He added, “We reached the Hamra checkpoint at around 6 am, and Palestinian shepherds drove their sheep into a hill near their homes.. An hour later, a Jewish shepherd brought her flock to the same hill, and four soldiers who did not speak Arabic arrived and tried to use apps on their phones to translate their orders to the Bedouins to leave the hill, but they failed and asked us to interpret, and when we asked them why the soldiers replied, “This hill is a live fire area.”

Berman continued, “When we inquired about this, since there are no signs suggesting that, and more importantly if what they say is true why do they allow the Israeli shepherd and his flock to stay and graze and not ask them to leave, they replied, saying: ‘Nevertheless the Bedouins must leave.”

He pointed out that “the Bedouin shepherd quickly moved his flock to the next hill, and we followed the four soldiers there, and they told us that we need to leave this hill as well. When we asked why, they [soldiers] said: It is a secret. We cannot tell you.”