The landscape is arid, the soil stony and the vegetation scrubby and prickly - cultivating the land can't be easy. But I've never seen livestock so docile and cooperative as in the South Hebron Hills.
In my time on French farms, I've spent uncountable days putting up electric fencing for cows and goats; I still get the occasional twinge from the ankle I sprained twenty years ago, trying to chase a herd of cattle out of a field of sorghum; I've hiked for miles after wandering herds in the Pyrenées.
In Masafer Yatta, on the other hand, in the mornings I'd watch Aisha's goats politely ignoring lush greenery in her husband's garden, and obligingly nibbling at yellow and grey expanses of what looked like dead grass on the rocky slopes. In the evenings, I would admire the young boys on the hillside opposite bringing a couple of hundred sheep and goats home alongside the highway. The herds followed the guardrail, without ever trying to step onto the road.
So shepherding is vital and grazing rights are sacrosanct. When a shepherd and his animals are threatened, people gather to support him. One particular evening, a phone rang, and we all bundled into a car to rush to the neighbouring valley of Humra, on the very edge of the firing zone.
The situation involved a couple of soldiers trying to push a shepherd out of a field, saying he was too close to the settlement. By the time we got there, a dozen or so men, women and kids were hanging out in the hillside, and the soldiers were retreating to their guardpost - in the settlement!
The call to arms had gone out on the other side too, and a group of illegal landgrabbers appeared on the opposite side of the little valley. The two groups confronted each other for a while, but fortunately things went no further.
I was surprised again by the close proximity of the settlement. I had to have people explain to me which pieces of land were still in Palestinian hands, and which had already been taken over: they lie side by side and the dividing line is (to my eye) unmarked. Of course, any wall or other barrier will be wrecked by the Zionists, so there is none.
Work in progress:
It seemed a good idea to stay near the shepherd for a while.
Our hosts took advantage of this to show us one of the buildings which are being rehabilitated in the valley: built of stone, with a well which is still sweet, they are being refurbished as part of the resistance to the forced evictions.
I was glad to recognise a shepherd's bothy, similar to the Catalan courtals that dot the landscape where I live.
Yup, those are young olive saplings in the photo. Maybe not enough to replace those regularly destroyed by the Israeli thugs * (who so love and respect the land!), but, nevertheless, a sign of hope and determination.
* See an example of this settler behaviour here
_______________________________________________________________________________
<--- previous article next article --->