Background
Right from the time Israeli occupied the West Bank territory in 1967, the stretch of the eastern terrains of the West Bank was regulated differently than the rest of the occupied territory as the Israeli Army wasted no time to consider that sector, including the Jordan valley area subject to a special Israeli regulations as much of it was declared closed military area, other substantial areas declared military bases and large areas used to establish illegal Israeli settlements on lands seized by the Israeli State under the Absentee property law. Meanwhile, the indigenous owners of the land, the Palestinians had restrictions regulated to their movement and utilization of land, which became the subject to military considerations.
Plans to separate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank dated back to the year1967. The year in which Yigal Alon (the head of the Israeli Ministerial committee on Colonies at that time), drafted a plan by which the Jordan Valley would be the eastern border of Israel and would extend to a depth of more than 20 km west of the Jordan river.
Today, the Israeli Army control the Eastern Segregation Zone and the Jordan valley area with, 25 checkpoints that block the access of the Palestinian residents into and out of the Jordan Valley area. The most difficult checkpoints are Tayaseer (5 kilometers to the southeast of Tubas city)and Al Hamra (in the central Jordan Valley) both located on the Trans-Samarian highway, which is an Israeli constructed by-pass road that is the main passage for Palestinians for in that area to use under Israeli laws and restrictions..
Unlimited Suffering
Over the years of the Israeli occupation, the Israeli Army imposed restrictive, unjust and harmful laws to the way of life of the 42 Palestinian localities in the Jordan Valley area, whereby the residents of these localities are under daily Israeli aggression. These aggressions take many forms such as imposing closures, tightening the grip on the residents’ movements, hassel the farmers when moving their agricultural products to the point where the Army actually damage an entire crops, delaying them at the checkpoints which surround them, and mostly preventing the Palestinians from cross to and from the valley unless they are residents of the valley's villages or holding special permits, which are usually issued only for teachers, doctors, traders and farmers. This means those workers, farmers, traders and the average Palestinian travelers who are simply trying to access the area to carry out their daily life activities but the Israeli Army deny them that much right to do so.
The Israeli violations against the Jordan Valley communities have no limits, the Israeli soldiers at many occasions imposed curfews on the localities, and often they razed the agricultural lands owned by the local residents, uprooted trees and demolished many houses and sheds, all of which carried out under security pretexts. See Map 1
Most of the 42 Palestinian communities of the Jordan Valley were and still subjected to the Israeli aggression throughout the years despite the fact that these communities are spread over areas classified as A & B (according to the Declaration of principle (DOP) agreement of 1993). They are prohibited to develop and prosper even on the simplest level.
Evidently, the Israeli plan for the Eastern Segregation Zone is to isolate the area along with the 42 Palestinian communities in it and the 52,000 Palestinian residents in it, most likely to drive them out of the Jordan valley area as the Israeli Army adopted long time ago an nonstop and systematic procedures to make the palestin ain people sudfffer with what they are subjected to on a daily basis, humiliation, threat on theor life and their livelihood. Eventually, the Israeli occupation is keen that his practices will lead to depopulate the valley from its Palestinian residents.
To Conclude
Finally, and in spite of all the Israeli aggressions, attacks and colonial plans that aim at making the lives of the 42 Palestinian communities unbearable, and seek to displace the Palestinian local residents out of the Jordan Valley, the Palestinians remain sturdy on their grounds, holding on to their lands and properties against all plans, laws and doings that drive them to do otherwise.
By all ways and means, and despite of all the International conventions and agreements and the International Law Rules, which refuse the racist Israeli practices in the Palestinian occupied territory. Israel remains persistent to fulfill its racist plans and polices on the Palestinians, starting with the Segregation Wall, the unlawful terminals and checkpoints and the confiscation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian lands for the construction of the illegal Israeli settlements and bypass roads, all of which, constitutes the daily Israeli barbarism practices against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the 'Organized State Terrorism' practiced by the different state sectors in Israel against the Palestinians and their land.
The following articles from international law denounce the Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territory:
Article 33 prohibits collective punishment, and property destruction carried out by Israeli forces are collective punishments. The article states: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” “Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
Article 147 of the Connection considers “extensive destruction and appropriate of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” as a grave breach of the Convention and thus constitute a war crime.
Article 55 of the Hague Convention stipulates that 'the occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country.
Moreover, the UNSC Resolution 242 demands the withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict. 39 years after the issuance of this resolution, Israel is still imposing its occupation over the Palestinian territory and is further fragmenting the land into smaller cantons.
Related Case Studies
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42 Palestinian localities in the Eastern Segregation Zone are under daily Israeli Aggression. 1 August 2006.
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The Israeli colonization activities in the Eastern Segregation Zone.21 August 2006.
Prepared by
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
ARIJ
