Water Conflict in Israeli-Occupied West Bank

Israeli settler, Yishai Schreiber, enjoys a pool filled with fresh water

diverted from Palestinian land.

They're afraid, terrified to death, right?

Any Arab family that came here would simply run away.

The spring was a lifeline for the nearby village of Fasayil in the

Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But in June, settlers cut off the Palestinians'

irrigation pipes

and siphoned the water for their own use, including filling this ancient

pool.

Settlers soon advertised it as an Israeli tourist attraction.

"Welcome to Herod's Pools," the sign reads, bearing the logo of the party

of Israeli far-right minister and settler, Bezalel

Smotrich, who pledged financial support for the

development. There are no Palestinians here,

only Israeli families.

When you show them what the truth is, meaning you show who is strong, who is

really the owner of the house, then they will simply flee.

Nearby, Sa'ad Nemer's crops are dried out.

His greenhouses would usually be full of eggplant, zucchini, and

watermelon. "We haven't had a drop of water for the

past three

months," the Palestinian farmer says, "And many families in Fasayil will

lose their livelihoods."

Nemer said settlers had threatened him and beaten up an employee for

attempting to approach the spring as far back as two years ago.

He showed Reuters land ownership documents, including one from Israel's

COGAT military agency, proving both the spring and the pools

were on his

land.

We cannot go fix it

or do any maintenance work since two

settlers arrived there and prevented us.

Neither COGAT nor Smotrich responded to requests for comment.

Israel's far-right government has backed a massive expansion of settlements across

the West Bank, where settler attacks on Palestinians

and seizure of

their resources have risen sharply.

Since the start of this year alone, at least 160 sites related

to water and sanitation came under settler attack, according to UN data.

Palestinian activist, Fares Fakhra, estimates that settlers have seized

control of 95% of springs in the northern Jordan Valley,

displacing communities. "It's heartbreaking," he says.

While Adel Yassein of the Palestinian Water Authority called it part of a

water war to force Palestinians off the land.

It harms the Palestinian side more than shooting at them.

A bullet kills one person, but cutting off a water source kills a

community.

These natural springs are some of the last still accessible to

Palestinians.

They're near the city of Nablus, and in the past,

rarely faced settler raids.

But hundreds descended this summer to sit at the tables and wade through the

pools. Nizam Fares owns the park.

People have become scared and jumpy.

They come and ask if the settlers have come or not.

We don't see peace and tranquility. We see things going from bad to worse.