Dozens of Palestinians from the village of Al-Jiftlik, north of the occupied West Bank city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley region, today organized a sit-in to protest the Israeli authorities’ cutting off electricity in the area for the third day in a row.
In a tent set near Road 90 near the village, the protesters raised Palestinian flags and demanded that electricity be reconnected to their village.
Since 1967, Israel has been demolishing homes, and stealing land and water of Indigenous Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, de facto annexing most of the area to build illegal settlements and confining Palestinians who remain in shrinking enclaves. #SanctionsOnApartheid pic.twitter.com/HVtMEXwfUF
— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) February 13, 2021
The head of the Al-Jiftlik village Council, Ahmad Abu Ghanem, told WAFA that most of the village residents work in agriculture and livestock, and depend mainly on electricity for their livelihoods.
According to Ghanem, the area suffers from deliberate frequent blackouts by the Israeli authorities, which have so far caused significant financial losses to local farmers.
#Israeli Forces Demolish #Palestinian Village for 183rd Time https://t.co/9ZwHQgFmAl via @PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/xTwZXqENUp
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 17, 2021
Over the years, Israeli occupation authorities have been trying to empty the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land that makes up one-third of the area of the West Bank, of its Palestinian communities to make way for a de facto annexation of the area to Israel’s sovereignty.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
