The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea are the two West Bank regions most exploited by Israeli occupation, when one compares the amount of natural resources allocated to settlers versus to the Palestinians, B’Tselem said in a report issued yesterday (Thursday, May 12, 2011).

Tayasir Checkpoint, in the Jordan Valley (Photo: Activestills)

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, charged that the 9,400 settlers who live in the two regions consume 45 million cubic meters of water a year, which is almost one-third the amount used by 2.5 million Palestinians in the entire West Bank. Some 97 percent of the water used by settlers was for agricultural purposes, according to the report, which is based on the organization’s 2008 data.

According to B’Tselem, Israel’s planning policy in the Jordan Valley makes it impossible for Palestinians to build and develop their communities. The Civil Administration has prepared plans for only a tiny fraction of the Palestinian communities. Furthermore, these plans are nothing more than demarcation plans, which do not allocate land for new construction and development. For example, the plan for al-Jiftlik, the largest community in Area C (the area that is under complete Israeli control in the West Bank), left 40 percent of the built-up area of the village outside its borders; as a result, the houses of many families are in danger of demolition. The plan for al-Jiftlik is smaller in land area than the plan issued for the Maskiyyot settlement, although al-Jiftlik has 26 times as many residents.

More on the new report:

http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/201105_Dispossession_and_Exploitation.asp