Northern Jordan Valley – Despite the heavy rainy season and the vast expanse of grasslands, Palestinian farmer Qadri Draghmeh stands helpless in the northern Jordan Valley, unable to graze his livestock. He is forced to confine them within their pens under the pressure of the occupying Israeli army and settlers, and their seizure and theft actions.
Twice in succession, the occupying army and police, incited by the settlers, seized dozens of cows owned by Draghmeh, forcing him to pay a hefty fine to reclaim them, claiming that they entered private Israeli lands and pastures. However, citizens argue that this is a new policy to displace them and seize what remains of the land, most of which is now under the occupation’s control.
Under the cover of darkness, Israeli police and army officers, accompanied by settlers, raided farmer Draghmeh’s barn at the beginning of last January, seizing and stealing over 100 cattle. Although 30 were forcefully recovered, 80 remained detained by the occupation forces.
Later, only 20 were acknowledged, and the rest denied, compelling owner Qadri Draghmeh to pay over $13,000 to reclaim them.
Days after this raid, the occupation forces returned and confiscated 48 cattle from the same farmer, for the same reason, assaulting him and his sons, detaining two of them and impounding their vehicle. Additionally, the occupation authorities demanded a fine of $41,000 from Draghmeh, which he refused, as he had borrowed the money in the first place and because the occupation would re-seize the cattle.
Draghmeh, aged 58, told Al Jazeera that “the occupation has so far seized 108 of his cattle and demands him to pay $15 per day for each head, as well as the enormous fine.”
He added that he is considering leaving after nearly a century of his and his family’s presence in the northern Jordan Valley. The cattle have become prisoners in their pens, and he has lost the pastures after their seizure, bearing hefty fines.
Draghmeh and his family, consisting of about 30 members, own more than 180 dunams, but they do not control any of it, due to the actions of the occupation and its settlers. He stated that the policy of seizing livestock in such quantities and fining them with large sums is “unprecedented.”
Amid the weakness of Palestinian official and institutional efforts to enforce the rights of citizens in the Jordan Valley, Draghmeh and others have been forced to resort to Israeli courts to reclaim their livestock, with a lingering question: “The homeland is lost, but will the livestock return?”
Just like Draghmeh, the occupation seized 800 head of sheep owned by citizen Mohammed Adais and his brothers in the Jiftlik area in the northern West Bank. They were fined over $41,000 last January. Adais stated that “the settlers falsely claimed that we were grazing our sheep in the Umm al-Ajaj area, and blocking the main road (Route 90) with the sheep, which is prohibited.” He added that the occupation “gave us an hour and a half to pay the fine, or they would seize the sheep, so we borrowed from neighbors and relatives and paid.”
Adais, like Draghmeh, was forced to pay these fines and reclaim their livestock as they were in the midst of the “production season” they had been waiting for all year, involving new births and the production of milk and cheese, which are their sole source of income.
Under the occupation’s measures and the settlers’ vindictive actions, citizens have been forced to confine their livestock, bearing the consequences of the spread of diseases among the animals and their deaths, in addition to the high cost of food and treatment.
Approximately 1,800 Palestinians reside in 19 Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley. The occupation has restricted them, preventing access to pastures and the cultivation of their lands, claiming it as military areas and Israeli army training sites. Now, these public lands have become “private lands” for the Settlements Council, claiming sovereignty, according to Mahdi Draghmeh, head of the Ma’aleh village and Bedouin encampments in the northern Jordan Valley.
Draghmeh added that the citizens have become trapped within their Bedouin communities, having completely lost their lands and pastures, which threatens their existence and their only source of livelihood, especially their livestock and agricultural wealth.
More than 30 families have been subject to the seizure of their agricultural tools and livestock in the past few weeks. Of more than 50,000 sheep and 5,000 cows, the Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley now own only a third or less of those numbers, while one settler controls 50,000 dunams of land, and has grazed 3,000 cows and 5,000 sheep there.
Categorizing the Palestinian Jordan Valley as “Area C,” the occupation subjects it to its military control, turning a significant portion of it into land affiliated with the settlements, despite its private ownership by Palestinians.
Official Draghmeh warned of a plan to displace Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, stating that “the citizens are the last threshold left to stop the settlements.”
The occupation is working to isolate (Alon Plan, by the former Israeli Minister of Agriculture, 1967), taking complete control of the Palestinian Jordan Valley, which constitutes one-third of the estimated area of the West Bank, about 5,800 square kilometers. It now controls 88% of it through dozens of settlements and military camps.
Furthermore, after the “Eastern Flood” in October 2023, the occupation displaced 25 Bedouin communities, 22 of them from the northern Jordan Valley alone, involving over 1,560 citizens.
The worst part of the recent seizure and fines, according to the official documenting with the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, Amir Dawood, is that they are being imposed by the Settlements Council, not through official Israeli channels, indicating a dangerous sign that the settlers have begun to take matters into their own hands and impose penalties on Palestinians.
Dawood called on citizens to resist and not comply with the settlers’ orders, as they seek to create a new and dangerous reality. However, he stated that the exorbitant fines cannot be dealt with by any institution.
In addition to seizure and fines, settlers have taken control of vast grazing areas and Palestinian water sources, constructing pastoral settlement centers.
According to Dawood, 85% of pastoral settlements are concentrated in the Palestinian Jordan Valley, from north to south, and settlers prevent citizens from accessing over 350,000 dunams. In 2023, more than 14 pastoral centers were identified, with 12 in the northern Jordan Valley alone.
The occupation has also displaced 25 Bedouin gatherings, 22 of them following the “Eastern Flood” on October 7, 2023.
