Fact #190 (8/24/21)
Last month, the Israeli army raided the village Faroush Beit Dajan in the northern Jordan Valley and demolished a seven-year-old water cistern that supplied water to Palestinian farms.
As a result of the destruction, some 85 Palestinian families have been struggling to find water to feed their summer crops, which extend over 480 dunams (119 acres) of land.
The demolition continues Israel’s campaign to destroy Palestinian water sources, including springs, wells, irrigation networks, and cisterns.
The Israeli occupation specifically targets the infrastructure of Palestinian agriculture, which 99% of village residents depend on for their livelihoods. By relentlessly demolishing water tanks, irrigation networks, and water lines—and seizing springs and water sources—Israel displaces Palestinians and replaces them with Israelis.
In Ain al-Hilweh, in the northern Jordan Valley, one farmer, for example, has been unable to take his 500 cows to drink at their spring, which lies 1 km from his home, and which his family has been dependent on since they settled in the area more than 50 years ago. The spring is a source of freshwater for villages and hundreds of Palestinian families.
The farmer was forced to purchase water daily, both for his family's domestic use and for his cattle, spending the equivalent of $62 to buy a water tank every four days for his family, and $6,215 worth of water per month and his livestock needs.
When Palestinians protested against this seizure and disruption of their water supplies, and against the Israeli settlers forcibly taking over their water spring and turning it into a swimming pool, Israeli forces attacked them.
The Israeli military wounded 13 Palestinians, assaulted others, detained one person, and dispersed the protesters using pepper spray. The illegal Israeli settlers have now begun construction.
Sources: mondoweiss, haaretz, middle east eye, aa