In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers have been working harder to take control of natural springs, which are vital resources for Palestinian towns who depend on them for irrigation and tourism.
In one case over the summer, water from a natural spring that supplies the Palestinian community of Fasayil was unlawfully diverted to a nearby old pool, which was later dubbed a new tourist destination in honour of Herod, the Roman-appointed monarch of Judea.
Saad Nemer, a Palestinian farmer from Fasayil, said that the water cutoff had destroyed his fields, while COGAT, an Israeli military organization in charge of managing civil matters in the West Bank, admitted that the water had been diverted “without authorisation.” It has promised to look into the situation.
The site’s construction date is unknown. Excavations carried out by Israel’s Civil Administration’s archaeology unit indicate that further ruins in the region date to Herod’s reign in the first century BCE. The movement to occupy and claim heritage sites is a component of a larger initiative to “elevate the historical, cultural, and religious ties of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to the West Bank,” according to Israeli rights organization B’Tselem. The pool will be emptied in early October so that the administration’s archaeologists may do a thorough investigation, Israel’s far-right Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu told the Associated Press.
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