Confiscation of the Jordan Valley

(Jenin) Ali Samoudi

Monday, 20 November 2006


The Mayor of Tubas is reporting that Israeli forces are splitting the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank. “They have left us with only limited spaces and the procedures and practices against us are becoming more aggressive as the confiscation scheme broadens."

The northeastern West Bank district is under the same siege as the northwest and the south. Mayor Daraghma continued to tell PNN Monday, “Farmers have their land ownership documents, but the occupation forces are preventing them from reaching their lands under the pretext that those lands have become closed military zones.”

Tubas' Mayor explained, “The take-over of the Jordan Valley began in June 1967 and continues today to increase control over the Palestinian borders with Jordan. To increase the level of occupation is the overall strategy at every level, and is continuing with the Wall and an increase in settlement activity.”

A report issued by the Committee for Defense of Land in the Jordan Valley states that Israeli forces are targeting the Valley, the total of which is one sixth of the West Bank. The land of the Jordan Valley is considered the most fertile of Palestine and the “land of milk and honey.” Eighty percent of the district is agricultural and it does share a border with Jordan, a strategic goal of the Israeli government. The Jordan Valley is also rich in history with Jericho, the oldest and lowest city on earth, among the local resources.

Daraghma said that current Israeli plans are to double the amount of settling in the Jordan Valley, despite the illegality of all settling under international law. By overtaking the water supply and other natural resources, intensifying the military and settler presence, Israeli forces will effectively complete the confiscation of the most vital components of eastern West Bank and cause serious damage to the Palestinian food supply. Farmers are not being allowed through checkpoints under the pretext of “security concerns” and the olive harvest is suffering.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1041&Itemid=29