On 15/4/2010 the Israeli occupation authorities raided Kirbet Al Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley and seized four water pumps belonging to local farmers. The pumps are used to supply drinking purposes irrigation for crops and trees, so this action threatens thousands of dunums of agricultural land with drought and the destruction of the agricultural sector in the village.

Israeli authorities had given to the following residents of Kirbet Al Farisiya water confiscation orders : Ali Zohdi , Fayk Sbeeh, and Raddi – the estimated price of each pump is 25,000 shekels.

This is not the first time that people from Al Farisiya have had their water supply destroyed by the occupation authority. In March 2008, all their water pipes were destroyed, and the area around a spring that they were sourcing their water from was declared a ‘Closed Military Zone’ to prevent them having access to the water.


This was the second time that week that the occupational forces have prevented Palestinians in the Jordan Valley from accessing their water supplies. On 11th April 2010 they shut off the water supplies to farmers in Bardala village.

In defiance of Israel’s increasing harassment of Palestinian water resources  in the Jordan Valley, communities have begun to use direct action to challenge the occupation force’s apartheid policies.

On the 7th May 2010, with the help of Jordan Valley Solidarity, several Bedouin communities connected their villages to water supplies by physically taking charge of the situation.

They connected a 7km-long water pipe from Ein Il Beida village (in area B) to Al Farsiya (area C). Local and international volunteers came to give a hand to set up the pipe through the Valley.

The water run for a while, then it stopped. The pipe got damaged. We fixed it several times but still the quantity of water running was very weak.

During the same period, Farisiya village was stormed and destroyed twice by the occupational forces. About 70 barracks and tents were destroyed each time, leaving 26 families and their animals without shelter.

Each time, Farisiya inhabitants rebuilt their barracks and tents and have continued growing vegetables. But their main problem remained the lack of water. Most of the Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley have to buy their farming and drinking water from the Israeli company Mekorot, at very high prices.

In August we decided to rehabilitate water pools in the area hoping that we could fill them with water soon. Rains have late to come and the pipe was broken again.

Finally one week ago, the pipe was fixed and the pools are today fool of clear water and farmers and Bedouins from the all area come everyday to fill their mobile water tanks in Al Farisiya.

One more community have challenged the occupation through their insistence on staying on their land and demanding their rights.