Jewish settlers Friday morning embarked on restoration works for a water spring in the Khirbet al-Farisiya area in Jordan Valley, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Aref Daraghmeh, a local human rights activist, told WAFA that Jewish settlers started the digging works in the vicinity of the Khallet al-Khader spring and constructed a pool in the area as a means to seize the site.
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/7wDyPLftRD
— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) December 9, 2021
Daraghmeh pointed that settlers have been carrying out restoration works in and around water springs in the West Bank as a means to take over them and deny Palestinians, including shepherd herders and hikers, access to them.
The Jordan Valley covers an area of about 1.6 million dunams (1,600 km2) and constitutes around 30 percent of the total occupied West Bank. According to a previous government report, the Valley includes about 280,000 dunams of arable land, 50,000 of which are still used by Palestinians and 27,000 by illegal Jewish settlers.
Opinion: The murder of the 'menacing' water technician: On the shadow wars in the West Bank | By: Dr Ramzy Baroud https://t.co/moy7PpM0dU
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) August 12, 2021
The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.
(The Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
