Illegal Israeli colony in the Jordan Valley

Illegal Israeli colonies occupy 1,200 square kilometers, or 50 percent of the Jordan Valley. Israel built three settlements in the Jordan Valley in 1968, and gradually increased the number of these settlements mainly focussing on agriculture until the 1980s. Since the early 1990s the settlements increased from 11 to 36, housing more than 6,200 settlers. To this day the colonies keep expanding and expropriating more Palestinian land.

New Agrexco packing house in a Jewish settlement

In March 2008, the Occupation built two new packing houses for agricultural products in illegal Israeli colonies in the Jordan Valley. One is located in the settlement Arava, south east of Jericho. A second packing house is under construction at the Joint Settlement Council adjacent to Agrexco’s largest facilities in the Jordan Valley.

Construction of a new Israeli Apartheid water well

In March 2008 the Occupation started the construction of a second Apartheid water well in the Palestinian village of Bardala. Jewish-only wells are drilled near to Palestinian springs, which often dry out as a result. Today, Israeli settlers are using much of the Palestinian water ressources available. In the past, traditional wells served the Palestinians with 6 million cubic meters per year, but now Palestinians are forced to buy water from the Israeli water company Mekorot.

Concrete for expansion of Tomer settlement

Illegal Israeli colonies occupy 1,200 square kilometers, or 50 percent of the Jordan Valley. Israel built three settlements in the Jordan Valley in 1968, and gradually increased the number of these settlements mainly focussing on agriculture until the 1980s. Since the early 1990s the settlements increased from 11 to 36, housing more than 6,200 settlers. To this day the colonies keep expanding and expropriating more Palestinian land.

Water reservoir for exclusive settler use

The Jordan Valley is very fertile and rich in groundwater resources from the Eastern Acquifer System but Israel has severely limited the Palestinian use of water from this basin. Two of the six large water reservoirs containing a total of 10 million cubic meters of water for exclusive settler use have been built in 2002. They store 800 000 and 2,800 000 cubic meters and were funded by the Jewish National Fund, Hadassah and other Zionist organisations. The OG-2 reservoir is situated close to the Dead Sea and has a capacity of 1 500 000 cubic meters. Water is being drained from the Jordan river, springs and seasonal rivers and endager the eco-system of the entire area.