JORDAN VALLEY, OCCUPIED WEST BANK—Yousef Bsharat stood outside his home made up of corrugated metal sheets and tent fabric in the village of Khirbet Makhoul nestled in the northern Jordan Valley. Vast stretches of land—where his sheep can no longer graze—extended to the horizon in front of him. At 63 years old, Bsharat has known no home but this village and has lived through decades of Israel’s ever-tightening grip in the occupied West Bank. Still, he said his situation has never been as grim, nor his future as uncertain, as it is now.
“We live in constant anxiety, day and night, due to settler attacks,” Bsharat told Drop Site. His family of 12 relies primarily on their flock of sheep for a living. In recent months, they have been repeatedly threatened by Israeli settlers, who warn they will be shot if they cross onto the nearby land. “They raid our communities with tractors, provoke residents, and prevent us from accessing grazing areas. The army and settlers have seized the land for settler cattle farms.”
As Israeli enclosures and restrictions on movement have cut him off from more and more grazing land, he has had to slaughter 120 of his once-thriving herd of 600 sheep over the past three months alone. He is struggling to afford fodder to feed the rest. Despite being surrounded by lush pastures, rich with natural resources, Bsharat has found it difficult to source water for his flock. ….more