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Some 15,000 Palestinians live in tiny pastoral
encampments scattered across the Jordan Valley. Israel has
pledged to extend its sovereignty over the territory - some 30%
of the West Bank - with cabinet-level discussion on the move set
to begin July 1.
"This affects our psychological wellbeing, and the children's
wellbeing ... Will they allow residents to stay? Will they
demolish their houses?" Bisharat, 37, said from her Bedouin
encampment in the northern Jordan Valley.
She says she has tried to express her fear and uncertainty
through paintings, among them a watercolour depicting women
gathered around a demolished home and a scene of a yellow
bulldozer approaching a tin Bedouin shack.
"I try to convey a message of how the occupation impacts us, the
violations we are subjected to," the mother-of-three said.
Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war. An Israeli military
post, near the Jewish settlement of Hamra, looks down on
Bisharat's community from a nearby hilltop.
She said she felt surrounded, far from areas under the control
of the Palestinian Authority and exposed to Israeli demolition
of farm shacks erected by her community.
Israel has cited a lack of proper permits, required in parts of
the West Bank under complete Israeli military control, in
issuing demolition orders.
Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group that opposes Israel's
settlement policy, says most Palestinian applications for
building permission are rejected.
Bisharat's husband, Mahmoud, said their community would be
defiant in the face of Israeli annexation.
"Even if it is imposed on us, we will resist with all the means
we have."
(Writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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