Jamal Juma
More than a year has passed since the Israeli occupation forces declared the completion of the first section of the Apartheid Wall — running from Jenin to Qalqiliya. Rapid construction around Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron marks the second phase of the project. Meanwhile, away from public attention, the third phase of the wall has begun, which will annex and ethnically cleanse the Jordan Valley.
Under the rubric of "development", the valley has become a "major governmental project" for settlement expansion. The result has been the destruction of Palestinian land, increased house demolitions and the expulsion of Palestinian Bedouins. Last week, two of the four "terminals" controlling Palestinian movement in and out of the area were closed to all Palestinians not residing there, thus completely isolating the northern areas of the Jordan Valley. In the south, "flying checkpoints" exclude Palestinians without residency permits recognised by the occupation forces, including land owners.
The final step in the annexation of the Valley has begun.
The Jordan Valley has always been a key target of Zionist expansionism. The Valley comprises over 28% of the West Bank territory and provides access to the water reserves of the River Jordan. The hilltops yield control over a significant portion of the West Bank, providing strategic locations for the effective siege of Palestinians. Today the Jordan Valley, site of the first West Bank settlements, contains 21 colonies held by around 6300 settlers. Recently, they were reinforced by the arrival of a group of colonisers redeployed from Gaza.
In order to finalise the annexation of the Valley, Zionists have invested $24 million for "development" over the last two years, with a further $19 million slated for 2006 to 2008. Extensive land theft forms the backbone of the ethnic cleansing project in the Jordan Valley. Of the 2400 square kilometres of land in the Valley, 455.7 square kilometres are considered "closed military areas", 1655.5 square kilometres will be controlled by settlements, and 243 square kilometres has been confiscated along the border with Jordan. This leaves only 45 square kilometres for Palestinians.
The 2% of the Jordan Valley that remains will consist of a ghetto around Jericho and a cluster of small, isolated villages without land — in other words, the conditions for a catastrophic Palestinian exile.
The expulsion of the Palestinian population
Because they dwell on large areas of land, Palestinian Bedouins have been a central target of the occupation since 1948, when 50,000 Bedouins were expelled from the Negev (Naqab) desert. Today, the remaining Bedouins in the Negev and the Jordan Valley face an imminent threat of definitive expulsion.
Recently, the a series of military orders were issued for the expulsion of Bedouins, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the confiscation of Palestinian land, and the expansion of Jewish settlements.
In April 2005, occupation forces expelled 300 Palestinian families (1500 people) from east of Tubas and stole 10,000 dunums of land. South-east of Bethlehem, six families were expelled, 20 water wells were stolen, and 20 shelters used for around 22,000 sheep and 500 camels were destroyed. Later, hundreds of Bedouins in Sawahreh Al-Sharkiya, near the centre of the Valley, were ordered to abandon 25,000 dunums of land. The Apartheid Wall will now isolate them from an area extending from Sawahreh at the outskirts of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and up to the north of Jericho.
For months, sheep grazing on confiscated land have been regularly "detained" by occupation forces and the owners penalised with massive fines. Palestinian shepherds recently reported the outright theft of sheep.
The confiscation of land and isolation of the Jordan Valley, along with the harassment of shepherds, is systematically destroying the Palestinian livestock industry and depriving our people of yet another source of income.
House destruction is another element of the Zionist plan. Dozens of houses have already been demolished in the Jordan Valley. Four family homes have been demolished in both Jeftlik and Fasayel. For years, all construction has been forbidden for the 1500 inhabitants of Fasayel and the village has been denied access to infrastructure for water and electricity. In addition, villagers resist regular harassment and attacks from nearby settlements.
A total disaster threatens to engulf Al-Akaba village. Seven hundred of its 1000 inhabitants were expelled after the 1967 war. Israeli forces arbitrarily detain the remaining population in the nearby military camp and confiscate livestock and ID cards. Now, the village council has received 16 demolition orders covering most buildings in the village, including the kindergarten, health centre, mosque and power station.
Meanwhile, settlement construction and expansion is colonising the newly confiscated areas. Three months ago, settlers from Rotam fenced-off 1000 dunums of land. Miskyot colony is expanding and bulldozers are working relentlessly to prepare land and infrastructure for a new colony in the north-west of the Valley.
Settlement activity was recently bolstered when the ministry of housing published tenders for 700 new units in two major settlements. Furthermore, a huge agricultural project has been approved, including access to wide tracts of land, free water, and $22 million of subsidies to seduce new settlers.
The third phase of the Apartheid Wall project
Racist occupation laws and a "development" scheme for the colonisation of the Jordan Valley create a horrible reality of expulsion and ghettoisation, known all too well throughout the West Bank. Fenced-in roads, military zones, settlements, checkpoints, trenches and roadblocks are continuously deployed in a form that mirrors the cement walls enclosing Palestinians from the west.
While Palestinians in the Jordan Valley are forced to live in shacks and host entire schools in tents, Zionist settlers are building a new era of racist dispossession, oppression and expulsion. The final aim is to ensure that the region, once emptied of its Palestinian population, becomes a major Zionist strategic asset and provides large-scale agricultural and natural resources to sustain Israel's economy and expansion. In the south, construction of the eastern Wall has begun near Eizzariya and will soon encircle Bethlehem and Hebron from the east and cut the West Bank in two.
While Palestinian governmental representatives are invited to the tables of global diplomacy, the Palestinian people are systematically being ghettoised. Physical isolation is part of the plan to fragment the Palestinian struggle and build walls between our struggle and the struggle for Arab self-determination. The noose around the neck of the Palestinian people is rapidly tightening.
While the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem destroys the urban centre of Palestine, the annexation and isolation of the Jordan Valley is depriving Palestinians of their land, water resources, agricultural and livestock production.
In the face of this reality, the frenzied debates about whether new Labor leader Amir Peretz is a "peace dove" within the Zionist camp to promise a "Palestinian state" seem outlandish. These debates aim merely to silence the urgent Palestinian call to isolate apartheid Israel and avert the world's attention from the ongoing colonisation of Palestinian land, a process that has always been fervently carried out by both Labor and Likud administrations. At this stage, a two-state solution might be theoretically controversial; but it has become practically impossible. Negotiations for statehood without borders, a capital, or land merely deceive our people and the rest of the world.
[Jamal Juma is the coordinator of the Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. Visit <http://www.stopthewall.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, December 7, 2005.
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