Elderly Palestinian resists Israel’s settlement ambitions
A 76-year-old Palestinian has been resisting Israel’s attempts to confiscate his land in the Jordan Valley for years.
JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank — Near the border of the Palestinian territories with Jordan, Palestinian Hayel Mahmoud Bisharat, 76, has lived for 42 years on a high peak in Khirbet Humsa al-Tahta, which is a Palestinian Bedouin community within the Tubas governorate and the northern Jordan Valley in the northeastern West Bank.
Along with members of his family, Bisharat is trying to resist Israel’s greed, as he lost vast acres of his land that extends over an area of 200 acres in favor of settlement expansion projects that already forced 38 members of his family to flee to the neighboring villages of the Tubas governorate.
Israeli forces constantly invade the hill stretching over an area of five acres to demolish the houses Bisharat repeatedly builds and ravage his sheep pens, which are the main source of livelihood for Bisharat and his family.
He currently lives on top of the mountainous hill, which is surrounded by Israelis on three sides — namely the Hamra settlement, a training camp for the Israeli forces and an Israeli military checkpoint in Hamra.
