The state of siege upon the Jordan Valley is still ongoing, with Palestinians without residency still barred from entering the area. Moreover, residents under 30 are not allowed to exit or enter the area. The Occupation is systematically confiscating ID cards of non-Valley Palestinians and deporting them, whilst preparing the area for Zionist expansion projects. The latest in these attacks came on Sunday the 16th of April upon seasonal workers in the Valley.
***image2***At 10.30 pm, Occupation Forces attacked a community in the âAdam Bridgeâ area, close to Jiflik. Seasonal workers and their families had placed around 100 tents in the area. Soldeirs abducted 76 men, took their ID cards and sent them to Tobas, outside the Jordan Valley.
Farm hands and seasonal workers from Jenin and Nablus districts, and from throughout the West Bank, have a long tradition of cultivating the land in this part of the Valley. Normally they stay for 3-4 months. However, the siege laid on the Jordan Valley impedes this long-standing system of seasonal work and smashes the economic life of Palestine.
Similar attacks are being reported from Bardala area, where Occupation Forces are cleansing the area in the same manner and evicting Palestinians without âresidencyâ in the Valley before dumping them in Tubas.
Meanwhile the area of Wadi el Maleh, with its natural springs is increasingly being secured as a tourist destination for Israeli Jews and settlers. Palestinians are now facing serious difficulties for reaching and using this area. Elsewhere, a series of Zionist expansionist schemes in the region are reducing Palestinians to just 45 square kilometres of the Jordan Valley, which is over 2,400 sqaure kilometres in total.
For our recent coverage and analysis on the Jordan Valley see: The Eastern Wall: Closing the circle of our ghettoization