Israel’s full right to annex the Jordan Valley<\/a> if it chose to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe also said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump earlier this week about the annexation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The electoral promise has put the subject of annexation back in the forefront of international interest.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, despite the official European rejection of Netanyahu\u2019s declaration and the condemnation by the Arab states, for Palestinians like Ghawanmeh, Israel’s annexation is more than a political aspiration. It is a daily reality.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A reality that is \u201csystematically reinforced and advanced by Israel,\u201d according to Maha Abdallah, legal researcher at the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost aspects of annexation are visible already in the West Bank,\u201d said\u00a0Abdallah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most obvious of these aspects is the settlement-building and the infrastructure linked to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0“But there is an entire process of legal, economic and administrative annexation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2017, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law for the \u201cregularisation\u201d of the West Bank settlements.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law allowed the retroactive legalisation of settlements that had been built outside of Israeli law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that whenever settlers have extended their control, the occupying state would\u00a0provide them with infrastructure, services and protection, all of which Palestinians are excluded from.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faris Fuqaha, Al-Haq’s field researcher in the Jordan Valley, explained that \u201cthe Israeli settlement industry always comes at the expense of Palestinians living in Area C. It is a systematic segregation”.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Living without water<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most obvious aspects of this segregation is the most basic elements of human life: water.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghawanmeh\u2019s community, for instance, located its Bedouin camp decades ago near the Palestinian town of Al Awjah, building it on the lower ground of a natural water spring.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe villagers had built a small canal to take the water from the spring to the village,\u201d explained\u00a0Fuqaha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0In 2003, the Israeli authorities installed an artificial well beside the spring to extract its water, in order to pump it up to the nearby illegal settlement of \u201cKokav Hashahar\u201d.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, the village canal is dry. Palestinians in Al Awjah and the surrounding areas have to buy their own water from the Israeli water company\u00a0Mekorot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Israeli human rights organization B\u2019Tselem, there are around 40 similar\u00a0wells across the West Bank, providing Israelis with a daily consumption rate ten times that of the Palestinians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe buy water in these tanks of three cubic metres each,\u201d said Ghawanmeh, as he checks the half-emptied tank.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt costs us fifty shekels per cubic metre, 150 shekels the tank [\u00a333], which is very expensive.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli water pipes that pump the water up to the settlement pass just a few hundred metres from the Palestinian community\u2019s houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u201cLast week, a young man from our community tried to take water directly from the pipes,\u201d Ghawanmeh said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Israeli army came and arrested him. He is now in prison and will be facing the military court soon.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accelerated legal discrimination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice segregation is another aspect of Israeli annexation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndeed, Palestinians in Area C are judged by Israeli military courts even for a driving penalty, whereas Israeli settlers are judged before the Israeli civil courts,\u201d says Abdallah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen it comes to land disputes in the West Bank, it is the Israeli Supreme Court that rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0But for Israeli leaders, the judiciary system in Area C is not discriminatory enough.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘When it comes to land disputes in the West Bank, it is the Israeli Supreme Court that rules’-\u00a0Maha Abdallah, Al-Haq<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, Ayelet Shaked, then Israeli minister of justice, introduced a bill to transfer the jurisdiction of land disputes to Israeli district courts – where the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, not the defendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0In other words, settlers would no longer be required to provide any proof of legality when they took land.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, settlers would no longer be required to provide any proof of legality when they took land.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, it would be Palestinians who would be required to prove their ownership of their land, if they wanted to defend it in the Israeli courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This inverted logic makes Israeli settlement and land-grabbing the rule, and makes the Palestinian presence and land ownership the exception.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If passed and adopted, the law would\u00a0be a big step to full annexation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ambulances not allowed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But legal discrimination goes further.\u00a0Palestinians are forbidden from building anything in Area C or improving their conditions of life there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although electricity cables hang from towers across the hills near Al Awjah, Bedouin communities depend on tractor batteries for light, as most families cannot afford solar panels.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghawanmeh explained\u00a0that \u201cthe nearest hospital to our community is in Jericho and ambulances cannot come here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When there is an emergency, we have to look for a car within the community or call someone from Al Awjah who has a car.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The same goes for education. Our children have to travel three to six kilometres to school every day.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ghawanmeh recalled that \u201cin 2010, when we tried to establish a school in the community, with the help of an international NGO, the Israeli\u00a0army came and confiscated the barracks that were supposed to be the classrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fuqaha highlights that Palestinian towns, villages and Bedouin communities in Area C are not allowed to expand their urban area <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery building is monitored by the Israeli authorities. The community may expand the space of a barrack or a tent,” said\u00a0Fuqaha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, if a new building is started in a new location, within the community or outside of it, it is demolished, while tents are confiscated\u201d.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘Nothing is an eventuality!’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Forbidden from building, accessing water or receiving justice, education, health or energy, many Palestinians find no other option but to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany young people who cannot work after finishing their studies\u00a0look for a way to leave,” said\u00a0Ghawanmeh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They go to towns and cities in the A and B Areas, and many take their families with them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority was granted limited powers of governance in Areas A and B. In both areas, Israeli authorities have full external security control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘Many young people who cannot work after finishing their studies\u00a0look for a way to leave’-\u00a0Farhan\u00a0Ghawanmeh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As Abdallah explains: \u201cThe Israeli colonisation creates coercive environments for Palestinians, in order to force them to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0“Israel wants to annex the land, exploit its natural resources, its touristic potential and agricultural capacity. It does not want the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This places a question mark over the destiny of Palestinians in Area C if annexation becomes official.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their legal status, their rights and their future in their land, is uncertain.\u00a0Such is the opaque horizon that Palestinians face in what represents more than 61 percent of the West Bank\u2019s territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An irreversible eventuality for some, but not necessarily for Ghawanmeh.\u00a0For him, there is another way ahead. \u201cSumoud (steadfastness), brother!\u201d he exclaimed, as night fell on the slopes of the hills of the Jordan valley and glimmering lights, coming from the scattered houses along the now dry canal, joined his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs long as we are still here, nothing is an eventuality.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amid a flush\u00a0of pale orange light, the eastern slopes of the West Bank mountains flow down towards the Jordan Valley at noon. At the foot of the desert hills lie\u00a0the scattered zinc houses and tents of a Bedouin camp.\u00a0 Several schoolgirls walking down a dirt road pass by a little boy guiding a small herd …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4991,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions\/4991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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