"You will not break us", Palestinians tell Netanyahu after Jordan Valley annexation pledge

Record ID: 1431141

  • Title: "You will not break us", Palestinians tell Netanyahu after Jordan Valley annexation pledge
  • Date: 11th September 2019
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) VETERAN PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT SAYING: "It's impossible to have a Palestinian state without the Jordan Valley. This is the border, this is the water, this is the agriculture, this is tourism, this is history, this is the eastern gate. How can someone imagine me having a viable Palestinian state without my 37 kilometres on the Dead Sea? And when they speak about my prosperity, my prosperity is not going to come through donations from Ireland and Britain and France, and the States. My prosperity will come if I can control my natural resources, my shores on the Dead Sea, my shores on the Mediterranean, my water, my land, which are literally, I'm using the term, stolen by the Israelis and their settlers."
  • Embargoed: 25th September 2019 13:43
  • Keywords: Israel Palestinians Jordan Valley Benjamin Netanyahu election annexation
  • Location: QASR AL YAHUD, VERED YERICHO, KALYA, ARAB AL KA'ABNEH, JIFTLIK, ZBEIDAT VILLAGE, WEST BANK/JORDAN VALLEY/WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES/JERUSALEM/GRAPHICS
  • City: QASR AL YAHUD, VERED YERICHO, KALYA, ARAB AL KA'ABNEH, JIFTLIK, ZBEIDAT VILLAGE, WEST BANK/JORDAN VALLEY/WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES/JERUSALEM/GRAPHICS
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA007AW7QZBB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Palestinians in the Jordan Valley on Wednesday (September 11) accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to steal their land after the right-wing leader pledged to annex the West Bank territory if successful in an election just six days away.
    Netanyahu's declaration was widely seen as a bid to siphon away support from far-right rivals who have long advocated annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, ahead of a tightly-contested Sept. 17 vote.
    While some in Israel consider the country's control over the Jordan valley as a security necessity, Palestinians see it as theirs and want it for a future state.
    In the village of Jiftlik, farmers tilled land for vegetable and seed production along a long a stretch of the fertile valley that juts up against the biblical Jordan River, surrounded by desert mountain ranges.
    "We tell Netanyahu, and whoever follows him, you will not break the Palestinians' will," said Hassan Al-Abedi, a Palestinian farmer who lives in the village.
    "It's our parents' and grandparents land. We will hold onto it no matter what it costs," 55-year-old Abedi said.
    Netanyahu on Tuesday (September 10) announced he intended, "after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea," drawing condemnation from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and leaders across the Arab world.
    Around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Israeli settlers live in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. The main Palestinian city is Jericho, with around 28 villages and smaller Bedouin communities.
    (Production: Adel Abu Nemeh, Eli Berlzon, Rinat Harash)
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