VOA标准英语2014--Israeli, Palestinian Farmers in Jordan Valley Face Twin Crises

 

Israeli, Palestinian Farmers in Jordan Valley Face Twin Crises 

JERUSALEM — Hannan Pasternak is a worried man.

Pasternak coordinates¹ the Netiv Hagedud cooperative of some 60 Jewish families who farm plots of about eight hectares each on this settlement in the Jordan River Valley,  just north of Jericho. He helped found Netiv Hagedud 40 years ago on then-desert land loaned by the state of Israel.  His son, now married, also farms here.

The 200 settlers grow peppers, dates, eggplants and grapes, mostly for export to the European Union.

Until recently.

Boycott² fears

The settlement lies in the West Bank, which the European Union views as Palestinian territory.  As a result, the EU will not issue the documents needed to market the settlement's produce in its 28 member-states.

"We are losing money," he said. "And we are afraid for our future."

Although EU officials deny it, this is part of a growing boycott of products from Israeli enterprises in the Palestinian territories. Pasternak said he hasn't sold a single crate³ of produce in Western Europe since November.

The settlement now sells its peppers in Russia.  But revenue from its new clients is some 50 percent lower, which is below the cost of production.

More than two dozen Jewish settlements farm in the Jordan Valley, providing livelihoods⁴ to more than 8,000 settlers.  Israeli authorities say their export revenues declined last year by 15 percent, or $30 million.

Israel's Manufacturing Association said exports from the Palestinian territories total less than one percent of all Israel's EU trade, $36 billion last year.

Its president, Zvi Oren, said EU cutbacks are not helpful to the region.

"If somebody wants real peace between us and the neighbors," he said. "They should use the economy to promote good relations. They should encourage projects. They should give incentives⁵ to joint-projects between Israelis and Palestinians."

Six thousand Palestinians work on Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. They say the pay is up to three times that on Palestinian farms and there receive more benefits than if they worked for Palestinian entities⁶.

"There is no alternative,"  one worker told VOA. "We are forced to work in the settlements. When you have a family of five, how can you stay home and sleep?"

But one of the Palestinian founders⁷ of the boycott movement, Omar Barghouti, said some Palestinians will have to suffer in the short-term in order to obtain justice in the long-term.

But farmer Pasternak said Israelis and Palestinians will suffer.

"If we collapse⁸, so will they," he said of the Palestinians. "The decision is up to the politicians. If there is any agreement, real peace, we will not be an obstacle to it."

Palestinian water woes⁹

There are different worries on nearby Palestinian farms.

They fear large-scale crop failures this growing season because of poor rains and continuing Israeli restrictions¹⁰ on water supplies and land.

A few kilometers down the road from Netiv Hagedud, 60-year-old Hussein Attiyat walked through the rows of young corn on his farm near al-Ouja.

The earth sifting¹¹ through his fingers is dry, almost powdery. A few of the green shoots have grown through their protective plastic sheeting. But they are only a few centimeters high.

"Under current conditions, there will be no crop," Attiyat said. "If we had had water since we planted, the corn would be a meter high by now. The ears are due to sprout¹² in ten days but they will wither¹³ and die." 

Poor rains are partly responsible. But Attiyat says the Israeli government, which controls this part of the West Bank, will not let him bring water from the nearby Jordan River and will not let him drill a well to save his crop.

He installed drip-irrigation hoses in the plant beds, the same as those pioneered by Israeli farmers. But they are cracking and useless because the town's water supply (for farming) has dried up.

Yet, he says, pointing to a settlement under a nearby grove¹⁴ of trees, the Israeli farms have water and their crops are growing.

Fahri Nujoum, the mayor of al-Ouja, is also a farmer. He pointed¹⁵ to a town project where catchments and ditches were carved into the desert rock to bring water from a natural spring in the hills eight kilometers away.

"The spring dried up two months ago," he said. Pointing to a pumping station humming nearby, he added: "But the pumping station supplying Israeli farms is still working."

According to the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry¹⁶, there are 1,000 Palestinian farms in the Valley employing 12,000 workers. They produce crops for local consumption as well as for export to Arab countries, Europe and Asia.

The head of the Palestinian Farmers Union, Daoud Hamoudeh, said the Israeli government imposes many restrictions on Palestinian farmers, but the most damaging is on water.

"Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have not given the Palestinians even one permit to dig a new well in the West Bank," he said. "And they don't allow the farmers to develop or rehabilitate¹⁷ any existing wells."

Under the Oslo Accords of 1993, the Palestinian Authority oversees¹⁸ parts of the Jordan Valley, like the town of al-Ouja. But most of the land is under the control of Israeli security forces.

Critics say the Palestinians lose a great deal of their water through waste and faulty pipes.

Many Palestinians believe that the Israeli government is trying to force them off their land. The government denies this.

 

Regardless, statistics show that Palestinian agricultural production in the Jordan Valley has been declining for some 20 years.

1 coordinates   

n.相配之衣物；坐标( coordinate的名词复数 )；（颜色协调的）配套服装；[复数]女套服；同等重要的人（或物）v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

3 crate   

vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱

参考例句：

• We broke open the crate with a blow from the chopper.我们用斧头一敲就打开了板条箱。
• The workers tightly packed the goods in the crate.工人们把货物严紧地包装在箱子里。

4 livelihoods   

生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者，他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小，他们的传统生计受到了威胁。

5 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

6 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

7 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

8 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

9 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

10 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

11 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

12 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。

13 wither   

vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡

参考例句：

• She grows as a flower does-she will wither without sun.她象鲜花一样成长--没有太阳就会凋谢。
• In autumn the leaves wither and fall off the trees.秋天，树叶枯萎并从树上落下来。

14 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

15 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

16 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

17 rehabilitate   

vt.改造(罪犯)，修复；vi.复兴，(罪犯)经受改造

参考例句：

• There was no money to rehabilitate the tower.没有资金修复那座塔。
• He used exercise programmes to rehabilitate the patients.他采用体育锻炼疗法使患者恢复健康。

18 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网