Middle East Monitor / September 22, 2021
Israeli occupation forces today cleared more Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley village of Kardala, Wafa news agency has reported.
Local human rights activist Aref Daraghmeh said that the troops escorted a bulldozer to the southern part of the village, where it levelled a tract of land in preparation for the construction of a huge cement water reservoir to be operated by Israel’s national water company, Mekorot.
The company violates international law by destroying and pillaging water resources in occupied Palestine. It then uses stolen water to increase the supply to illegal Israeli settlements, which have a high demand. It does not do the same for Palestinian communities and cities in the occupied West Bank. Indeed, it discriminates systematically, and denies water to the Palestinian population.
The head of Kardala Village Council, Ghassan Fuqaha, expressed the villagers’ concerns that the latest destruction of their land and facilities will pave the way for the takeover of more Palestinian land in favour of colonial settlement construction and infrastructure.
The Jordan Valley has some of occupied Palestine’s most fertile agricultural land. However, Israel won’t allow the building of any Palestinian facilities there or the cultivation of any land without licences from the occupation authorities, which are rarely, if ever, issued.
The Palestinians believe that such measures are part of Israel’s Judaization of the area, which includes emptying it of the indigenous residents.
