Hung out to dry in the West Bank (Seth Freedman)

[Violet_Crumble]

Severely-restricted access to water is one of Israel's main weapons against the Jahalin nomads

At first glance, the bedouin community of Ras al-Awja seem unaffected by the political turbulence that engulfs the rest of the region. Situated between the sprawling desert city of Jericho and the imposing mountains of the Judean desert, the bedouins' encampment is a hive of activity – not least because the birthing season is in full swing.

Scores of new-born lambs and kids swarm around the ramshackle huts and tents, while birds resting in the trees fill the air with their incessant chatter; shepherds drive their flocks to and from the camp, and the clan's mothers perform similar herding duties with the gaggle of children in their care. The set-up appears frozen in time, with the members of this Jahalin tribe seemingly having been rooted to the same spot for centuries, their current activities simply the latest act in a generations-old play performed throughout the ages.

However, time has not stood still, either for the members of this community or the area as a whole. The bedouin living in Ras al-Awja are relatively recent arrivals, having fled the Ein Gedi region during 1948, when the hostilities that followed Israel's creation forced them to become refugees from their homeland. Now they find themselves in limbo in Area C, living under Israeli military rule but denied the kind of rights offered to fully-fledged Israeli citizens. Their situation grows more precarious by the year, as settlements continue to spring up around their camp and ever-heavier pressure is applied on their tribe by the Israeli authorities in an attempt to drive them off their land.

Severely-restricted access to water is one of the main weapons in the Israeli arsenal when it comes to making life intolerable for the Jahalin nomads. All around the camp is evidence of the authorities' constricting policies: water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink. While the neighbouring settlements boast lush foliage and pastures to rival farms in the Galil, the rest of the plain's residents exist in far more arid and parched conditions.

We are taken to a welded-shut filling station, where once bedouin farmers could take water for themselves and their animals, but which the Israeli water board decided to fence off with razor wire and permanently seal. As a result, the canal irrigation system that snakes alongside the main road is completely empty, its only function to act as monument to the oppressive sanctions put in place by an uncaring Israeli system.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/03/israel-bedouin