West Bank water shortage forcing Palestinians to lease land from settlers
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 2nd of July
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.539325
Settlers in the Jordan Valley are leasing some of their land to local Palestinians and to Israeli citizens, but both sides prefer to keep the matter a secret. Official Israeli sources say they know nothing about the matter, and in any case it is not common and there are only a few marginal cases involved.,
The Palestinians are forced to lease the land from the settlers because of a shortage of land and water, which Israeli policy in the Jordan Valley has brought on, and because of limitations placed on the marketing of their produce. The Israelis are leasing land from the settlers because their small numbers do not match the huge area of land the state has allocated to the settlements since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.,
This leasing is against the rules of the Jordan Valley Regional Council and the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Department, which in practice holds the majority of the agricultural land ior the state in the Jordan Valley. The council’s regulations ban the leasing of land to non-citizens. Nonetheless, such leasing is embarrassing for the Palestinians since the farmed land is land Israel confiscated through various means from Palestinian communities and residents, then allocated it to settlers in the Jordan Valley.,
