The Soul of the Land

“Water flows upwards. It actually jumps from the valleys to the peaks of the mountains, depriving the residents of the plains of water!” This is what Sheikh Zawba’a told an economist who saw, for the first time, the agony in the residents’ eyes. The economist described in meticulous detail his observations from a tour in Jericho, believed to be both the oldest and the lowest city on earth. 
While listening to his description, my heart pounded towards Jericho. Who doesn’t know Jericho, City of the Moon and the safe haven of Alexander the Great and Herod? Who doesn’t know Jericho, the city given by Mark Antony to Cleopatra as a gift? Jericho is the city that fades away along with its homes and residents for the benefit of a litany of colonists who rob its water and appropriate it for their basins on the hilltops.