Water war in the occupied West Bank: Israeli settlers corner Palestinians

It is one of several takeovers of water resources in the occupied West Bank. In June, Israeli settlers seized an agricultural irrigation system near Fasayil in the Jordan Valley to divert water to an ancient swimming pool at an archaeological site.

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“Our water supply remains cut off to this day, depriving us of the water we depend on for our homes, livelihoods and agricultural land,” says Saad Nemer, who farms the land.

The spring was a lifeline for the nearby village of Fasayil, located in the fertile Jordan Valley, where Palestinians have depended on it for generations for food, employment and to supplement the irregular supplies of water supplied by Israel to their domestic taps.

Soon after, settlers promoted it as an Israeli tourist attraction, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promised financial support.

“They are now developing a leisure park around the swimming pool,” adds Saad Nemer.

Making the occupied West Bank unlivable

The takeover of the Fasayil spring is part of a pattern that Palestinians say is a strategy to make their lives in the West Bank untenable. According to United Nations data, Israeli settlers have attacked at least 160 water and sanitation sites in the Palestinian territory this year.

Saad Nemer’s greenhouses and fields should be full of eggplants, zucchini and watermelons, but without water he was unable to plant in this scorched earth.

“The settlers, by cutting off our water, inflicted losses on us and condemned many families to lose their jobs and their means of subsistence,” he explains.

Saad Nemer also said that one of his employees was beaten by settlers and that he himself received threats for trying to approach the source.

Yishai Shreiber, 21, an Israeli settler who came to swim in the pool near Fasayil on an August afternoon, said the Palestinians would not dare come any closer.

“Now that they see this crowd of people, all these groups of Jews coming here to bathe, they are afraid to come,” says Yishai Shreiber, specifying that the West Bank belonged to the Jewish people and that, if the Palestinians did not want to accept Jewish authority, they had to leave.

Saad Nemer showed Reuters a land ownership document dating from 2025, issued by Cogat, the Israeli military agency responsible for enforcing civilian policy in the occupied territories. He also presented a map drawn up for registration of his title deeds in 1957, before the occupation, showing that his land included both the spring and the pool. Neither Cogat nor Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded to requests for comment.

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The water war

Israel’s far-right coalition government has overseen a massive expansion of settlements, which Bezalel Smotrich presents as a way to bury the idea of ​​a Palestinian state. More than 150 of the UN’s 193 member states recognize the state as encompassing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The United Nations and most governments consider the settlements illegal under international law relating to military occupation. Israel conquered the West Bank in the 1967 war, but maintains that territory is disputed rather than occupied.

Since October 7, Palestinians have suffered a marked increase in settler violence. Fares Foqahaa, a Palestinian field researcher, estimates that settlers have now taken control of 95% of springs in the northern Jordan Valley, displacing communities.

In the village of Qusra, settlers still besieged three houses on August 13, cutting off water and electricity.

“I see this as a water war. It’s the silent bullet that kills Palestinians without a sound,” says Adel Yassin, an official with the Palestinian Water Authority.

He said the settlers were targeting water resources as part of a systematic campaign to drive Palestinians from their land.

In early June, Eliav Libi, a settler leader under sanctions from Canada and other countries, posted a video showing the pool filling with water.

He and other settlers claim that this pool belonged to the Jewish king of biblical times, Herod. However, Alon Arad, an archaeologist with the Israeli rights group Emek Shaveh, said the origin of the pool remained uncertain.

“We see in many cases the use of archeology…to create this feeling that the West Bank is exclusively Jewish,” Alon Arad said, adding that settlers were damaging an archaeological site by filling it with water.

Outside the pool, a billboard advertises an investment of 3 million shekels ($1 million) from Belazel Smotrich, an architect of settlement expansion, who said in a Telegram message that the money was intended for the restoration and development of “Herod’s Pools.” Only Israeli families are taking advantage of the swimming pool during this scorching period.

One of the few natural springs still accessible to Palestinians is near the city of Nablus, in Wadi al-Badhan. In July, families picnicked with their feet in the water. While settler incursions towards its sources were rare, they increased this summer.

According to Nizam Fares, owner of a natural springs park in Al-Badhan, “people have become fearful and nervous. They come and ask if the settlers are coming or not.”

Reuters