Fall-Winter '23 Stolen Meadows

For centuries, Palestinian shepherds have relied on their ancestral farmlands to cultivate grains, store rainwater, and graze sheep. Since the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war, which resulted in the illegal capture and occupation of the West Bank, these rural communities have faced extreme restrictions and forced expulsion by Israeli authorities, jeopardizing their livelihood and traditional way of life.

Adish's Fall Winter 2023 collection, "Stolen Meadows," is inspired by the steadfastness of these shepherds as they struggle to remain on their ancestral land, seeking to shed light on and raise awareness of the constant violent attacks by settlers and the army that they endure.

Before strict boundaries were imposed by the Israeli apartheid regime, local herders could freely traverse great distances between the former Ottoman regions and Bedouin tribal lands, unhindered in their access to vital pastures. Under Israeli control, Palestinian freedom of movement has become heavily restricted, with large areas of the West Bank designated as "no-go zones."

In the West Bank alone, Israel has established hundreds of military sites, hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts, and over 60 military and agricultural gates that form another type of separation barrier. Israel has also turned 160,000 dunams of private Palestinian land into illegal settlement agricultural facilities.

The Jordan Valley, which makes up about 30% of the entire West Bank along the border with Jordan, has been seen as a strategic asset by Israeli governments from across the political spectrum. In the public discourse, the Jordan Valley has been normalized to the point that it is seen as just another part of Israel. However, in reality, the tens of thousands of Palestinians who live there are under military rule.

Other tactics such as home demolitions, live-ammunition military trainings, roadblocks, as well as destruction and contamination of water cisterns are all part of an orchestrated attempt to push Palestinians out of their land and into militarized enclaves. The Israeli settlements further isolate these remote communities from their economic and communal ties to cities like Hebron, Nablus, and Jenin. Meanwhile, Israeli agriculture in the West Bank is thriving. Settler outposts use farming and sheep herding as a malicious tactic to illegally gain control of vast areas of Palestinian pasture land, violently preventing Palestinians from accessing it.

As a result of this oppressive dynamic, Palestinian shepherds live under constant threat. In recent years, attacks by armed Israeli settlers and soldiers have increased, culminating in severe injuries among Palestinians and even death. Many cohorts of internationals and local Israeli volunteers and activists escorting shepherds are being restricted by the Israeli authorities and are prevented from offering their help. Volunteers who do succeed to accompany the Palestinian shepherds face settler violence themselves, with many cases of brutal assaults of activists having been documented.

According to a 2022 report by Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization, the Israeli government provides constant financial support and builds military outposts to settler shepherding farms in the West Bank. This support includes exclusive allocations of pastureland, grants, and infrastructure assistance. The report found that this support has enabled settlers to take control of large swaths of land by building structures, grazing flocks in vast areas of private Palestinian lands, taking over water resources, and using violence against Palestinian residents.

The report has documented a large number of cases of violence against Palestinian shepherds and farmers by settlers. These cases included assaults, intimidation, home invasion, livestock killing and injury, property destruction, and crop damage. The report also found that Israeli law enforcement agencies have failed to take effective action to prevent or prosecute these crimes.

The Israeli government's support for these illegal settler shepherding farms is a violation of international law and contributes to the ongoing illegal dispossession of Palestinian land and resources.

Cover photo credit: Keren Manor