{"id":194069,"date":"2019-09-01T07:36:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T07:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194069"},"modified":"2019-09-03T07:54:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T07:54:15","slug":"this-place-is-only-for-jews-the-west-banks-apartheid-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194069","title":{"rendered":"‘This Place Is Only for Jews’: The West Bank’s Apartheid Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gideon Levy and Alex Levac \u2013 Haaretz Aug 30, 2019<\/h1>\n
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Soldiers at a West Bank spring. More than 60 such sites have been seized by settlers as part of a project of plunder there that began 10 years ago. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

What could be more idyllic than the sight of a natural bubbling spring amid craggy boulders, welling up from the hills, its crystalline waters flowing silently into a small pool where people are cavorting in delight? What could be more innocent than parents and children splashing about in a natural pond of greenish water, the gurgling of the water mingling with yelps of joy? And what could be more moving than the sign next to one of these springs of salvation: \u201cDear hikers, Welcome to Anar Springs, built thanks to an intensive effort by the youth of [the nearby settlement of] Niria. Lovers of this place, we have one small request: to dress in a way that respects all visitors, based on consideration for the needs of the Other. We built the site for your sake and for the sake of the people of Israel. Our goal is for everyone to hike and enjoy the springs together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The heart swells at the words \u201clovers of this place,\u201d \u201cconsideration for the needs of the Other,\u201d \u201cenjoy the springs together.\u201d Mankind is happy, nature is spectacular, but this spring, like all the others like it in the West Bank, was stolen from its owners. Robbed. Plundered. With a stomach-churning crudeness and violence. The \u201ceveryone\u201d and the \u201cconsideration\u201d \u2013 those words refer to Jews only.<\/span><\/p>\n

In these apartheid springs, stolen waters shall not be sweetened. Palestinian owners of these lands can only look on despairingly from the windows of their homes at their neglected olive groves, which they were forced to abandon to the insatiable greed of the lords of the land, and at the gushing springs nearby that were also stolen from them. The groves are gone, the springs are gone, justice is gone. And all, of course, under the aegis of the state and its institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Dror Etkes, the founder of Kerem Navot, an organization that studies Israeli land policy in the West Bank, there are today more than 60 springs in the central West Bank that settlers coveted and seized as part of a project of plunder that began 10 years ago. The landscaping and renovation work at about half of them has been completed, the dispossession made absolute, the Palestinians blocked from even approaching the springs and their lands. Other springs targeted by the settlers are in various stages of takeover.<\/span><\/p>\n

Etkes explains that the seizure of the springs is part of an ambitious plan of a far larger scope \u2013 to take control of the remaining open spaces in the West Bank. This is being done by way of creation of bathing areas and hiking trails, designation of graves of Jewish spiritual figures as \u201choly sites,\u201d and development of picnic sites, all on Palestinian-owned private land. The aim: to isolate the Palestinian villages, instead of isolating settlements, and of course to seize more and more land.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Friday this criminal undertaking claimed a high price: The gurgling waters were tainted with red \u2013 the blood of Rina Shnerb, a teenager who was killed by an improvised explosive device<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that had been planted next to the Ein Bubin spring; her father and brother were also wounded in the blast.<\/span><\/p>\n

We wandered the land of the springs this week escorted by Etkes, who\u2019s intimately familiar with the territory. (In 2012, Etkes wrote a report on the theft of natural springs for OCHA, a United Nations agency dealing with humanitarian affairs.) He knows about every new sheep pen that settlers have built secretly and is familiar with every boulder.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Anar springs cap: pool at the Anar Springs, formerly named Ein a-Shuna. Who\u2019s banned from such places, we ask a soldier. \u201cArabs,\u201d he says. \u201cThis place is only for Jews.\u201d Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The sights were enthralling, but the truth behind them \u2013 is enough to make the blood boil. Many of these stolen springs were deserted this week, despite the \u201cbetween the times\u201d break for yeshiva students, perhaps due to fear in the wake of the attack at Ein Bubin, which is situated near the settlement of Dolev and the Palestinian village of Deir Ibzi. A long rocky path there leads to the site that settlers call Danny\u2019s Spring, named for Danny Gonen, a student who was killed four years ago, after taking a dip.<\/span><\/p>\n

The settlers built the hillside path down to the fertile valley without authorization, of course. It runs through a grove of olive trees that belong to farmers from Deir Ibzi. The trees are now neglected and forsaken, the soil around them is uncultivated and thorny bushes have sprung up. The farmers are allowed access to their property only two or three days a year, as its forlorn state testifies. The whole descent into the valley where the spring gushes has been plundered. A spring, a sandy trail \u2013 a languishing grove. A few armed soldiers suddenly dart out at us from among the olive trees about halfway down the deserted path. No entry, closed military zone!<\/span><\/p>\n

Back on the main road, a large Israeli flag flaps in the wind. Welcome to the Dolev-Talmonim bloc of settlements. The grove owned by farmers from the nearby village of Al-Janiya has also been ruined. Their natural spring, Ein al-Masraj, in the grove\u2019s center, is now known as Ein Talmon and the path leading there passes through the fenced-off territory of the Talmon settlement and its array of unauthorized satellite \u201cneighborhoods.\u201d The Jewish National Fund declares that this is the \u201ccircuit trail around Talmonim Springs.\u201d The neglected olive trees alongside the path that\u2019s blocked to Palestinians are ancient, withering. The stolen spring looks well-tended, but heaps of garbage are piled up around it unmercifully.<\/span><\/p>\n

A youngish-looking woman and three girls from Dolev are taking a dip there, fully clothed and kerchiefed. The girls call her grandma. A shopping bag from the Rami Levy supermarket lies on the ground. Gender separation is de rigueur at these springs; the woman offers to come out of the water so that we can enter. The ruins of a Palestinian farmhouse nearby bear mute witness to a past that\u2019s gone forever. \u201cA Jew doesn\u2019t refrigerate another Jew,\u201d is the graffiti scrawled on a wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talmon cuts off the grove from the Palestinian village to which it belongs. \u201cCircle, circle, circle, let\u2019s celebrate in a circle, sit down, sit down and stand up,\u201d the woman and girls sing gaily. An empty Doritos bag rolls across the ground. Teenage settlers are sitting at a JNF picnic table wearing T-shirts with the inscription, \u201cthe running experience in biblical landscapes.\u201d The settler outpost above us is called Givat Habreicha (Hill of the Pool). Villas with a view to the water. A military base has been erected in the settlement, for security purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The signs in the olive grove belonging to Mazra\u2019a al-Kibiliya, east of the Talmons, lead to something called Vineyard Hill. This whole surrealistic scene is topped off by a huge elephant made of polyester atop the hill. Between the homes of Mitzpeh Haresha are signs leading to Haresha Spring. \u201cTo the new families: Welcome, in God\u2019s name. We are happy at your arrival. With love, the family of Haresha.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the name of God and for the sake of love, they also stole this spring in the valley.<\/span><\/p>\n

A soldier darts out, a child rides a swing, a vehicle of the Israel Defense Forces on which is mounted a mysterious device scans the valley where the attack occurred last Friday. Haresha Spring is very close to the homes of Mazra\u2019a al-Kibiliya and it\u2019s dangerous to go there, a soldier tells us. Settlers go there armed. Yet another spring that no longer belongs to its owners. \u201cA spring with two cool, crystalline streams, usually three meters full,\u201d the settlers\u2019 Land of the Springs portal promises. \u201cThanks to the youth of Neria, the neighboring community, for the information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We ascend to Zayit Ra\u2019anan (literally, \u201cfresh olive\u201d), another settler outpost of Talmon. Yes, there really is such a place. Not far from it is a sheikh\u2019s tomb, Nebi Anar, and after it the trail descends through forcibly abandoned olive groves to the Anar Springs, whose original names are Ein a-Shuna and Ein al-Batama. Settlers have built three pools in a row here and, as at similar sites, everything is splendidly constructed and well-tended. There\u2019s even a sign with a phone number to call in an emergency. Ma\u2019ayan Hagefen, Ma\u2019ayan Hana\u2019arim, Ma\u2019ayan Neria: The pools are shaded by grapevines. Abutting them is a grove of fruit trees owned by Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ein al-Ze\u2019ira, aka Ateret Spring. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A group of teens from Neria and Dolev are in the water. They\u2019re talking about the prime minister\u2019s promise to build 300 homes in Dolev, a consolation prize for the attack last Friday. \u201c\u2018Bro, it\u2019s like his promise to build 300 homes in Beit El,\u201d one youth says dismissively. This is the pool-side conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The multistory homes of the village of Deir Amar overlook the pools; from every window villagers can see the young settlers frolicking in their lost spring. It\u2019s not hard to imagine what they are feeling. Here, too, the Palestinians\u2019 trees are a pitiful sight; they seem to be begging for help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTwo more springs are going to be built here, \u2018bro,\u201d one of the young people in the water says. \u201cMy dad heard the explosion on Friday. You could see the ambulances arriving from our balcony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A supermarket bag is lying next to the third pool in the row. A group from the religious-Zionist newspaper Makor Rishon is here to do a story on the springs. They will certainly take a totally different viewpoint. Arab music from the houses of Deir Amar wafts softly across the valley. Construction of the road leading here was also unauthorized. The settlers didn\u2019t even bother to expropriate the land, Etkes notes; they simply paved the road as though the property was theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the morning, on the way here, opposite the settlement of Nili, Etkes suddenly jumped up in the driver\u2019s seat as though bitten by a snake: He noticed a large pen for livestock that wasn\u2019t here just a few days earlier. A storage area for grain, a truck for sleeping in, a generator and a water container \u2013 another settler outpost is about to be established, along with annexation of large parts of pasture land for the benefit of the new shepherds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, above Anar Springs, a bulldozer is clearing land in Neria. Heading north en route to the settler outposts of Kerem Re\u2019im and Nahliel are picnic tables in a deserted grove. We turn off the road toward Wadi al-Zarka, aka the Blue Valley. A sign of the UN development agency from 2018 hints that this is the only place where the settlers failed in their takeover bid: They tried to seize the spring on the slope of the hill above, but the permanent presence of Palestinians and the lack of a settlers-only road has so far kept them from carrying out the scheme. But just wait.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Ein al-Ze\u2019ira, aka Ateret Spring, they did succeed. \u201cServed up with love\u201d is inscribed on the picnic table next to the empty pool, supplied by \u201cBinyamin Tourism\u201d \u2013 named for the territory allotted to that tribe in the Bible. It\u2019s hard to think of any greater irony. Only the huge Palestinian flag waving in the wind high up in the new city of Rawabi reminds us where we are.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our journey ends at the Ein al-Qus spring, now also a Jewish \u201cconvert\u201d that\u2019s been renamed Ma\u2019ayan Meir, below the village of Nabi Saleh, best known for its anti-occupation protests. Some soldiers are guarding an ultra-Orthodox father from Modi\u2019in Ilit, who is here with his two children. The trio is busy scooping minnows out of the water with plastic bags. We asked the soldiers who is banned from coming here. \u201cArabs,\u201d one of them replied immediately, adding, \u201cThis place is only for Jews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The words of a song by Yoram Taharlev are engraved on a plaque in the shade of a fig tree: \u201cA piece of heaven, a slice of sky \/ Nothing do I ask only a small stone \/ On which to lay my head \/ In the shadow of the olive tree \/ And rest for 40 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Settlers seize dozens of West Bank springs, all of them on private Palestinian land, keeping the owners away. A Jewish teen, was murdered last week at one of them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194075,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194069\/revisions\/194075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}