Published:
18 May 2011
Since 1967, Israel has employed various methods to de facto annex the Jordan Valley, the most significant land reserve in the West Bank. Toward this end, Israel prevents the development of Palestinian communities there, systematically demolishes the structures of the area’s Palestinian-Bedouin communities, prevents Palestinians from accessing the Valley’s rich water resources, and harshly restricts Palestinian movement in the area. Simultaneously, Israel has allocated extensive areas in the Valley for settlements.

The Jordan Valley is the eastern strip of the West Bank. It runs within the Green Line, from just north of the Ein Gedi area in the south, to just south of Beit She’an in the north. It is 15 kilometers wide and 120 kilometers long. The Valley is home to some 48,000 Palestinians, who live in 20 permanent communities, among them Jericho, and in dozens of Bedouin communities. 7,500 Israelis live in 28 settlements erected there.
http://www.btselem.org/jordan_valley




Taking control of water sources
Published:
18 May 2011

The Jordan Valley area is considered one of the areas of the West Bank with the richest natural water sources. Under international law, most of these water sources belong to the Palestinians, while a smaller portion are to be shared by the Palestinians and Israel. Despite this, Israel has taken control of most of the water sources in the area and has earmarked the use of most of the resources exclusively for the settlers in the area, while ignoring Palestinian communities and the chronic water shortage in the rest of the West Bank.

Israel prevents Palestinian access to the waters of the Jordan River basin, from which the Palestinians demand 200 million m3 of water. Water installations belonging to Israel, Syria, and Jordan have reduced the water flow in the Jordan river by 98 percent, compared to its natural water flow in the 1940s. As a result, sections of the river have dried up and the Dead Sea’s water level is dropping by one meter a year.

Most of the Israeli water drillings in the West Bank – 28 of the 42 drillings – are in the Jordan Valley. From these 28 drillings, Israel pumps 32 million m3, most for settlement use, with a small amount going to Palestinian villages. Israel also draws water from the Tirza artificial reservoir, in the center of the Jordan Valley, for farming use in the settlements. Treated wastewater from Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and from the Adumim Bloc settlements are also used for these agricultural purposes.

In total, 44 million m3 of water a year is allocated to fewer than 10,000 settlers living in the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area. This amount is almost one-third the amount of water accessible to the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. The generous allocation to the settlements has enabled them to develop intensive agriculture that operates year round. These settlements also benefit from a per capita daily allocation of 487 liters for their household needs, a quantity three times higher than household water consumption inside Israel.

By contrast, Palestinians in the area suffer from a severe water shortage. Israeli control of the water sources has dried up Palestinian wells and diminished the quantity of water supplied by Palestinian wells and springs. The Palestinians currently operate 89 wells in the area, compared to 209 before 1967. In 2008, Palestinians drew 31 million m3 of water from the wells and springs. This figures is 44 percent lower that the quantity of water that was produced prior to the Interim Agreement, in 1995. The reduction in the amount of water accessible to Palestinians led to a decline in the amount of land cultivated by Palestinian and to a drop in competitiveness of the crops they grow. The percentage of farmland being worked in the Jericho area is the lowest of all the governorates in the West Bank – 4.7 percent, compared with an overall average of 25 percent.

http://www.btselem.org/jordan_valley/water

how people of whatever side of the I/P crisis can still talk about a "two state solution" with a straight face. Or worse yet, castigate those who doubt the possibility of a 2SS as somehow being ... I don't know, at that point the ad hominem always seems to take over, coupled with arguments from authority (usually high level Dem figures).

Can anyone show on an actual map how there's enough left for the Palestinians to piece together a viable state? I mean, while honestly acknowledging the oft-stated fact that Israel has several times made clear that it won't allow such a state to have a border contiguous w. Jordan (the Jordan valley - most of area C), and the fact that Israel isn't *doing* what it is doing w. the annexations, relocations, pushing Palestinians into small economically and physically and socially isolated communities for no reason, with no actual overall long term plan. I have recently read a lengthy argument writ by a Zionist professor at one of Israel's U's, not only describing this exact plan as already accomplished in 1967-border Israel and as it will be further accomplished there, but also giving a very discomfiting "justification" for that plan. In short the "justification" was that an established demographic majority in a democratic state has the right to, and even duty to, use whatever means necessary to perpetuate that majority - which includes herding minority populations into multiple small isolated communities surrounded by a contiguous infrastructure supporting the demographic majority.

hope for a viable state for the Palestinians:

snip* Obstacles to the decolonisation of the Palestinian territories are certainly real, but should not be overstated. The settlements themselves take up very little space. It is the settlement blocs which dissect Palestinian territory, seize key natural resources and render unviable an independent state on the land that remains. Palestinian negotiators have produced detailed maps showing how, with those obstacles largely removed, an exchange of land equivalent to 1.9% of the West Bank could leave 63% of Israeli colonists in situ, and the Palestinians with a contiguous, viable state (black areas to be annexed to Israel; orange areas to the future Palestinian state – Source: Palestine papers)

The offer is a generous one, given that Israel's colonisation of the territories is illegal, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Ten years ago, the Arab League offered Israel full recognition in exchange for its withdrawing to its legal borders and agreeing a just solution for the Palestinian refugees, a formula agreed by the Palestinian leadership but rejected by Israel. While formally opposed to such a settlement, even Hamas has indicated that it would accept it if ratified by the Palestinian people who, though despairing of their situation, continue to favour a two-state settlement. The problem is less the two-state solution than Israel's rejectionist stance, which benefits from crucial backing, or acquiescence, from its patron in Washington, as well as the EU states. Vigorous and well-targeted public pressure on Israel and its western allies is required so as to change the strategic calculus for Israel, and render it in its own interests to withdraw to its legal borders.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/02/israel-palestine-two-state-solution

The Prawer Plan calls for the relocation into recognized villages (with full services) of 30,000 Bedouin who would receive monetary compensation and alternate land. The other 40,000 Bedouin of the Negev would be the beneficiaries of improved living conditions by the state in addition to their villages being recognized.

in the 4 legs good 2 legs better sort of way

like Rahat shown here