- Violation: Confiscation of water pipe network.
- Location: Al-Jiftlik Village / Jericho Governorate.
- Violation date: 20/05/2020.
- Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
- Affected people: a number of farmers in the Al-Jiftlik region.
Violation details:
On Wednesday, May 20, 2020, the Israeli occupation army stormed the “Khallet Allan” area, southeast of Al-Jiftlik village, and proceeded to confiscate a number of water metal pipes with a diameter of “six inches” and a total length of of 600M owned by farmers in the Jiftlik region.
The occupation claims that it is illegal to build water lines in the area C of the West Bank in accordance with of the Oslo Agreement. A confiscation notice carrying the number of 75700 was issued by the Israeli authorities according to which the aforementioned water pipes were seized and taken out of the area.
Photo 1: The process of confiscating the water pipes
Photo 2: The notice of the confiscation
Farmer Munir Saleh Shehadeh Nasasrah, one of the affected persons, told the Land Research Center field researcher the following:
” We are seven farmers who own an artisan well in the Jiftlik region called the “Burhan Al-Damen” well. It pumps water at a power of 13 cubic meters per hour and provides irrigation to about 300 dunums of agricultural fields planted with palms grapes. Recently, we bought these pipes for the purpose of getting enough water at a low production cost, but in May this year the Israeli “civil” administration in the West Bank issued demolition orders against three artificial water pools that were built up in the same area to collect rain water for agricultural use”.
Photo 3: A collection pond in Al-Jiftlik
Ahmad Ghawanim, head of Al Jiftlik Village Council, gave the following account to LRC field researcher: ” In the lands of Al-Jiftlik, which has an area of 32,000 dunums, there are 35 artisan wells that need maintenance and restoration, as the Palestinian Water Authority does not have any control over them, and these wells are distributed throughout Al-Jiftlik lands, whose pumping capacity in the past was 140M3 / hour at a rate of 4.8 million M3 per year. Today, most of these wells has been drained by the Israeli water carrier “Mekorot” by digging deeper wells in the vicinity of the previously existed ones in the Jiftlic area. Consequently, only 12 artisan wells remain in the village of Al-Jiftlik with scarce and salty water pumping capacity not exceeding 30M3 / hour, bearing in mind that this salty water is unsuitable in any way for human consumption or even for many types of crops in the area, which has negatively affected the agricultural sector and led to a significant decrease of total cultivated area”.
Jiftlik Village [1]:
Al-Jiftlik village is located 35 km north of Jericho, and its population is 3100 people according to the 2017 census. Its total area is 185031 dunums, of which 1110 dunums are built up area. The occupation confiscated an area of 12040 dunums from its lands, as follows:
- 3207 dunums were confiscated for building Israeli settlements in the area, including the settlement of Maswa.
- 3328 dunums were confiscated for the purpose of building settlement roads bearing the numbers 90, 505 and 508.
- 5505 dunums for the purpose of building military camps for the Israeli army.
- Source: Geographical Information Unit at the Land Research Center.
