A delegation of seven people from Brighton arrived in the Tubas region of occupied Palestine last week. The delegation is part of the project by the Brighton-Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group. The group's aims are to highlight Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the region, raise awareness about life under occupation and create practical solidarity links between grassroots organisations in Brighton and Tubas region.
Reports from the Delegation in Palestine: Teaching King Lear in Occupied Palestine | The Breadbasket of Palestine | Resourcefulness and Tenacity | Jordan Valley 2008 | Smashed To Pieces and Bled Dry | Day 5
Press Releases from the Brighton-Tubas Solidarity Group: Education and Resistance in Occupied Palestine | Palestinian Village Denied Water and Threatened with Demolition
Links: Brighton-Tubas Blog | Brighton-Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group | Palestine Solidarity Campaign | International Solidarity Movement in Palestine | Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign | Stop the Wall in Palestine
Fasayel
The group has spent time visiting communities in the occupied Jordan Valley, part of which is in the Tubas region, who are faced with threats of house demolitions, whose agricultural economy is strangled by Israeli travel restrictions and dominated by Israeli state run monopoly companies.
Many Palestinians in the Jordan valley live in tents and shacks because Israeli building restrictions prevent any new building by Palestinians.
Many Palestinian communities are beiing pushed out of the Jordan valley entirely, like the residents of Al Hadidya who have had their homes demolished by the army four times in the last year. Other communities, like the villagers of Fasayil and Al Jifflik, provide a cheap workforce for settler companies like Carmel Agrexco who make a fortune exporting produce plundered from the valley to the UK and the rest of Europe.
One of the delegates, visiting occupied Palestine for the first time, summed up the trip; ”We have started to understand the sadness and anger of being in a place which has so much to offer, so consistently denied.”
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