Israeli Settlers Cut Off Palestinian Farmers’ Water to Fill a Swimming Pool
Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.
Israeli settlers seized the water supply from a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank earlier this summer, preventing Palestinian farmers from growing crops in order to fill a swimming pool.
Palestinians in Fasayil, in the Jordan Valley, a particularly fertile section of the West Bank, have had their water cut off for months now. In May, settlers began arriving at a nearby illegal settlement, Petza’el, and started diverting the water from the village into an archeological site.
For generations, Palestinians in Fasayil have relied on the water from the local spring supply to grow crops, adding to the local food supply and serving as a livelihood for many. They have also often used it domestically when Israeli officials have deprived Palestinians of water in the area — an Israeli practice with a long history in the West Bank, Gaza, and beyond, with the goal of ethnic cleansing.
Now, their greenhouses and fields normally alive with crops sit barren, farmers told Reuters this week. Such water theft could be considered a crime under international law.
“Our water supply remains cut off to this day, depriving us of the water we depend on for our homes, our livelihoods, and our agricultural land,” said Saad Nemer, a Palestinian farmer. He normally grows eggplant, zucchini, and watermelon, but now cannot plant crops at all. “The settlers cutting off our water has caused us losses and........
