On Tuesday, the Israeli army shut down water lines that provide the Palestinian village of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, with daily water it needs.
Human rights activist Aref Daraghmeh said soldiers invaded the village and shut down the water lines for the tenth time in two years.
Daaghma stated that the Palestinian residents in Bardala and other communities in the Jordan Valley suffer from a constant lack of access to sufficient quantities of water due to Israel’s control of the vast majority of water resources in the Jordan Valley through the Israeli “Mekorot” water company.
He added that the Palestinians receive the bare minimum of the water they need for their daily needs and for their agricultural lands, while the surrounding illegal Israeli colonies have uninterrupted and abundant access to water.
Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.”
