Sunday 26 December 2010

In Bethlehem, shepherds watching their flocks by night are a dying breed

Ana Carbajosa in Bethlehem
guardian.co.uk,
Jawad Badr, the head of the veterinary department at the Palestinian ministry of agriculture in Bethlehem, explains that in five years the shepherds have lost a third of their sheep. "This business is not profitable any more. Owing to the droughts and the lack of grazing areas, the shepherds are forced to buy fodder, but the prices are too high," he says.

The Palestinian Authority, he adds, cannot afford subsidies apart from a couple of free shots of vaccines a year.

If shepherds have become a kind of endangered species in Bethlehem, 73-year-old Carlos Nicola Sarras is an even greater rarity. He is one of the few remaining Christian shepherds in the area. His house sits next to the barrier that cuts Bethlehem and Beit Jala from the west. It is surrounded by half a hectare of land, where his sheep "go out to breathe some air".

Sarras, who despite his situation wears a permanent smile on his face, says: "This cannot be called herding."
This season, rain has been so scarce that he cannot even milk the sheep. Selling the rams and waiting for a better time is the only option. Today, Sarras is getting ready to slaughter one of his 30 sheep to celebrate Christmas with part of his family. The rest of his relatives, including five of his nine children, have emigrated. "Here there is no work. My kids could not live off the sheep even if they wanted to."

Many of his fellow shepherds have given up. Some lay bricks in the nearby settlements. Others remain jobless in a region where the unemployment rate reaches as high as to 23%.

But Sarras is not so interested in talking about the misfortune of his peers. Instead, he wants to show off his wooden catapult which he used to use to hunt birds.

He says: "This one is very good. The only problem is that the birds seem to have disappeared. I think it's all the weather's fault."

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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