Housing and Agricultural

the West Bank, controlling 50% of the Jordan Valley.Jordan the of 50% controlling Bank, West the in land of areas largest the of some encompass they yet and settlements, the all of populations lowest the of some have Valley Jordan the in settlements Israeli The the Palestinian population. ernment has allowed the settlement project to flourish while concurrently displacing gov- the Israeli from support unofficial and official of Decades government. Israeli Valley, the Jordan by encouraged the actively Westbeen the have across Bank, and Incentives for Settlers Housing • • • • • • Regional Council Jordan Valley dan Valley 133 33,000: 1968: 36: 9,400: 860,000: number of settlements and outposts which are currently located in the Jor million: annual revenue from Israeli agricultural products originating in the year oftheestablishment ofMehola,thefirst Israeli settlement numberofIsraeli settlers wholive intheJordan Valley numberofdunumslandcultivated by settlements number of dunums of Palestinian land controlled by the Jordan Valley 2 in the Jordan Valley intheJordan 5 6

and

Agricultural MA'AN Development Center 7 The settlements throughout settlements The 4 1 3 - 9 Spotlight Incentives for Settlers in the Jordan Valley settlement was initially only meant to last for a five-year period, the 5,000 dunums of land were Currently, the Israeli government subsidizes be- never returned to the Palestinian villages.14 Me- tween 50 to 60% of the cost of building or buy- hola has since split into two separate settle- 8 ing an apartment in the Jordan Valley. From ments, Mehola and Shadmot Mehola, spread 2001 to 2003, however, the government paid out over 8050 dunums and featuring large and for up to 95% of the cost of settler houses and prosperous agricultural industries.15 This is not 9 apartments in the Jordan Valley. Moreover, the an isolated incident, as the village of Jiftlik once 10 World Zionist Organization (WZO ) provides had approximately 80,000 dunums, but has lost settlers who move to the Jordan Valley with 62,000 dunums, or 77%, to surrounding settle- generous grants of free land of 80 dunums per ments and military areas.16 settler.11 The State of Israel also provide major incentives to promote the Israeli agricultural industry in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). In addition to providing free land, the Endnotes WZO invests heavily in collective and private 1 B’tselem, Dispossession and Exploitation (2011), agricultural projects. In fact, Israeli economist 77. Shir Hever notes that between 2000-2002 the 2 B’tselem, 77. (one of the outposts “Midreshet WZO invested $100 million in Israeli agricultural Neviya,” is not continuously inhabited and is there- fore not counted in these statistics). projects across Palestine.12 3 B’tselem, 77. Governmental support is essential for the sur- 4 Jordan Valley Regional Council, “The Jordan Valley – A General Description,” accessed 27 March 2012, vival of the Israeli settlements on Palestinian http://www.jordanvalley.org.il/?categoryId=38842. land; consequently, settlements receive a sub- 5 Jordan Valley Regional Council. stantial share of the total national budget. For 6 Jordan Valley Regional Council . example, between 2000 and 2002 settlers con- 7 MA’AN Development Center, Eye on the Jordan Val- stituted less than 7% of Israelis, but received ley (2010), 3. 63% of governmentally allocated funds. In ad- 8 B’tselem, By Hook and By Crook, (2010), 40-41. See dition, assistance for infrastructure, public insti- also: MA’AN Development Center Interview, (11 December 2011). tutions, and planning amounted to 36,024 NIS 9 MA’AN Development Center Interview, 11 Decem- per apartment in settlements, but only 10,166 ber 2011, Recorded, internal document. 13 per apartment in Israel proper. 10 The World Zionist Organizations claims indepen- dence from the Israeli government, but is complete- Repercussions on the Palestinian ly funded by it. Population 11 Lazaroff, Tovah, “State Gives More Land to Settler Farms in Jordan Valley,” Jerusalem Post, 29 June As all Israeli settlements are located on Palestin- 2011. ian land, the settlement enterprise would not 12 Human Rights Watch, Separate and Unequal (2010), have been possible without massive confisca- 55. 13 B’tselem, 41-42. tion of land and water sources, resulting in the 14 MA’AN Development Center Interview, 24 Decem- displacement of numerous Palestinian commu- ber 2011, Recorded, internal document. nities. A good example is the Israeli settlement 15 Adi Tal, Settlements in the Jordan Valley, from 1968 of Mehola, which was built on 5,000 of dunums to 2011, (June 2011). of Palestinian land confiscated from the vil- 16 MA’AN Development Center Interview, 1 March lages of Ein al-Beida and Bardala. Although the 2012, Recorded, internal document.