It is no secret that the Israeli army’s misnamed Civil Administration which deals with West Bank affairs is engaged in a drive to take over the strategic Jordan Vallley. The military has been planting settlers and vast palm groves in the Valley for years while Palestinian farmers and herdsmen have been seeing their land expropriated, denied water, driven into Jericho or other towns. The long-term Israeli aim is of course to clear Palestinians from the Jordan Valley, a major source of West Bank water and a rich agricultural area.
Israel claims that possession of the Valley, or at least the strip of territory running along the Jordan River border with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a strategic necessity. Israel argues that it cannot permit the Palestinians to be in charge of this area or to have a common border with Jordan.
When Israel justifies demands with “reasons of security,” none of the Western powers dare disagree. In their view, only Israel can decide on its security requirements. This, of course, permits Israel to dictate its terms to the Palestinians, the region, and the international community.
The latest tactic in Israel’s strategy for its land-grab in the Jordan Valley is to transform Palestinian-owned land into state land and then lay claim to it. The objective is to acquire as much Jordan Valley land as possible and then insist on annexation of the area if and when negotiations tackle the fate of Israel’s colonies. Israel will argue that since it owns virtually all the land in the Jordan Valley and has thousands of colonists living there, the Valley should be treated like the massive colonies built along the old “Green Line” that used to divide the West Bank from Israel before its occupation in 1967.
This private-to-state land tactic was revealed by the Israeli liberal daily, Haaretz, in last Friday’s edition. In addition to the Jordan Valley, Israel is determined to keep the northern Dead Sea and the Ariel colony that juts deep into the West Bank. The inclusion of Ariel would, Haaretz wrote, “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state with territorial continuity.” This is understating the significance of the effort: Israel does not want to see the creation of any Palestinian state whatsoever. Israel has never favoured any Palestinian state and will do its utmost to prevent one’s emergence.
Last month I visited the Jordan Valley to see what is happening on the ground. Muhammad Njoum, head of the Jericho office of the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), told The Gulf Today that until 2000 Palestinians cultivated 40-50,000 dunums (10-12,500 acres) of land in the Valley. Today the figure is just 3,500 dunums (875 acres).
He stated, “The springs have dried, there has been a 15 per cent drop in rainfall, and Israeli cultivation takes most spring water. Al Auja river [formerly a main source of irrigation water] is also dry. This is a sign of what is going to happen in the near future. We will have land drought, rain drought and hydrological drought. The aquifers are no longer recharging.”
Since the Israelis are appropriating most of the water, Palestinians now face drought, but, eventually, the Israelis will also be without water for their palms and greenhouse crops. Palestinians also face eviction. Njoum observed, “Israel has issued demolition orders for every single house and shelter” in the area under its control. “Demolitions are not [necessarily] connected to demolition orders but are taking place in politically important locations.”
He flatly dismissed the Israeli’s claim that the Valley was essential for security. “They want to make the Jordan Valley part of Israel and a main sector [in the Israeli economy] with a majority Israeli population and a majority of Israeli land holdings.”
Israel does not have far to go as far as the Jordan Valley is concerned. More than 88 per cent of the Valley was classified as “Area C” under the defunct Oslo Accords. Much of this land is already state land, which Israel appropriates, while privately owned land is being seized on one excuse or another.
Njoum suggested I visit Palestinians whose homes have been demolished in the Israeli drive to achieve exclusive possession of the Valley. Just north of Al Auja lies the encampment of Farisiya, a barren stretch of land strewn with rocks, rubble and rubbish. On June 14th Israeli bulldozers arrived in Farisiya and flattened the shelters of 18 families. Since then a few huts have been erected for people and their chickens using scrap metal and the black material Israelis use to cover greenhouses where plants needing shade are grown.
Community leader Issa Ghazzal said, “We are villagers and bedouin driven from the Bethlehem area by Israeli settlements and the [West Bank] wall.” Several families have sheep and goats; some men work in Israeli colonies. Twenty-two families not affected by the latest demolition live in ramshackle huts made from plastic, canvas, and cloth. One or two have small satellite dishes. They have electricity but depend on tankers for water. These shelters were demolished a couple of years ago.
At Jifliq, I visited a large encampment demolished on December 24th, 2010, and rebuilt by the two hundred people, all from the same clan, who live there and tend some 3,500 sheep and goats. While the shelters are more substantial than those at Farisiya, they are not solid cement structures but metal frames covered with various types of material and roofed with sheet metal covered with straw to deflect the rays and heat of the summer sun.
Adnan Da’is, a spokesman for the community, said, “The Israelis came without warning and bulldozed the pens over the heads of the sheep and goats. Thirty died... “We get our water from tankers. We have a well but the Israelis blocked it up.” He pointed at a pile of twisted pipes, logs, plastic, and palm trunks.
Next to the encampment stands a long line of well-watered Israeli greenhouses and across the road an Israeli colony well sheltered by mature trees keeps to itself behind a wall.
Farisiya is state land, but the Da’is clan dwells on private Palestinian land rented from its owner. Both received the same treatment. This past week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a report on demolitions in the West Bank. OCHA found that more demolitions have taken place during the first-half of 2011 than in the whole of 2009 and 2010 combined.
OCHA reported that 342 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished during the first six months of this year, rendering homeless 656 people, including 351 children. (OCHA did not mention the numbers of stock deprived of shelter.) This was almost five times the figure for the same period last year. Another 3,000 demolition orders are pending, including for 18 schools. Over 60 per cent of the West Bank is considered “Area C” from which Israel was meant to withdraw, under the Oslo Accords. But Israel never had any intention of withdrawing.
gulftoday
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