By Pesha Magid
FASAYIL, West Bank, Aug 14 (Reuters) - On a searing summer day, Israeli settlers splashed in a West Bank pool created by siphoning off water that had irrigated Palestinian crops, one of many seizures of water resources across the occupied territory.
The spring served as a lifeline for the nearby village of Fasayil in the fertile Jordan Valley, where Palestinians have relied on it for generations for food, employment and to supplement irregular Israeli supplies to their domestic taps.
"Our water supply remains cut off to this day, depriving us of the water we depend on for our homes, our livelihoods, and our agricultural land," said Saad Nemer, who farms the land.
Israeli settlers seized his irrigation pipeline in June, channeling the water to an ancient pool in an archaeological site. Soon after, settlers advertised it as an Israeli tourist attraction and Israel's far-right finance minister pledged financial support.
"They are now in the process of developing a recreational park around the pool," Nemer said.
SETTLERS STOP PALESTINIAN VILLAGERS APPROACHING
The seizure of the spring at Fasayil is part of a pattern that Palestinians say is designed to make their lives in the West Bank untenable. Israeli settlers have attacked at least 160 water and sanitation sites across the Palestinian territory this year, United Nations data shows.
Nemer's greenhouses and fields would normally be full of eggplant, zucchini and watermelons, but without water he has not been able to plant in the scorched land.
"The settlers cutting off our water has caused us losses and has meant that many families will lose their work and their livelihoods," he said.
Nemer said that an employee had been beaten up by settlers and he himself had faced threats for attempting to approach the spring as far back as two years ago.
Yishai Shreiber, 21, an Israeli settler who had come to swim in the pool near Fasayil on an August afternoon, said Palestinians would not now dare approach.
"Now that they see this entire mass of people, all these large groups of Jews coming here to bathe, they are afraid to come here," said Shreiber.
Shreiber said the West Bank belonged to the Jewish people, and that if Palestinians don't want to accept Jewish authority, they should leave.
Nemer showed Reuters a 2025 land ownership document from COGAT, the Israeli military agency which enforces civilian policy in the occupied territories. He also presented a map drawn for the pre-occupation 1957 registration of his title deeds showing that his land included both the spring and the pool. COGAT and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not respond to requests for comment.
'WATER WAR' IS PART OF ISRAELI WEST BANK TAKEOVER, PALESTINIANS SAY
Israel's far-right coalition government has overseen massive settlement construction that Smotrich says is aimed at burying the idea of a Palestinian state, which has been recognised by more than 150 of 193 U.N. member states as encompassing the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The United Nations and most governments consider the settlements to be illegal under international law related to military occupation. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war, but argues the territory is disputed rather than occupied.
Palestinians have experienced a sharp rise in settler violence, and Palestinian field researcher Fares Foqahaa estimated that settlers had now seized control of 95% of springs in the northern Jordan Valley, displacing communities.
In another West Bank village, Qusra, settlers still besieging three homes on Thursday had also cut off their water and electricity.
Adel Yassin, an official with the Palestinian Authority's water authority, said that settlers target water resources as part of a systematic campaign to force Palestinians off their land.
"I see this as a water war. It is the silent bullet that kills Palestinians without a sound," he said, referring to the process of making their livelihoods unsustainable.
ISRAELI ARCHAEOLOGIST SAYS SETTLERS ARE DAMAGING THE SITE
In early June, Eliav Libi, a settler leader targeted with sanctions by Canada and other countries, posted a video showing the pool beginning to fill with water.
He and other settlers say the pool belonged to the biblical-era Jewish king Herod. An archaeologist with the Israeli rights group Emek Shaveh, Alon Arad, said the pool's provenance is unclear.
"We see in many cases the use of archaeology ... to create this feeling that the West Bank is exclusively Jewish," Arad said, adding that the settlers were damaging an archaeological site by filling it with water.
Outside the pool, a billboard advertised a 3 million shekel ($1 million) investment from Smotrich, an architect of settler expansion, who said in a Telegram post the money was for the restoration and development of "Herod's Pools".
The pool and the nearby spring were packed with Israeli families swimming and wading in the water. No Palestinians were present.
One of the few natural springs still available to Palestinians is near the city of Nablus at Wadi al-Badhan. In July, families sat at plastic tables placed in shallow streams picnicking with their feet in the running water.
The springs are located close to Nablus' urban centre and had until this year rarely faced incursions from settlers.
Hundreds of settlers descended into the springs earlier this summer, sitting at the plastic tables and walking through the pools, five Palestinians said.
Nizam Fares, the owner of a natural spring park in al-Badhan, said people could no longer enjoy visiting the area.
"People have become scared and jumpy. They come and ask if the settlers are coming or not?" he said.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid; editing by Rami Ayyub and Philippa Fletcher)
