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Bedouin Communities in the West Bank May 9, 2005
Case Study: Zbeidat Village, Jordan Valley, West Bank Quite literally situated at the margins of the settler highway along the Jordan Valley of the West Bank, Zbeidat village is a remote community at the fringes of Palestinian society. One of the minority Bedouin communities in the West Bank, the villagers became refugees from the Beersaba region in 1948. Following their initial exile, the people of the Zbeidat tribe were dispersed in the southern West Bank. Under Jordanian rule they continued to live a traditional nomadic lifestyle based in Ramallah and Hebron, and traveling in the winter to cultivate the rich lands of the western bank of the Jordan. After the Israeli occupation of 1967, Bedouin communities like the Zbeidat tribe were forced to settle and build more permanent structures. Israeli strategy to wear down the Palestinian population of the West Bank has resulted in a policy of destroying many Bedouin buildings and settlements. While the whole Palestinian population was subject to this phenomenon, like their kin in the Negev at the most financially marginalized end of the scale, Bedouin in the West Bank are some of the most vulnerable to home demolitions. In order to try to minimize Israeli destruction, and in the face of rapidly decreasing land area in which they are able to roam, the community decided to settle in one place.
Development in Zbeidat village thus began at a much later stage than other parts of the West Bank. “When we first settled here we had nothing—no cars, no tractors, nothing,” explains Mr. Hassan Jirmi Zbeidat, head of the Village Council. Losing their home region of the Beersaba district in 1948 and subsequently being forced to abandon traditional nomadic lifestyle in the 1970s, meant that this Bedouin refugee community were lacking in community infrastructure even in comparison with other Palestinian refugees. Today the village of Zbeidat numbers 1,800, with 500 children of school age. Up until the building of a high school and grounds in the past two years through Norwegian and German financial support, children had to leave the village to go to a school overcrowded with pupils from three villages. Zbeidat village had only been able to provide education up to the sixth grade. The building of the school was an excellent development for the village, particularly for girls for whom conservative tradition makes it harder to travel beyond village boundaries. However the Village Council still is without the funds to develop the village to an acceptable standard for modern living. This will require not only financial input, but ultimately the international political will to address wider inequality facing the whole Palestinian people. The poverty and marginalization of this community are clear from the moment you turn off the immaculately tarmacked modern settler highway. Small children run across the street with no shoes. Hoda Zbeidat has seven children and she is desperate to see a kindergarten in the village. Maryam Zbeidat is a grandmother, and she tells of the fear that she feels from having severe diabetes without a doctor in the village. “If I want to see a doctor I have to travel to Nablus, which takes all day with the closure.” Nablus should take less than one hour if there were no closure. “But I don’t like to go. I am frightened I will be ill and collapse on the way.” Village school teacher Hassan Ahmad Zbeidat sighs as he explains how difficult it will be to bring much-needed development to the village. “Kids tell me they want to leave school in the ninth grade because their parents can’t pay the fees. In any case, they need to try and bring in an income to support the family.” Closure and division of the West Bank into numerous zones between which Palestinians cannot travel has devastated the economy of the village. Ninety percent of village income earners were farmers, raising animals and growing crops. The primary markets were Nablus, Jericho, and across the 1967 border to the north, Beisan, all of which are difficult for villagers to reach today. The remaining ten percent are mostly school teachers, with a few other government employers. There are no skilled construction workers, the kind of temporary and part-time labor that would be easier to pick up in hard times.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is now working with the Japanese government to build a water channel to stop water pouring down from the hills above in the winter and flooding the village. While the community welcomes such projects, people know that their situation will not improve until there is an improved economic situation in the whole of the Palestinian community, not just aid handouts. Zbeidat villagers are proud of being able to survive despite such adverse circumstances. The fact that the Zbeidat villagers are no longer nomadic does not mean that they have turned their back on their history. Although very much part of the Palestinian community, the Zbeidat villagers maintain their Bedouin identity. “From the food we eat to marriage customs, we very much keep with our traditions,” says Hassan Jermi Zbeidat, head of the council, with a smile. Resources: For more details on the situation for West Bank Bedouin: External links last accessed January 18, 2005.
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