JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) continues its efforts to dry out Sahl al-Baqi’a through the Crimson Thread settlement plan to isolate the northern Jordan Valley and liquidate the Palestinian presence in it.
The IOA persists in targeting Sahl al-Baqi’a through tightening the noose, imposing a siege, and swallowing lands, in addition to drying up and destroying water sources and using the weapon of thirst.
Isolation and thirst
The Crimson Thread project represents a separating settlement wall that extends to swallow the lands of east Tubas, and a military plan to isolate the food basket of Palestine and turn it into a closed military zone.
The implementation of the plan began through the weapon of thirst and the destruction of the main water lines, which led to the drying up of thousands of green dunums and the complete damage of crops before their harvest time.
The farmers face an impossible living situation aimed at imposing forced displacement, through the weapon of thirst and the destruction of water lines and agricultural facilities.
Targeting the economy and displacement
The IOA bulldozers and vehicles target the nerve of the agricultural economy in the Jordan Valley, by dismantling greenhouses and demolishing the facilities of livestock breeders, with the aim of liquidating the Palestinian presence and ending any productive activity in the region.
The IOA seeks, through the siege, to impose an impossible living condition that empties the northern Jordan Valley of its inhabitants, and places the Palestinian farmer before the option of evacuation or forced displacement.
Continuous destruction
During the past few days, the IOA bulldozers and settler militias did not stop acts of sabotage and destruction of the main and sub-water lines in the lands of southeast Tubas, which led to cutting off water supplies completely from tens of families, livestock, and agricultural crops.
The systematic destruction operations caused the isolation of population communities and farmers from water sources, which caused severe and direct damage to irrigated crops and livestock that depend entirely on these networks.
These field violations come to move the village of Atouf and the al-Baqi’a area in the northern Jordan Valley into a new and dangerous stage of existential conflict; following the issuance of an unjust judicial decision that paves the way for the implementation of large-scale settlement and military plans in the region, which historically represents the primary food basket for Palestinians.
The village of Atouf suffers from a suffocating military and geographical siege, as it is surrounded by the Beka’ot settlement crouching from its eastern side, while a deep earthen trench separates the village from its natural extension in the eastern lands, turning it into something like an open prison subject to the IOA arbitrary military measures.
The IOA also exploits the military gates surrounding the village as launching points to carry out daily incursions toward the town of Tammun, the city of Tubas, and neighboring areas, within a systematic policy to empty the land of its owners and rob what remains of natural and water resources.
Despite these immense challenges, Khirbat Atouf and the al-Baqi’a area remain the first line of defense and the main pillar in confronting attempts to geographically fragment the Palestinian Jordan Valley by the occupation army and settler gangs.
The people of the region confirm their adherence to staying and steadfastness in their lands, stressing that the policies of hand-laying and confiscation will not succeed in erasing the deep-rooted Palestinian identity in the depths of this historical land.