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Bryan -------------
The Politics of “Security”: The North Jordan Valleys and Israeli Mission Creep
http://alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=1&lang=ISO-8859-1
Written by: Ahmad Jaradat and Joshua Friedman.
The Politics of “Security”: The North Jordan Valleys and Israeli Mission Creep
Within Israeli politics, mission creep has become almost second nature. Throughout 39 years of Israeli control over the Occupied Palestinian Territories, measures purportedly implemented for security have historically resulted in the development of situations which are difficult if not impossible to reverse. The potentially “temporary” nature of such policies—from settlement outposts to the separation wall—frequently obscures their more permanent character.
It is no surprise then, that Palestinians are more than slightly concerned about Israel’s intentions underlying the closure of the Jordan Valley, especially in its northern portion. Since 2005, the Jordan Valley has been closed to all Palestinians who cannot prove that they reside in the region. Like the issue of the separation wall, the Israeli army argues that the measure is a “necessary security precaution.” However, murmurs from the upper echelons of Israeli politics, along with the material effects of the closure policies on Palestinians in and around the area point to a somewhat more permanent, and certainly more political, set of circumstances.
Impossible Conditions
For the residents of the North Jordan Valleys, the current circumstances have created numerous problems, which affect virtually every aspect of daily life. Palestinians are currently forbidden from entering the Jordan Valley unless they can prove their residence in the region. In addition to threatening social and cultural ties to the rest of the West Bank, simply securing basic resources has proven difficult. For example, the closure policy has greatly jeopardized the area’s water resources; unable to move materials and equipment freely, the PA has had difficulty maintaining water-related infrastructure in the region. This not only forces families to purchase expensive water tanks, but drastically hampers economic development, which is agriculturally based and thus heavily dependent upon reliable water resources.
For Palestinians who reside on the Valley’s outskirts, the closures have had an equally detrimental effect. The communities within and outside of the North Jordan Valley are interconnected through education, healthcare, family networks, and economic relationships—all of which are under significant pressure. For example, according to Jamil Daravna, a journalist for Wafa News, roughly 80% of the residents of the villages of Tayasir and Tamon, which lie just outside the Valley, own agricultural land within it. The inability of farmers to access their land, or goat herders to tend to their flocks, has jeopardized the livelihoods of these communities and upset established ways of life.[1]
The IDF also maintains the ability to adjust closure policies as it sees fit. For example, despite Israel’s assurances to the international community that it would facilitate Palestinian elections, the Israeli Army prevented Palestinian Central Election Committee employees from entering the region throughout the Palestinian elections.[2] In addition, during the recent Passover holiday, the Army instituted a full closure of the area—for all Palestinians including those from North Jordan Valley villages like Ain El Baida, Kardela, and Bardela, who could prove their residency. Such policies have profound consequences for the residents of these villages, many of whom work and live part time in adjacent cities like Jenin and Nablus. During such periods of total closure, simply traveling to work can require long and dangerous treks through mountainous terrain. Under such conditions, daily life has become a constant struggle.
More than a Humanitarian Problem
It is no secret that the Israeli government intends to maintain control over the Jordan Valley. There has historically existed a security orthodoxy within Israeli military circles regarding the need to permanently hold onto this region; indeed, every Israeli government since 1967 has historically considered the Jordan Valley to be the “Eastern Border of Israel.”[3] In this context, it was not surprising to hear Israel’s acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert publicly state that the Jordan Valley will remain under Israeli control in the context of any final status agreement.[4]
While the Army maintains that these closure policies are not political in nature, it is difficult to read such actions as somehow disconnected from the Valley’s history, and Olmert’s more recent statements regarding his ultimate intentions. In annexing territories, Israel has historically sought to absorb as small a Palestinian population, and as large a Jewish-Israeli population as possible; to the extent that these closure policies encourage the flight of Palestinians from their communities, they are starkly consistent with such an agenda.
Israel is simultaneously attempting to boost the Jewish population in the region through the expansion of its Jordan Valley settlements. Even settlements like Kfar Selit, established only two years ago, are actively growing.[5] As the Mayor of the nearby Palestinian village of Tubas observed, “the settlers [of Kfar Selit] are consistently confiscating land, and planting it with their own olive trees, building roads, and bringing news housing units”[6]
It is difficult to examine Israel’s military policies in the Jordan Valley and see no relationship to what is unfolding in the Israeli political sphere—it seems likely that what we are witnessing is another political mission creep under the guise of security.
[1] “Israel has De facto Annexed the Jordan Valley,” Land Expropriations and Settlements. B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/20060213_Annexation_of_the_Jordan_Valley.asp
The IDF maintains that residents of villages on the outskirts of the Jordan Valley still have access to their land. However, according to B’Tselem, “Palestinians who live in villages bordering the valley and have farmland there, or are employed in agriculture in the area, have lost their source of livelihood.”
[2] Al Quds Newspaper, 4th Jan 2006, page 9.
[3] “Israel has De Facto Annexed the Jordan Valley,” Land Expropriation and Settlement. B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/20060213_Annexation_of_the_Jordan_Valley.asp
[4] Ibid
[5] “ARIJ Monthly Report on Israeli Colonization Activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” The Applied Research Center of Jerusalem. http://www.arij.org/paleye/monthley/February-2006/index.htm. Feb. 2006.
[6] Al Quds Newspaper, 4th Jan 2006, page 9.