New Israeli barrier will slice through precious West Bank farmland | West Bank

The death knell for the Palestinian village of Atouf on the western slopes of the Jordan valley came in the form of a paper trail, a series of eviction notices taped to houses, greenhouses and wells, forming a straight line across open fields.

In notices published overnight, local farmers were informed that their lands would be confiscated and that they had seven days from December 4, when the land was handed over, to vacate their properties. A military road and an accompanying barrier would be built by Israel in the middle of the region.

Lawyers for the Atouf village council objected, but long and bitter experience has taught Palestinians here that they should have low expectations of Israeli courts.

“The Israeli army can do whatever it wants. They don’t care about the law or anything else,” said Ismael Bsharat, a local farmer.

On the same day, similar evacuation notices were distributed along an approximately 14-mile (22 km) strip of Palestinian farmland running north to south from Atouf, following the route of the planned road and fence. And this week, it has become clear that this sudden scar in Palestinian territory is the first chapter of a new division line that will redraw the map of the West Bank.

This week the Israeli defense ministry made clear that this would represent only the first part of a new 5.5bn shekel (£1.3bn) barrier stretching 300 miles from the Golan Heights on the Syrian border northwards to the Red Sea near Eilat. The barrier, labeled the “Red Thread” by the Israeli military, will divide numerous Palestinian communities along its route.

The military says the barrier was built for security reasons, but human rights activists say there was only one fatal incident in recent years, in which an Israeli was killed near Atouf. They argue that the real goal is to seize land and further strangle Palestine’s chances of becoming a viable state.

“This is happening all over the Jordan valley, especially in the north. Israel is advancing and accelerating ethnic cleansing in this region,” said Israeli activist Dror Etkes, the organization’s founder. Kerem Navot Organization that monitors Israel’s land policy in occupied Palestine.

Israel has consistently rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing by Israel and international human rights organizations, including UN rapporteurs, as fabricated propaganda. It also denies that the colonization of occupied territory by settlers is against international law.

Almost all (85%) of the 1,000 acres (100 hectares) around Atouf subject to the initial evacuation order is privately owned, Etkes said. These fields are among the most productive areas in the West Bank; The rich dark brown soils are rich dark brown soils formed over thousands of years by tributaries flowing eastward to the Jordan River. The region has long been one of the breadbaskets of Palestine.

Many of the affected families had been farming the land for generations, and some had purchased new parcels at high prices in recent years. They all had title deeds, but none of this seems likely to change the outcome of the impending land grab.

Lawyers for the local Palestinian municipality appealed to the Israeli court against the eviction but did not receive any response by the end of this week. The expectation is that Israeli settlers will take over the cut off land. A new settlement is planned just west of the new military road.

Settlements are being planned and built at an unprecedented pace in the West Bank. According to the advocacy group Peace Now, tenders have been published That number is an all-time record for more than 5,600 homes so far this year and is 50% more than the previous peak in 2018.

These are only officially approved settlements. New settler outposts (often just a small cluster of huts or portable buildings) are springing up across the valley at an increasing rate. Although not officially authorized, in practice it is provided by the army and police and supported by far-right members of the ruling coalition.

At least one Palestinian farmer in Atouf has already begun moving his animals in anticipation of evacuation, but Bsharat said he would stay there and see what happens. He has very few options. On a winter evening this week, he was heading to the market with boxes of fresh green peppers that he grew in his plastic-covered greenhouses. The entire 12-acre (1.2 ha) site is located east of the proposed military road and barrier and is fed by water pipes running west from the hills. These will all be cut off when the army comes to build the road and barrier.

“What can I do? I can’t farm without water,” Bsharat said.

Village council leader Abdullah Bsharat (who is from the same extended family as Ismail) predicted that up to 40 families from Atouf would be cut off from the village and its water supplies.

“All of these families have title deeds,” he said. “They grow grapes, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, za’atar and olives. This land is very rich and that’s why it’s being taken over. The whole purpose is to take it over for settlers to use.”

The council leader said he was told by Israeli officials that the road and the barrier together would be 50 meters wide, but that Palestinians would not be allowed to build or farm along the 200-meter cordon on either side. There has been no official confirmation from the military that there is such a large exclusion zone, but if true it would greatly increase the economic damage to Atouf.

At some point along its route, the planned barrier will encircle and completely encircle the Palestinian sheep herding community of Khirbet Yarza, which has so far resisted increasing pressure from settlers and the military to vacate their 400 acres of land. It is unclear whether they will be left with any way to enter and exit the fences that will be built around them.

“Red Thread” plan put forward this week Israeli defense ministry He presented the current barrier as only the first part of a major initiative aimed at “strengthening national security and strategic control of the eastern border”, which separates the Jordan valley from the rest of the West Bank by a wall.

Major General Eran Ofir, the Ministry of Defense’s senior official responsible for the construction of walls and barriers, said: “The security barrier that we started construction today will extend for approximately 500 kilometers along the entire eastern border of the state of Israel.”

He added: “It will be a smart border that will include a physical fence and a collection vehicle of intelligence sensors, radars, cameras and advanced technologies.” Ofir said that work has started on two parts of the general plan, without giving details. The other section may be the military road launched last year, further north along the Jordan valley, around the villages of Bardala and Kardala.

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said: “The new barrier will strengthen settlements along the border, significantly reduce arms smuggling into the hands of terrorists in Judea and Samaria, and deal a heavy blow to the efforts of Iran and its proxies to establish an eastern front against the state of Israel.”

according to Israeli timesAccording to Israel Defense Forces sources, the initial project around Atouf was conceived after a single security incident: the August 2024 drive-by shooting death of 23-year-old Israeli Yonatan Deutsch by Palestinian militants along Route 90, which runs along the Jordan valley floor.

Etkes said there were more Palestinian militant attacks in other parts of the West Bank. He added that what makes the area around Atouf different is not the security risk but the quality of the farmland.

“They are using this incident as an excuse to seize tens of thousands of acres of land and further alienate Palestinian communities from the Jordan valley.”