The Jordan Valley is located in a stretch of land (about 2400 km2) that lies adjacent to the Jordan river up to the base of the mountain ridge, east of the West Bank. It runs from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. The area is rich in agricultural land, warm weather and abundant water sources, offering great economic and political prospects.

 

The Israeli targeting of the Jordan Valley has been a sensitive issue since the 1948 “Nakba, or catastrophe, when Israeli occupation strived to maintain the area for its great political, economic, developmental and border importance.

The occupation continued to implement policies of colonization of the Jordan Valley over the decades, dramatically increasing after the second Intifada in 2000. In the midst of international events and the wavering power scale in the world as well as while Palestinians were distracted with internal fighting, Israel focused on more destruction of the Jordan Valley’s infrastructure, increased restrictions on movement and further isolation of Palestinians in and around the area, in an effort to start dividing the area in harmony with Part IV of the 2004 Israeli development plan to colonize and separate the Jordan Valley.

In order to analyze these issues further, this supplement, as a part of the activities of the “To Exist is to Resist project, hopes to contribute to the empowerment of Palestinians in order to enable them to effectively resist the devastation being caused by the construction of the Wall around the West Bank. The project also aims to enable the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign to better advocate their cause and mobilize the international community to dismantle the Separation Wall. Hence, this supplement includes a detailed fact sheet on the Jordan Valley, serving as a basis of information for the issues affecting the area in relation to Israeli violations of basic human rights and international law as well as policies of isolation and expulsion deriving from the construction of the Separation Wall.