Palestinian herders hard-hit by drought, Israeli restrictions

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

ISFEY FOQA, West Bank (AFP) — Hard-hit by a severe three-year drought and tough restrictions on movement imposed by Israel, Palestinian shepherds are facing what some elders call their worst crisis in living memory.

"All we have left is hope," says Musa Abdullah Awad, a wizened 49-year-old herder as he looks down at the remaining water in his cistern, which he says is barely enough to keep his goats alive a little longer.

As far as the eye can see there is nothing but dust, rocks and grinding poverty.

With more than 100 goats, Awad is better off than many of his neighbours whose homes dot the Hebron Hills on the southern edge of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one of the most drought-stricken areas in the region.

"These are people who are used to a...