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19 Sep, 2013

Farmer in Palestinian “breadbasket” works in Israeli settlement to survive | The Electronic Intifada

JIFTLIK, Occupied West Bank (IPS) – In the Jordan Valley, contrasts are stark. Lush agricultural fields and fenced-in greenhouses belong to the Israeli settlements that dot the landscape and benefit from the area’s abundant water supply. Yet Palestinian farmers, denied access to their lands and other resources by the Israeli authorities, struggle to cultivate the most basic crops and make a living wage.

“It’s a struggle for the farmers,” Palestinian farmer Ahmad Said Moahri said from his home in Jiftlik, a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley. “The farmers lose money sometimes by farming the land, but they cannot leave or Israel will take it.”

The 46-year-old owns 47 dunams (one dunam is equal to 1,000 square meters) of agricultural land in Jiftlik. He harvests vegetables — eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and more — on 27 dunams, and rents the remainder to another local farmer.

Read the rest: Farmer in Palestinian “breadbasket” works in Israeli settlement to survive | The Electronic Intifada.