Violation: confiscation of two water tankers.
Date: July 31, 2012.
Location: Mayta – Wadi al Maleh.
Victims: 3 Bedouin families (25 people including 12 children).
Details:
Water is the essence of life and the Jordan Valley is no exception; the Jordan Valley has been known as the water basin of Palestine and that reputation made it a target for the Israeli Occupiers who took over water sources and monopolized excavations and search for water sources.
The Occupiers did not only take over natural resources but they also turned the Palestinian communities in the area into unrecognized ones by turning the area into a ‘closed military zone’, depriving the residents of the rights to land and housing. On July 31, 2012, 24 hours after the mass distribution of stop-work and demolition orders in Al Maleh area, the Israeli Occupation Army confiscated two water rankers on the pretext of entering a closed military zone.
Table 1: owners of confiscated tankers:
Owner | Beneficiary families | Members | children |
Akef Daraghma | 1 | 9 | 3 |
Said Dababat | 2 | 16 | 9 |
Total | 3 | 25 | 12 |
Source: Field Observations – Monitoring Israeli Human Rights Violations Team – LRC
The Israeli Occupation Army imposed a penalty on every day the tankers stay in detention. Aref Daraghma, head of the Dwellings Council of Wadi al Maleh, said: ‘it is obvious that the Israelis are targeting the very existence of Palestinians in the area including Mayta which is inhabited by 90 people who originally come from Tubas, 17 km to the west. A number of matters threaten the lives of Bedouins in the area, most notably, water shortage. The locals are forced to transfer water from Ein al Bayda area, 11 km to the east, using water tankers. This process is tiresome and costly as one cubic meter might cost around 24 ILS. Despite the vouchers given to the people by UNRWA to support them financially, the families are still suffering due to the fact that these vouchers cannot cover the costs of water only, not to mention other necessities. The Israelis are using the water to impose more pressure on the people in order to force them to leave‘.
