"Last week, some 300 Palestinian
activists established the protest village of Ein Hijleh in a cluster of
palm trees and abandoned houses in the Jordan Valley north of the Dead
Sea.

Ein Hijleh was created in the face of pledges by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would not "uproot any Israeli
citizen" from the West Bank and his insistence on retaining control of
the Jordan Valley amid talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry.
The village was organized by the Palestinian Popular Struggle
Coordination Committee, with aim of "refusing the political status quo,
especially given futile negotiations destroying the rights of our people
for liberation and claim to their land."
During the seven days of
the encampment, activists began to make the crumbling houses
inhabitable, planted trees, installed solar panels, hosted political,
religious and diplomatic leaders, screened films and held cultural and
political discussions.
But in the early morning hours of Friday,
February 7, one week after the village was re-established, hundreds of
Israeli forces descended on the remaining activists. Dozens were
arrested and as many as 41 were injured according to reports that
emerged from the early morning chaos.
On February 12, nine activists
have been evicted for a second time when they returned to the village.
The popular resistance activists returned to check up on their village
and stay, when Israeli forces raided the village and showed a military
order declaring the village a closed military zone for 1 month.
Two
activists, Mahmoud Zawahre and Monther Amira have been arrested. Both
Zawahre and Amira were taken to a detention center before they were
released on bail. Israeli forces informed both arrestees that they are
not allowed to return to the area or visit it for two months."