Israel to build wall deep inside West Bank that ‘accelerates annexation’
The Israeli army is preparing to erect a new separation wall deep inside the occupied West Bank, in what experts warn is a dangerous redesign of Palestinian geography to advance de facto annexation.
The planned barrier, reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday, will run for 22km in the northern Jordan Valley. It will sit at least 12km west of the Jordanian border.
As with the existing West Bank barrier, the new wall will sever links between Palestinian communities and cut farming and herding families off from their land.
It will also encircle the herding community of Khirbet Yarza in a closed loop, isolating around 70 residents who depend on several thousand sheep.
Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, called the plan “extremely dangerous”.
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“This plan, part of the accelerated project to annex the West Bank, aims to isolate the Jordan Valley and block farmers from reaching their land, especially in the Tubas governorate in the northern valley,” Juma told Middle East Eye.
He said the wall’s construction comes amid an ongoing campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against herding communities in the area.
According to UN data, violent settler attacks have forced 2,200 Palestinians - mostly from herding communities - from their homes across the West Bank since October 2023.
“The plan is part of the re-engineering of Palestinian geography to enable Israel to confine Palestinians in ghettos and cantons it has created, giving it full control of the West Bank,” Juma added.
Cutting people off
Israeli forces will establish a 50-metre wide corridor along the wall.
Within that area, all existing homes, pens, greenhouses, storage buildings, pipelines and other Palestinian civilian infrastructure will be demolished.
A security source, speaking anonymously to Haaretz, said the plans cover about 60 structures, including lightweight buildings, tents, greenhouses and agricultural plots.
According to a document cited by the newspaper and signed by Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military’s Central Command, the barrier is intended to block weapons smuggling and protect settlers.
Bluth argues that tents, shacks and pens used by Palestinians in the area increase “the likelihood of sabotage activity” against Israeli forces, and that their removal is “a clear operational security necessity”.
However, locals fear the plan will cut them off from their land, preventing them from farming and herding livestock and devastating their economic well-being.
Most of the land in the northern Jordan Valley belongs to the governorates of Tubas and Tammun.
Tubas Governorate, an area of around 370 sq km, is largely agricultural and home to significant livestock, according to anti-wall and anti-settlement activist Rashid Khudairi.
Khudairi, who is based in Tubas, said residents first heard about the wall on social media on Monday, a week after demolition notices were issued for agricultural structures and other facilities in the targeted area.
“Around 70 percent of farmland from Tubas governorate and the Jordan Valley will be cut off,” he told MEE.
“This decision will affect people’s ability to reach and farm their land. Naturally, it will hit their economic situation hard, and that’s a major problem.”
Many towns and communities in the northern Jordan Valley will also be completely cut off from Tubas governorate and the rest of the West Bank, he added.
The existing 700km-long Israeli separation wall in the West Bank was deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice.
In 2005, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion ruling that the barrier violates international law and should be dismantled.
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