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View Full Version : Israel preparing Jordan Valley for official annexation



DaSangarTalib
03-14-2006, 10:14 PM
In direct and flagrant violation of international law, Israel imposed a series of measures aimed at cutting off the Jordan Valley from the rest of the occupied West Bank , according to an article on the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

In March 2005, the Israeli government decided to ban the Palestinians from entering the Jordan Valley, one of the largest Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli ban affects the lives of more than 2 million Palestinians, residents of the West Bank, from entering the area, which makes up around one-third of the occupied West Bank. (The 1.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza are already banned from entering the West Bank under any circumstances).

These Israeli measures are not new. Restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley were imposed at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2000 and were gradually expanded. But Israel tightened its measures in the area after it handed over security of the southern West Bank city of Jericho to the Palestinians on March 16, 2005. Under the new measures, the Palestinians are banned from passing through the Jordan Valley even if they were heading for the northern West Bank or the villages adjacent to the Valley’s checkpoints. Instead, the travelers are required to go through Jericho, which takes longer time due to delays at Israeli checkpoints.

Israeli soldiers, deployed at four permanent checkpoints that cut off the Valley from the rest of the West Bank, ensure that passage is denied to Palestinians whose identity documents do not list them as residents of the Jordan Valley. However, the Israeli ban also applies to thousands of Palestinians who own land in the Jordan Valley. Those Palestinian residents are tied to the northern West Bank villages through family connections, joint land ownership, work, schools, as well as medical and social services. But the Israeli army prohibits more than 2,000 residents from entering the Jordan Valley, in order to prevent them from demanding their land back.

According to Ha’aretz, Israel seized thousands of dunams of Palestinian land for the illegal construction of settlements and army bases in the area. Israel’s Civil Administration confirmed that it has a list, known as the "List of 100," which includes the names of more than 2,000 Palestinians who own land in the Jordan Valley and are banned from entering the area. All their requests to return, for family unification, or even for short visits, have been rejected for about 30 years, when the ban was first imposed. The previous head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Ilan Paz, issued orders more than a year ago to shelve the list. But his orders weren’t executed. Civil Administration officials and military sources claim that the rejections were based on “security” concerns and have no connection to any political intentions.

Land theft


Seizing the absentee property to build settlements violates the law in effect in the occupied territories, which states that absentee property cannot be allotted for civil use and must be handed over for safekeeping to the Civil Administration which is responsible for government property.

In his testimony before the commission of inquiry into the evacuation of the illegal West Bank settlement of Amona, Israel's Attorney General Menachem Mazuz clearly described the construction of settlements on private land as "land theft."

The settlement authorities didn’t inform the house and land buyers, or the mortgage banks that issued them loans, that they were involved in what was essentially land theft. Legal advisers for the Judea and Samaria region describe the handover as illegal, and urge the Israeli government to pay the Palestinian landowners to compensate for their loss.

Using land for security reasons requires a specific injunction; but in several instances, the Israel Defense Forces has taken control of property without the necessary authorization. In other cases, the absentee property were handed over to Palestinian residents in exchange for land they owned.

Moreover, an Israeli military training zone occupies 475 square kilometers of the valley and affects the lives of thousands of Bedouin shepherds in the area. These shepherds are frequently forced out of their tents or banned from grazing their sheep. And in October 2005, Israeli soldiers prohibited Palestinian farmers from selling their produce to Israeli farmers at the nearest border crossing between the Valley and Israel.

The Israeli army swears that its measures in the Jordan Valley are not related to politicians' declarations that the area will remain in Israel's hands forever. But in fact, this is a continuation of a long-standing Israeli policy that aims at emptying the area from the Palestinians and grabbing more of their land, in preparation for its official annexation to Israel.

The Israeli measures come in line with the Jewish state's unilateral plans to set its borders by annexing Palestinian territories. Earlier this week, interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that he would draw Israel’s permanent borders by 2010 through unilateral withdrawals from the occupied West Bank.

Olmert revealed that his broad guidelines for Israel’s final borders included its three major settlement blocs, Maaleh Adumim, and Gush Etzion outside Jerusalem, and Ariel, deep inside the occupied West Bank. The permanent Israeli borders would also include Jerusalem and its immediate environs, and the Jordan River Valley. According to an article on the International Middle East Center, "The areas Olmert mentioned comprise 20% of the West Bank, home to 3.5 million Palestinians, many of them refugees from what is now Israel.”

The Israelis ensured that the Palestinians won’t be able to develop the Jordan Valley. Only Israeli settlements were allowed to develop, thanks to the theft of Palestinian land and exploitation of Palestinian water sources.
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