Providing Protective Presence in the West Bank

Goal:

 USD $5,000

Raised:

 USD $2,350

Campaign created by Jordana Rosenfeld

Campaign funds will be received by Jordana Rosenfeld

Providing Protective Presence in the West Bank

My name is Jordana Rosenfeld, and I'm a journalist and editor in Pittsburgh, PA, and I'm also very active in the local Jewish community, particularly in our pluralistic chevra kadisha (burial society). I'm raising money to spend February to May 2025 in rural villages in Masafer Yatta, in the West Bank, engaging in Palestinian-led coresistance to Israeli occupation and providing protective presence support to communities, shepherds, and farmers who feel safer living their lives under occupation if they have (white) internationals who are able to accompany them and ease the constant burden of interacting with the Israeli army, police, and far-right settlers as those groups collaborate to displace Palestinian communities and steal their land.

Communities in the rural West Bank have requested, in partnership with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, the presence of international volunteers to stay in their villages, accompany their children to school, and go with shepherds to graze their flocks to mitigate the threats posed by the Israeli state and many of its citizens in the West Bank this spring. I am humbly requesting your help to fund my participation in answering their call for support.

Of the $5,000 I am trying to raise, $3,600 will cover my room and board in Palestinian villages (an important source of income for Palestinians whose work permits have been cancelled since Oct. 7, 2023) as well as cameras and other equipment to document human rights abuses, and $1,400 will cover my flight.

Since the start of Israel's genocide in Gaza last year, hundreds of Palestinian families have been terrorized into leaving their homes in the rural West Bank, as occupation forces and their newly deputized, armed, extremist settlers have intensified their decades-long effort to consolidate the Palestinians of the West Bank into densely populated urban areas in order to annex the majority of the West Bank. I visited Masafer Yatta this summer, where I witnessed the intense pressure of the ethnic cleansing currently taking place there.

The Palestinian communities that remain in the rural West Bank are part of the last line of defense fighting to stay on land that, in many cases, has been in their family for generations, since their initial displacement in the Nakba. At any moment, the Israeli Civil Administration could show up and demolish the homes of dozens of people or nearby settlers could destroy the village's water infrastructure, leaving hundreds of people without water in the height of the summer -- both of these things happened to a Bedouin village called Umm Al-Khair ("Mother of Goodness") this summer, after I returned from my 10-day stay there.

This summer the residents of Umm Al-Khair experienced the most violent weeks of their village's existence since its founding in 1948 by two brothers after they were displaced from the Negev in the Nakba. Most, if not all, of the people in Umm Al-Khair are their descendants. I sincerely hope to be able to return to Umm Al-Khair to be of service to residents as they continue to rebuild after two rounds of Israeli demolitions this year and support their steadfastness and the steadfastness of other Palestinian villages in the face of Israeli occupation and apartheid. Thank you for helping me do that.

(Cover photo by Emily Glick for Jewish Currents magazine) 

Recent Donations
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Anonymous Giver
$ 34.00 USD
17 days ago

Thank you for your courage and commitment, Jordana.

Julie Shore
$ 50.00 USD
25 days ago

Ari Moline
$ 50.00 USD
25 days ago

Tyler Smith
$ 10.00 USD
30 days ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 10.00 USD
30 days ago

for presence in west bank
$ 20.00 USD
30 days ago

Go well! Much love for this solidarity and effort - Maeve

Anonymous Giver
$ 72.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 300.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 25.00 USD
1 month ago

thank you!!!!!

Aliza
$ 20.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

** thank you **

Harry
$ 54.00 USD
1 month ago

Sarah
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Jane Mccafferty
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Amanda Gross
$ 25.00 USD
1 month ago

Tricia
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Michelle Soto
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Addy L
$ 250.00 USD
1 month ago

etta cetera
$ 30.00 USD
1 month ago

thanks Jordana!

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