Closing random water openings in the village of Bardala, in the northern Jordan Valley
- Violation: closing random water openings.
- Location: Bardala village in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Date of violation: 10/07/2020.
- Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
- Affected Party: a number of farmers from the village.
Violation details:
On Friday morning, July 10, 2020, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the village of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley and began searching for what they described as random water openings on the western side of the village. The attacking army force deliberately dug land and vandalized an existing water network in the area and closed down a water opening which is the only source for irrigation of more than 45 dunums of land cultivated with vegetables at a time when the occupation authorities are reducing the water quota allocated to the village, which led to a great loss in the amount of agricultural produce in that area.
During the past few months, the occupation army closed a large number of water openings in the vicinity of the village, which negatively affected the living conditions of the local citizens who depend on the agricultural sector as their main source of income.
In an interview with LRC field researcher, Mr. Ahmad Al-Sibai, head of Bardala village council, said the following:
” Bardala village suffers from a shortage of water resources after the occupation authorities had drained the only well in the village and established two Israeli wells in the village’s lands. In return, the occupation pledged in 1974 to pump 240 cubic meters of water per hour to the village, but this quantity has been reduced to 60 Cubic meters per hour which is insufficient for the village domestic and agricultural uses. As a result, the villages’s irrigated cultivated area has been decreased to only 7,000 dunums out of a total of 30,000 dunums before the occupation of 1967. This situation has forced farmers to search for random water openings in order to get water, and this prompted the occupation army to constantly raid the village and work to close these openings, at a time when the occupation pumps water to the neighboring settlements at a rate of 2500 cubic meters / hour at the expense of the water share for the village. Instead of increasing the water share of the village in response to the natural growth in population, the occupation reduces the water share, chases the Palestinians in the village, demolishes their wells and destroys their water lines. By so doing, the occupation is making the life of Palestinians in the village miserable and complicated with the aim of displacing them and replacing them with Israeli settlers as has been the case in all parts of the occupied Palestine under the sight of the whole world”.
A glimpse on Bardala village:
The village of Bardala is located 25 km from the northern side of the city of Tubas and is bordered on the north by the Green Line, on the west by Raba, on the east by Ain al-Bayda, and on the south by Kardala, Khirbet Tal al-Hima and the city of Tubas. It has a population of 1,607 people according to 2017 general census. Its total area is 18,329 dunums, of which 404 dunums are a built-up area.
The occupation has stolen 252 dunums of its lands in favor of the bypass road No. 90, and 819 in favor of the apartheid wall. An additional 2100 dunums of the village land were, also, separated behind the path of the Wall whose length on the viallge land is 8197 meters.
According to Oslo accords, the lands of Bardala village are classified as followed:
according to the Oslo Accords into 90%, areas classified C, i.e. under full control of the Israeli occupation, and areas B only 5%, and with areas as follows:
- Areas classified as B is only 5% (910 dunums);
- Areas classified as C is 91% (16845 dunums).
