The occupation expropriates more land to build a new colony

In the northern part of the Jordan Valley in the area of Tubas, the illegal colonists have started to confiscate more land which belongs to the Al-Fouqa family.  Most of the family are refugees  in Jordan and are not allowed to return to the West Bank, even for a visit. Those members who remained  are living in Tubas, 20km from their land or in Ein Al-Beida village, 4 kilometers away.

In 1968, the Al Fouqa family had over 200 dunams of land confiscated  to build the Mekhola colony, the first  to be built in the Jordan Valley.  Now they are faced with the possible expropriation of all their land, starting with about 30 dunams which will be used for the initial building of the Sala’eet colony, whose intention is to expand in size.

Since 2003, Sala’eet colony has been an outpost.  Now, buildings and an expansion of facilities in that area are ‘legitimising’ the colony as a permanent entity.  We are calling for all the Al-Fouqa family  to pursue legal proceedings against  the theft of their lands and to recover it.   In order to expropriate these Palestinian farmers, the Israelis have invoked their own laws which support colonists and which are being used to prevent Palestinians  and Palestinian traffic from approaching the stolen areas.

The colonists from Mekhola have built water conduits from their settlement to Sala’eet.  The water used by  Mekhola has been stolen from Bardala village, about 6 km away, which is in Area B.  Despite the location of the village, its inhabitants are not allowed access to the water.  The army declared the centre of the village a closed military zone, built a well and used the water to provide the colony with water. The centre of Bardala village continues to be used by the military for periodic training and during these times it is closed to the villagers.

With the addition of Sala’eet, the total number of colonies in the Jordan Valley now totals 38.