NewzPETZAEL, West Bank (AP) — The natural springs and ancient pools of the occupied West Bank have long provided a respite from the oppressive summer heat. They also have been a lifeline for Palestinian communities, which rely on them for… Whoever siphoned the water used it to fill up that pool, declaring it a new tourist attraction named after Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea.Agreements reached in the 1990s indicate the pool is located in Area C, meaning it is under full Israeli military control.
Research by Dror Etkes, who runs the settlement watchdog group Kerem Navot, determined the land was privately owned.Palestinian farmer Saad Nemer, from Fasayil, said the water being cut off has devastated his fields, adding that his family has documents that prove ownership of the land. COGAT, Israel’s military body that oversees civil issues in the West Bank, acknowledged the water was diverted “without authorization” and said it would investigate.Other swimming areas in the West Bank have also become sites of conflict. An Israeli father of six was shot and killed last week by a Palestinian at a spring in the northern West Bank, where he was bathing with his oldest son ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday.Israel funds Jewish heritage projects in the West BankIsrael has occupied the West Bank since it captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war.
Since then, it has built a network of settlements for more than half a million Israelis on land Palestinians seek for a future independent state.The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal. Earlier this month, during a rise in settler violence and other actions that have displaced Palestinians, the British government accused Israel of turning “a blind eye” to what it described as “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank — perpetrated by set…
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