Days Of Palestine – Jordan Valley
Israeli settlers Sunday embarked on fencing large tracts of land in the northern Jordan Valley as they chased Palestinian herders out of pastures in the area, according to local sources.
Aref Daraghmeh, a local rights activist, said that extremist settlers continued for the second day in a row encircling Palestinian-owned agricultural lands in the aforementioned area with fences, aiming to make it hard for land owners to access their lands and property.
He added that the settlers chased herders off the targeted areas, noting that this will result in blocking thousands of dunums in the Jordan Valley. As a result, he said, Palestinian herders and farmers will not be able to access their lands.
Two days ago, thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the northern Jordan Valley villages of al-Burj and Umm al-Qaba.
Daraghmeh confirmed that Israeli forces escorted a convoy of buses packed with hundreds of settlers into the two villages, and stayed there for over four hours.
The Jordan Valley, which is a fertile strip of land running along the west of the Jordan River, is home to about 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30% of the West Bank.
Since 1967, when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank, Israel has transferred at least 11,000 of its Jewish citizens to the Jordan Valley. Some of the settlements in which they live were built almost entirely on private Palestinian land.
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