In light of the predicament negotiation status between the Palestinians and the Israeli, the latter is looking to snatch opportunities to fasten its grip on Palestinian lands, mainly in the eastern slice of the West Bank area by stirring up development projects, which aims to clutch the settlers to the lands and even increase their numbers. In July 2004, Israe39;s Agriculture minister came forward with a development plan on 31,000 Dunums (to be confiscated from Palestinians) to expand Israeli settlement areas and to increase settler39;s population by increasing the incentives set for Israeli agriculture settlement sector in the Jordan valley area, in addition to increase the number of housing units there; even though many of the settlements are barely occupied to begin with.
The development proposal did not gain approval at that time, nor was it put to rest, as stimulated Israeli ambitions reactivated the development proposal during the last week of June 2005, the Israeli PM Sharon and the financial committee preliminary approved the plan to invest more than 50 million USD over the coming five years to strengthen the settlements in the Jordan Valley.
Asked about the Jordan Valley, the Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Al-Jazeera in an interview with Al Jazeera TV on July 10, 2005 39;We will never give up on [the Jordan Valley], so we can ensure we can continue living here in all changing realities,39; The Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2005 .
Beware; the eastern terrain of the West Bank is undergoing a fierce attack by the Israeli State who longed and planned to consume that area following the 1967 war39;
Nowadays, the battle of the Western Segregation Wall in the Occupied West Bank is diverting all attention of other and equally significant Israeli activities in other areas, and even if the word 'diverting39; may not be totally accurate but it certainly looks like it when it had to do with what is going on; on the eastern front of the occupied West Bank territory. The Israelis have contemplated the Segregation Wall on the western and eastern borders of the West Back for some time and certainly, it was not an upshot of the current Intifada, which conveniently existed for them to use as pretext to execute the Segregation Wall scheme.
The ongoing battle of the Western Segregation Wall has drawn all attention from what is happening on the eastern border of the West Bank as the Israelis has not yet take on action, however, the Israeli plans for the eastern Segregation Wall is set to fixate some 29% (1664 Km2) of the West Bank total area. Conversely, to the topography of the Segregation Wall on the western border of the West Bank, the eastern Segregation Zone will have no physical structure to confine the area to be isolated; nevertheless, the Israeli Army is set to hold sway over the area with more than 30 military controlled checkpoints along 200 Km stretch from north to south. Still it should be noted that 852 Km2 of the eastern segregation zone is already classified as closed military area and has been almost following the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, in addition, there are 703 Km2 of the eastern segregation zone has been illegally classified as State Land over the years of occupation. There are 43 Israeli settlements with a population under 11,000 Israeli settlers infringed in the eastern segregation zone and cover an area of 38 Km2 (2% of the eastern segregation zone).See Map 1
(Map 1: The Eastern Segregation Zone)
The eastern Segregation zone will effectively isolated 42 Palestinian communities with population exceeding 52,000 Palestinians who were and still are systematically subjected to all kinds of coercion (house demolition, confinement, land confiscation, denial of basic medical services or proper educational facilities, hygienic drinking water, etc) exercised by the Israeli Army to push them to abandon their lands. The Palestinian communities are spread over areas classified A (69 Km2) & B (2 Km2) (according to Oslo agreement of September 1993) and are no where connected to the West Bank except through Israeli controlled areas and via Israeli checkpoints.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
